Mel Gibson Says He Turned Down Martin Scorsese’s The Jesus Role In ‘Last Temptation Of Christ’

We all know that Mel Gibson is a deeply religious man, among other perhaps less savory things. His “The Passion of the Christ” is still one of the biggest R-rated films of all time. And he’s apparently preparing to begin work on “The Resurrection of Christ” sometime next year. But there was one religious film that he was offered and turned down, even though it was going to be directed by one of the best filmmakers around. 

Speaking in a recent episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Mel Gibson was out promoting the release of his newest directorial venture, “Flight Risk.” However, he also told a story about how he was approached to do “The Last Temptation of Christ” for Martin Scorsese, but he turned it down. 

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“Interestingly enough, I was in a hotel room in the Savoy and I had food poisoning. I was near dead from it. I ate a bad oyster in London and I was dying in a hotel room and I couldn’t even leave. It was the worst,” Gibson explained. “While I was there, Scorsese calls the room and says, ‘Come here, I want to talk to you.’ I go and I talk to Martin and he’s in his room and all the windows, the screens, he’s drawn on. He’s got 18 different TVs going on at the same time in this dark room. He’s talking to me about ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ and he wants me to play Jesus and I said, ‘Wow. I’m not doing that.’”

Obviously, for those familiar with the film, Willem Dafoe would end up landing the role of Jesus in ‘Last Temptation.’ And Gibson believes that was the right choice.

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“He did something that I think nobody else did and I think he pulled it off because I totally believed it,” said Gibson. “He emptied himself out. He invited something else in. He meditated and let Christ in.”

It would have been interesting to see Mel Gibson in that role, however. In the mid-to-late-‘80s, Gibson was one of the biggest names in Hollywood. Just a year before ‘Last Temptation,’ he released “Lethal Weapon,” which some would argue is still one of the best buddy cop films of all time.