< Continued from page 1
Martin, did this movie remake feel familiar or totally new?
Martin Campbell: "Well, like Mel approached the acting, he didn’t watch the series and neither did I. I simply forgot the series and treated it as a new movie. I think it was the only way to go about it."

Is it more political thriller than film noir?

Martin Campbell: "No, I think it’s much more about loss. It’s about grief and it’s about retribution.

It’s all of those things. I think the political story is the least interesting of the elements in the film."

What were the most challenging scenes for you?

Mel Gibson: "Boy, challenging. Look, every time you go out there to do something, you wonder if you can do it. There’s no assured success. There’s no secret recipe for success. Every time you go out there, you go out there with the possibility of great failure. So the whole business of putting your wares on display, whether you’re a chef or an opera director or a painter or whatever, a filmmaker, whatever you happen to be, you’re throwing your stuff out there for other people and it’s going to be judged. You’re either going to be excoriated or praised or somewhere in between. Both sometimes. It’s all a challenge. The whole gig is a challenge."

Why are you drawn to stories about characters who lose family and fight for justice?

Mel Gibson: "Well, there’s a lot of anger around. That’s not a good answer either. I think that’s a very old theme in a lot of stories.

Look at Beowulf."

Ray Winstone: "Yeah, I think also you look at the script first. If you love the script, and it just happens to be about that subject, the subject is not the thing you look at first. It’s the script."

Mel Gibson: "It really is. And if you go back, Martin and I talked about this, it reminded us of a Jacobean tragedy from the 17th century in almost every way. By one of those guys like Tourneur. He wrote The Revenger’s Tragedy. They were all written by English guys about the Italians. It was really weird in the 17th century. 'Man, those Italians are really vengeful.' 'Look at how revengeful…,' all talking about the other guy. So that’s what it reminded me of, where everybody gets it, even the dog. Even the dog gets it. So, I don't know. It’s an old theme and it’s part of most hero myths. Something sets the spheres a-wrong and somebody has to right it. It’s a big theme."

You’ve been on the edge, defending projects, being the center of politics. Has all that made you a better actor? And how did you quit smoking?

Mel Gibson: "Well, all experiences, what does not kill you makes you stronger and tougher I think. Life’s experiences, whether they be pleasant, unpleasant, torturous or excruciatingly wonderful and blissful, season you somehow and you learn from them. And hopefully we learn. Isn’t that what it’s about? That’s like all I’m trying to do now is put some information on a chip that I can leave to my progeny and maybe they can do a better job than I can in this crazy, spinning piece of dirt in the future."

"How did I quit smoking? It was torture. I’m on day nine now so it’s almost over. But the first three days I was like an ax murderer. Day four I’d come at you with a bat. Day five I was dangerous with a lawnmower. But it is a hellish habit to break. Your neurons are involved. My mother smoked, I think, when I was in her womb. I’m not sure. I think so. When I first had one when I was nine years old, I thought, 'Oh my God, now, ahh, yes, I missed this.' I knew I missed it. Then 45 years later, after every single artistic decision, every decision I’ve ever made was done with a cigarette. To not have that is pretty hectic. That’s crawling the walls - I did for a while."

Ray, how much fun was it to play this character?

Ray Winstone: "It’s funny because the parts you really want to play are the emotional parts. I do anyway, personally, to sit across the table or sit in the garden watching someone play the emotional part. When I read the script - and I didn’t have a lot of time to get my [head] together - and with the help of Martin, and Mel as well, decide which way you’re going to take it. To play a man really, me in the film, a man with no emotion who’s seen death and created death, I’ve kind of met people like that, years ago who’ve been through, whether it’s the second World War or people who were members of the SAS. They have these eyes that kind of burn into you and look at the wall behind you. You can’t tell them lies. Because of the amount of emotion that Mel has to go through in this film, it’s kind of making the decision. It’s all about decisions anyway as an actor, but to make a decision to play someone who had no emotion on the surface - that’s fun. Besides, going to work is fun anyway, especially when you’re sitting opposite someone like Mel or John Hurt or whatever it is. It’s always a blessing because you’re working with people who are talented and know their job and know their business."

How did you happen to learn to direct, and how do you dial back and take direction?

Mel Gibson: "Well, how do you learn to direct? I mean, you hang around the hub and watch what’s going on and ask a bunch of questions. You’re there for the inception of an idea, you’re there to see it executed. You’re there to doubt it, you’re there to see if they pull it off or not. You’re there to sort of share the fruits of the victory or failure. It’s like, 'Wow...' It’s like a big science experiment for 30 years, so how can you not pick it up? And if you’re working with really good people, it’s just great."