ON PEOPLE’S PERCEPTION OF HIM AFTER THE TAPES WERE RELEASED:

GIBSON: I’ve never treated anyone badly or in a discriminatory way based on their gender, race, religion or sexuality — period [On Opposite Day -- Ed.]. I don’t blame some people for thinking that though, from the garbage they heard on those leaked tapes, which have been edited.  You have to put it all in the proper context of being in an irrationally, heated discussion at the height of a breakdown, trying to get out of a really unhealthy relationship. It’s one terribly, awful moment in time, said to one person, in the span of one day and doesn’t represent what I truly believe or how I’ve treated people my entire life.

ON FEARS THAT AUDIENCES WON’T SUPPORT HIS PERFORMANCES

GIBSON: I don’t care if I don’t act anymore… It really is true… I’m beyond that, way beyond that. The whole experience has been most unfortunate. And so it’s not without all the downside.

ON BEING FIRED FROM THE HANGOVER 2

GIBSON: You have to let that go. I sat here and talked to [director] Todd [Phillips] about it. I like Todd. How could you not like Todd? He’s smart and he’s gifted and so are the other people in the film. It’s okay. You just have to let that go… It shows you a few things. You just move on and go okay. I’m not greatly offended by it. It seemed like a good idea at the time and it went south.

ON WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THE BEAVER

GIBSON: But it’s not humorous. When I first read it, it made me laugh until I cried. He was so pathetic, this guy. I understood that aspect of him. Every aspect of it — the drinking, the obsessive compulsive kind of stuff, and that he’s tried everything. Oh yeah. [Laughs] What’s the answer for this stuff? And there is an answer. There has to be an answer. There’s nothing that can afflict humankind that doesn’t have an answer, hasn’t got an anecdote.

AND PERHAPS THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION OF ALL, ‘HOW MUCH YA BENCH?’

GIBSON: Yeah, you do stuff like that. [Whispers with a smile.] Nobody wants to see my belly button on my chin. I don’t like it when I see somebody else’s belly button on their chin. It’s the way things go. Hey, I do what I can to sort of just stave off the clock — walk, swim, try and smoke an electric cigarette. I mean it’s all bad for you. Life is bad. We’re all dying. We’re all in the process of oxidizing. Everyone of us is in the process of oxidizing so to sort of interrupt one aspect of that while everything else goes on, it’s a freak show.

True. We are all oxidizing and we don’t want our belly buttons on our chins. Well put. Now I hope somebody taped this interview so that it can be re-edited into hilarious Internet mash-up and dub step videos.

Yelchin is now attached to several franchises including Star Trek and Terminator, but I was going for a different scoop. I saw Like Crazy at Sundance and it so profoundly affected me, I wanted to bring you the advanced scoop on the film that Paramount will release later this year. In Like Crazy, Yelchin plays Jacob, who struggles with a long distance relationship to Anna (Felicity Jones) in England. His on-again/off-again American girlfriend is Sam (Jennifer Lawrence again).

I hope this makes sense. It was day 7 on 3 hours sleep per night.

Q: Both The Beaver and Like Crazy seem to deal with characters addressing issues that are difficult for people to talk about. Did you see that connection?

AY: Yeah, I mean I think Like Crazy, people sort of find easier to talk about because it’s a love story. It’s hard for people, it makes people sad because it reminds them of their own personal heartbreak. I think The Beaver has sort of a much more serious issue at its core which is depression. Personally I think depression is a more serious issue than a long-distance relationship but obviously both films are about the two profoundly affecting the people involved, restructuring their lives completely. But I also think the way that Like Crazy approaches long distance relationships isn’t something that people like to talk about. People like to think that it’s clean but it’s not. It’s completely ambiguous and really difficult for each party involved. Sometimes you just don’t know because Jacob and Anna date other people while they’re still together technically. It’s gray. It’s kind of a gray area.

Q: In Like Crazy I think they’re dealing with blame and anger too.

