10. Mel Gibson Gets Beaten Up - Becomes Movie Star
Generally speaking, getting beaten up isn't considered to be very cool. In most cases, having a broken face isn't the same as it is in the movies, where somebody turns up with both bruises and a smoldering sense of cool. But we said in
most cases, which excludes Hollywood's favourite actor/director Mel Gibson, whose battered demeanor actually brought him face to face with a movie career - one that he wasn't even after in the first place. Yes, Mel Gibson had already set his sights on becoming an actor of sorts, having appeared in plays and such, but he'd never considered a career in the movies. One day, a friend of Gibson's asked him if he could grab a lift to an audition. Being quite the obliging friend, he agreed, though also being Mel Gibson, he went out the night before and got into a massive brawl, leaving him with a face that looked like it had been shotgunned at close range. But the director who was holding the audition - for a little movie called
Mad Max - noticed Mel in all his bloody glory, and asked him to come back at a later date to audition for him. Well, you can pretty much guess what happened after that, can't you? You can't? ... He got the lead. He got the lead in
Mad Max.