When Mel Gibson reportedly made anti-gay remarks to a Spanish magazine more than a year ago, the news quickly put him at odds with the homosexual community. So it’s understandable that seeing Gibson in The Man Without a Face, a project that marks his directorial debut, comes as a bit of a surprise: the character he plays, recluse Justin McLeod, was written as a homosexual. In the 1972 novel, McLeod engages in a homosexual episode with a child.
In the film, which opened last month, Gibson plays a disfigured former teacher who finds a new lease on life tutoring a troubled, fatherless youngster (Nick Stahl). Although townspeople in the movie question the extent of the friendship that develops between the two, the insinuations are much more subtle than in the novel – which some critics found too daring for young adults.
“One of the [concerns) was not to scare people off in terms of pedophilia and the gay community,” said Lisa Callamaro of the Callamaro Agency, which represents both novelist Isabelle Holland and Man Without a Face screenwriter Malcolm MacRury. “Nobody wanted to offend the gay community, and none of us really felt the sexuality had anything to do with the basic story.”