AY: Sure, yeah, it’s that thing of pointing fingers but who can you really [blame?] With Walter Black in The Beaver, it’s not his fault that he is depressed. It’s not but it profoundly affects the people around him. It ruins their lives. In a relationship, it’s neither of their faults that it worked out that way in Like Crazy that they’re across the world from each other. They both did it together and then it just is how it is. But you’re right, a lot of it is about wanting to blame somebody for something and seeing that you can’t really and trying to understand that.

Q: With The Beaver, it’s more straightforward that talking through a beaver puppet is not healthy. Does that make it harsher dramatically?

AY: Of course, it’s more tragic I think personally because you see a man suffering so much that he has to resort to talking through a puppet he found in a trash can.

Q: Walter’s dealing with that, but Porter’s helping Nora deal with an unspoken issue so it’s more layered that just the beaver.

AY: Right, of course, and I think one thing is that Porter and Walter both have issues that they don’t face. That’s what it is, by being afraid, by both having fathers that are depressive and Walter’s father committed suicide and Walter has incredible depression as a result of that. Porter is afraid to be like his father so he suffers this kind of depression as well and falls into what his father falls into. Porter then tries to do everything he can but face his own issues. He’ll take Nora’s very dark past and try and help her face it, which is almost like a cry for help to have himself face his own issues but he uses it on her instead of taking it into consideration for himself.

Q: It did make me happy for Jennifer Lawrence. At least she got to end up with you in one movie.

AY: Yeah, Jen, man, she’s so great. She’s such a great actress. She’s so different in Like Crazy, so different in The Beaver, she’s different in everything. She’s just a great actress.

Q: But one of the most heartbreaking things in Like Crazy was that Sam was an amazing girl. She just wasn’t Anna.

AY: Yeah, that scene kills me. I think Jen is so brilliant in it, where she starts crying and he has to tell her he has to go. She just loves him and wants to know if he loves her and he does. It’s not that he doesn’t love her. It’s just a different kind of love. It’s not that same thing. It’s a friendship. It’s great because Jen and I had already done The Beaver so we were already friends. Because it was an improv film our comfort level with each other, not that we couldn’t do it if we hadn’t met before, but we were really comfortable with one another. We know one another, we’re friends. I think that translated into making the relationship between Sam and Jacob more like a friendship.

Q: Do you think maybe Porter keeping a list of all the flaws he wants to avoid might not be the way to deal with it either?

AY: Yeah, exactly. He keeps a list of the flaws just to make himself more angry about who he is. To remember to not do those things because he thinks they’re going to make him like his father. So it really is just another way of him trapping himself inside of this nonidentity, this weird thing that’s not a realistic construct. It’s a construct that he uses to trap himself. You can’t avoid having an identity. You are who you are but that fear of facing that, that fear that maybe who he is is like his father, he tries to stay away from it by listing all these things, it’s completely unhealthy and traps him in all this pain.

Q: One of them is “hates his father who hated his father who hated his father.” So what does he think he’s doing?

AY: He’s not avoiding it. He lists them and he can’t do anything. It’s a completely unconstructive, painful, unpleasant place to be and it ultimately almost destroys him.

Q: What was acting with the beaver like?

AY: Well, it’s different for me because Porter never acknowledges the beaver. He always thinks it’s ridiculous so he addresses his father, and he doesn’t even really address his father. He addresses his mom but when he deals with his father in the hallway, he just thinks it’s ridiculous. It’s insulting and hurtful to him and there’s also that relationship of his father has now chosen a puppet over him. Not only has his fathe taken himself out of the family and this is of course on a subconscious level where it’s like because all he thinks is he hates his dad, really he wants his father. A father is the missing part of his life, the part that he can’t face and it hurts him tremendously. But to add insult to injury, his father has now replaced connection with his family with a puppet.

Q: Were there ever moments on the set where it just seemed ridiculous?

AY: I think Mel loved it. I think it’s a great character. I think he does such an amazing job in the movie, for an actor I think that opportunity is pretty great, to be able to play a man who has a beaver and his hand.

Q: When you’ve had conversations about Like Crazy, have you found it’s really revealing about the people who are telling you their experiences?

