Having wooed the Catholic Church by seeking advice from prelates and theologians in Rome over his new movie project Passion, in which he will play Jesus Christ, Mel Gibson has made an attack on the Vatican in a recent interview.
Speaking to Italian newspaper Il Giornale, the Lethal Weapon star said: “I believe in God. My love for religion was transmitted to me by my father. But I do not believe in the Church as an institution.” He went on to describe the Vatican as being “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”.
The 46-year-old actor is known for his religious beliefs and conservative views on divorce, abortion and contraception. He had a Catholic upbringing and attended a Catholic boys' school in Australia. In his California home there is a private chapel where Mass is celebrated in the traditional Latin every Sunday – a service which calls for a special permission as the Church abolished Latin in favour of the vernacular in the Sixties.
Mel has also revealed that he is very happy about his only daughter’s decision to become a nun. He and Robyn, his wife of 20 years, have seven children.
His latest role – he will also direct – will be the most difficult of his life, he says. Although Christ is usually portrayed as being resigned to his faith in the hours before his crucifixion, Mel said that what attracted him to the subject was “the drama of a man torn between his divine spirit and his earthly weakness”.
“My Jesus will be shaken by his human suffering. Real blood will flow from the wound in his side, and the screams of his crucifixion will be real as well.”
The actor is currently shooting Passion in Rome and the southern Italian town of Matera. He will not be needing any special effects, he says, because the terrain around Matera was “a photocopy of the landscape you travel through as a Christian pilgrim in Israel”.
Whether or not the film will join those already given the official thumbs up by the Vatican – Nicholas Ray’s King Of Kings and Franco Zeffirelli’s Jesus Of Nazareth – remains to be seen.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
