Gibson also revealed during his discussion at MegaCon 2025 how Sean Connery inspired him to turn down the 007 role
Mel Gibson is reflecting on some big roles he turned down.
The actor appeared on a panel at MegaCon in Orlando, Florida, on Friday, Feb. 7, and revealed two jobs he passed on years ago: James Bond in the 1980s, and Maximus in 2000’s Gladiator.
Asked about roles he missed out on, Gibson, 69, said, “Of course you go back and you think, ‘Man, I wish I had done that.’ “
“Like, Ridley [Scott] came to me with Gladiator; I didn’t do that movie. I was doing The Patriot, so I couldn’t do Gladiator,” he said. “So Russell [Crowe] did it, and he did a great job.”
“It’s kind of interesting, the things you miss. … It’s a bunch of stuff,” Gibson continued.
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Another example? When Gibson got a call from the James Bond films’ producer Albert R. Broccoli in the ’80s, when he was 26 years old and had already broken out in 1979’s Mad Max.
“He said, ‘We want you to be James Bond,’ ” recalled the two-time Academy Award winner. “But then I thought to myself, ‘I’m 26 years old,’ and I just remembered that Sean [Connery] could never escape that character.”
And though Connery “finally did” leave behind Bond with 1987’s The Untouchables, according to Gibson — who called the late acting legend “fantastic” in it — he was in 007’s “prison” for “decades.”
“So I thought, ‘I’m not gonna do that,’ and I let it go. ‘Cause I thought, ‘I’ll do some other stuff,’ ” Gibson added, of passing on playing Bond. (Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton both played the character during the ’80s.)
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One role that Gibson did take on that went down in history was that of Martin Riggs in 1987’s Lethal Weapon and its three sequels, released in 1989, 1992 and 1998.
The actor had a surprise reunion at MegaCon with his Lethal Weapon costar Danny Glover, nearly 38 years after the release of the first movie in the buddy-cop franchise.
Glover, 78, ascended the stage near the end of Gibson’s panel discussion, getting a standing ovation from the crowd after the two actors embraced.
Elsewhere at MegaCon, casts from Twilight, Happy Days, The Breakfast Club and more reunited, sharing secrets from their storied sets.
Source people.com
