Rise to Fame
His sister submitted his drama school application without telling him. He showed up bruised from a street fight the night before his NIDA audition. They sent him home for two weeks. When he came back looking like himself, he got in. Mad Max made him famous in Australia. Lethal Weapon made him a Hollywood fixture. Braveheart was the real move: he wanted to direct only, but Paramount wouldn't greenlight it unless he starred, then won Best Picture and Best Director. Every studio passed on The Passion of the Christ. He financed it himself for $30 million and watched it gross over $600 million. That track record made the fall hit harder.
In the Spotlight
The 2006 DUI arrest was almost minor by comparison. What sent him into exile was the recording: Gibson in a patrol car telling deputies 'the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.' A 2010 domestic dispute tape made it worse. No prenup on a 28-year marriage reportedly pushed the divorce settlement past $400 million. Major studios avoided him for nearly a decade. Hacksaw Ridge (2016) collected six Oscar nominations including Best Director and $180 million at the box office, the industry's official rehabilitation signal. In January 2025, Trump appointed him a special Hollywood ambassador. Jewish organizations flagged it immediately. Some comebacks never fully land.
Side Notes
He was born in Peekskill, New York but raised in Sydney from age 12, which explains the dual citizenship and the two convincing accents. His father Hutton was a Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner in 1968, a published Holocaust denier, and a sedevacantist Catholic who rejected every pope after Vatican II. Hutton died in 2020 at age 101. That's the household Mel was formed in, which adds a layer to the 2006 patrol car recordings that no amount of publicist apologies ever fully explained.