AY: Yeah, that’s one thing about Like Crazy. Everyone had their own story related to the movie. Everyone had their own heartbreak. Everyone had their own love that they would cry about when they talked about it. All different age groups, both sexes, everyone had that one person or maybe a couple people that had affected their lives in that way and they told me.

Q: Even the people who are cynical about it reveals how strong they feel relationships can or can’t last.

AY: Yeah, because I think Like Crazy’s a subtle film, it doesn’t really give answers. It sort of shows a situation that there really is no answer to. That’s why I think it ends like that. You see a moment in time in a kind of voyeuristic way.

The Beaver is a strong portrait of coping with depression. It’s got a whimsical tone, which makes the dark moments all the more poignant. Jodie Foster shows as a director that you really can make a movie about anything if you do it right. I mean, a guy with a beaver puppet? Come on!

Walter Black (Mel Gibson) is moping through depression. He tries techniques as extreme as self-flagellation and he sleeps all the time. His son Porter (Anton Yelchin) keeps track of all of Walter’s bad habits so he can avoid the same patterns. Walter’s wife Meredith (Jodie Foster) finally kicks him out of the house because he won’t find a successful treatment.

Walter finds a beaver puppet in his trunk and, talking throug the beaver, thwarts his own suicide attempt. The beaver calls himself The Beaver and talks for him in an Australian accent. The Beaver presents this plan to Meredith, who has the normal human reaction, so The Beaver lies and says it’s a doctor’s idea. So she goes with it.

The depression is palpable. Gibson is really effective portraying Walter’s pain with silent looks. He also makes you believe he believes this beaver is talking, even when you can see his lips move. He’s so sincere and determined, that’s even better than playing it straight faced.

There really is a lot you can do with a beaver too. Walter showers with it and blows it dry. He has sex with Meredith wearing it and cuddles with it around her. The Beaver even gives him business success with a wood carving kit that becomes all the rage in toy stores. There’s no end to awkward situations with a beaver.

There’s a teen story between Porter and Nora (Jennifer Lawrence), the school valedictorian with a traumatic past of her own. The film deals with ou buried issues at all levels.

The film gets dark. The beaver is not cute anymore after a while and Walter’s forced it on his family. I wouldn’t say it’s a realistic portrayal of mental illness, but a metaphor for it with the beaver representing a dangerous coping mechanism in cinematic form.

The reason for the switch? Summit wants to build on buzz from their SXSW premiere, and Foster is shooting Roman Polanski‘s Gods of Carnage until mid-March. Moving the date will give her more time to promote her Beaver when it’s finally revealed to mass-audiences. Also, she’s gone from working with Mel Gibson to Roman Polanksi? Maybe she’ll star in a movie with Charlie Sheen, Lindsay Lohan and Tiger Woods next. (Collider)

A DVD copy of the film’s final cut recently went missing from Mel Gibson’s mailbox. No leads in the case yet because who could possibly have it out for Mel Gibson? The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is on the case but would appreciate cooperation if you have any info regarding the case. Piracy is a serious issue that can make on break a film’s box office and hurt Hollywood’s hard working crews. So, please if you know anything, help Mel finger this Beaver thief. (TMZ)

All three films are highly anticipated, but for vastly different reasons. Paul, a road comedy about two men and an alien(!), is the third film starring and written by the Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz duo, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, who spin genre comedy into nerd gold. Foster’s The Beaver is the tale of a seriously disturbed man who connects with his loved ones using a beaver hand puppet, and he’s played by notoriously disturbed man Mel Gibson. The O’Brien doc should excite audiences with a behind the scenes look at the struggles of the talk show host you love to root for.

The fest kicks off March 11th and runs through the 19th. Opening starts with Duncan Jones‘ Source Code, a thriller starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Monaghan. (The Playlist)

You know what you can do to these links.

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The trailer also feels like it’s edited as an apology card from Gibson. A poor guy who’s drowning in life tries to redeem himself and mend fences. Perhaps we’ll be so moved by the soiled beaver on his hand we’ll forget that in real life Mel Gibson has pretty much offended everything under the sun. That beaver is powerful stuff. Powerful stuff indeed.

