| MEL'S 'SIGN' LANGUAGE HALEY JOEL OSMENT experienced it in 'The Sixth Sense.' BRUCE WILLIS contended with it in 'Unbreakable.' Now, MEL GIBSON and JOAQUIN PHOENIX are dealing with a spectre of the supernatural kind in writer/director M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN's spooky new flick, 'Signs.' Mel sat down with ET's LEONARD MALTIN for the details on his latest thriller, opening August 2! LEONARD MALTIN: Had you seen Night's earlier movies when you signed onto this? MEL GIBSON: I'd just seen 'The Sixth Sense.' I hadn't seen 'Unbreakable,' but that was enough. He's obviously a great filmmaker. Then reading the script, which he wrote, cemented that he's a great storyteller. What he does (with the story) is indicate it's worth hanging around for. He gives you just enough to string you along, and he leaves enough pieces of cheese lying around, you know you're going to find the pizza! LEONARD: What's he like on the set? MEL: Very efficient, businesslike, but it's a happy, relaxed set. He's funny but gets things done and there's a lot of humor on top, but at the core it's quite serious. It's pretty deep. It was a good experience. LEONARD: Watching the movie, it's inescapable that you're a father in real life. You have seven children, right? MEL: Yes. Believe me, I've tried to escape it. And I can't. There's too many maintenance orders around! LEONARD: That has to affect your approach to this particular role. MEL: Sure. Your natural instincts are about what you've experienced. So, of course, I'm going to tap into that, but ever so lightly. LEONARD: And how do you relate to the young actors in a film like this? MEL: Pretty good. As I was growing up, my dad never tried to pander to us or be cute with us, he was always just matter of fact and straight with us. That's how I treat my kids and that's how I'll treat a young actor or actress. They're very honest and relaxed and they haven't got a lot of baggage hopefully. You just try and relate to them, try and understand what their level is about. They can really turn your mind upside down with some of the questions that you can't possibly answer, but you have to frame it in a way that they will understand. LEONARD: You've done a lot of movies, but some of your most successful films have been action films. This movie is so still and your character is so still. MEL: Yeah he's practically paralytic, isn't he? But that was really part of the whole atmosphere... the stillness of it. And there's a great deal to be learned from stillness. If you're incredibly still, then even the smallest betrayal of that tells volumes - the essence of good close-up film acting. LEONARD: When you're making something that's creepy or scary as this is, does that spill over into the atmosphere on the set? MEL: It's really easy for me to divorce myself from the mood and atmosphere of the set. I know that it's there, and it's a given that you can step into it at any time you like. LEONARD: Would you break that mood on a regular basis? MEL: I make it my specific business to try and do that on a regular basis, not to get too serious. There's a place where you have to be all business and ultimately I'm serious about the process... LEONARD: Now, was it just the skill of Night's writing, or do you think that you have a predisposition to believe in extraterrestrial life, aliens or some other life out there? MEL: Well, I have a basic belief in the supernatural, in a nature that exceeds and is higher than our own as we see it. I just believe that. How it manifests itself, I don't know if I go for the whole Martian theory or worms from Venus or anything, but Hamlet said it to Horatio in that SHAKESPEARE play, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in philosophy." And to have said that in the late 16th century, to realize what was to come - after that quantum physics and all that stuff. I will concede that there's a lot I don't know about. A couple of things and I could be wrong. I was wrong once before! LEONARD: What day of the week was that? Do you remember? MEL: I think it was a Wednesday back in 1978. |
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