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"As time goes by, I have less and less interest in acting in movies," Gibson admits. "It's like a hobby. It isn't the hunger I had before." Instead, he's looking for directing projects. He had been planning to direct Hamlet onstage with Robert Downey Jr. in Los Angeles before Downey was arrested on drug-related charges on Nov. 25. "He would knock your socks off," says Gibson, sounding sad and frustrated. "I don't think even he knows it. I hope he gets it together."
Asked if he has a favorite performance of his own, Gibson says, "It's a funny thing. You look at something you did years ago, and it's like, 'Oh, boy! What was I thinking?'" His feet rest on the coffee table in his office, next to a tiny version of himself, a Braveheart doll wearing a kilt and waving a sword. "I think time makes one more aware of the light and shade in human behavior," he says. "Most people get better with time. The sad part is, you get old and ugly as you get better." Then he laughs, knowing that even with the aging, there's not much for him to be sad about.