As advertised, here’s a picture of Mel Gibson with his entire left hand inserted in Jodie Foster‘s creepy looking Beaver. Like most red-blooded males, I’ve imagined this scenario many times, and I guess two things surprised me upon actually seeing it. For starters, althoug the beaver in question is old, it looks to be in relatively good shape, which is impressive. Second, I’m surprised to see how much Foster is enjoying it. Look at the smile on her face! She just loves how Mel is manipulating that thing, and it shows. What’s Mel’s secret? I guess we’ll have to wait until The Beaver is released this Spring to find out.

Yeah, sorry for being childish, but what do you expect from a 13-year-old. No, seriously, this site is run by child slaves. If anyone is reading, please call the Department of Labor or the Los Angeles County DCFS. I miss my mom. (Coming Soon)

The headline was pretty self-explanatory, but just in case you can’t figure it out, here are some details. ComingSoon has released this teaser poster from Mel Gibson’s upcoming film The Beaver directed by Jodie Foster. The poster is funny for two reasons. Reason one: Mel Gibson comes off as pretty insane, like the character in this poster. Reason two: Gibson was driven insane by some crazy Russian beaver, so it’s funny to see him holding one. That is all (MovieLine)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
While they have many adult fans, the Harry Potter films are for children. Children don’t watch TMZ, so what better way for Mel to slip under the radar than with a cameo in the Deathly Hallows. It’s a great plan, unless Mel’s private church considers it witchcraft.

The Hobbit
A strange man from the wastelands just wandered into The Shire. This will end poorly.

Tron: Legacy
Call me crazy, but I am not excited about Tron: Legacy. Throw Mel into the mix, and you’ll have my attention.

Mission: Impossible 4
The title is officially Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. So why not use the ghost of William Wallace?

Justin Bieber: Never Say Never
This film is the perfect chance for Mel to reinvent himself with a tween audience. The only problem: Jaden Smith.

Captain America: The First Avenger
Since this film takes place during World War II, I bet there’s a role that’s just perfect for Mel.

The Twilight Saga: breaking Dawn
Another film that will allow Mel to break into the tween market, Breaking Dawn also provides Mel with the opportunity for some off-screen high jinks with Robert Pattinson.

The Smurfs
Skin color doesn’t matter to some people. Unfortunately for you blue bastards, Mel is not one of those people.

Rise of the Apes
At the end of the day, if Mel can’t find regular acting work, there are always "motion capture" gigs to fall back on.

_{Mel Gibson runs with a pack.}

The Mel Gibson comeback express is leaving the station, and the first stop is The Hangover 2. The second stop is some sort of “work camp.”

In an interview with “Extra!,” Jodie Foster confirmed rumors that Gibson, a close friend, will appear in the comedy sequel, adding that Mel “really liked the humor in that first movie.” I never would have guessed that a misogynistic comedy that leans heavily on racial stereotypes and homosexual slurs would appeal to Gibson, but I guess you learn something new every day.

While Gibson will not play himself in the film, not much is known about his role, although there have been rumors about him playing a tattoo artist. Will the part involve Ed Helm’s character and his grandmother’s holocaust ring? Only time will tell. (Deadline)

^{She’s got his back.}

No word yet if The Beaver will see a theatrical release, but director Jodie Foster has come to Mel Gibson’s defense when asked about the disgraced star’s recent scandal and beating in the press. Foster tells More magazine about her brother from another mother. Take it away Jodie:

"[Mel is the] easiest, nicest person I’ve ever worked with [and] the second I met him, I said, ‘I will love this man for the rest of my life.’"

In all fairness, her other best friends are Darth Vader, that guy who punched Snooki, and that chick who threw those puppies in a river.

"When you love a friend, you don’t adandon them when they are struggling. Of course, Mel is an undeniably gifted actor and director, and’The Beaver‘ is one of his most powerful and moving performances. But more importantly, he is and has been a true and loyal friend. I hope I can help him get through this dark moment."

She then added: "Oksana really should have just blown him in the jacuzzi. He deserves it." (via The Playlist)