Mel Gibson has admitted to a trait some probably presumed quite a while ago, thanks to the headlines: The actor has said he's got a bit of a temper.
Gibson made the admission Friday on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” after screenwriter Joe Eszterhas' release of what he says is a tape of Gibson ranting.
Eszterhas, who wrote a script for a film Gibson is working on about Jewish hero Judah Maccabee, also accused the actor of anti-Semitism in a nine-page letter.
Gisbon addressed the controversy on Leno's late night show Friday, opening with the crack, "You know, I love coming to 'The Tonight Show,' because when I get here and you tape me, you let me know you're going to do that up front!"
The recording Eszterhas released was said to be taped during a visit to Gibson's home in Costa Rica.
"Has it really come to the place that you can't blow off steam in your own home?" the actor asked Leno on Friday, seeming to refer to the reports of the audio. "The guy writes a nine-page letter, and if he (presumably, Eszterhas) put half as much time and effort and creativity and imagination into a screenplay, which he was supposed to write, as he did into that letter, we wouldn't be having this conversation."
Gibson also admitted to being "peeved" with Eszterhas and swearing at him because when Eszterhas did deliver the script, it was problematic enough that studio Warner Bros. rejected it, Gibson said. (Warner Bros. is owned by the same parent company as CNN.)
"It's kind of like you build a house, you hire a guy to put a roof on it, he comes over and eats lunch and talks about the roof, and then you get rained on all night," Gibson told Leno. "Wouldn't you be kind of peeved?"
Perhaps Leno was unaware, Gibson went on, “but I've got a little bit of a temper."
The past few years, which have included other public missteps for the actor, have been "like living in a bad B movie," he added. "From slipping on a banana peel in your driveway to sort of midnight phone calls ... How did I get here?! It is bizarre!"
