Mel Gibson, Hollywood CA, 1990. When I first shot Mel, he was already a well-known and respected actor. I was told by someone that he’s really impatient on your typical publicity type photo shoots - like, no patience at all - so I was really anxious to work with him. I started thinking through how I could keep him engaged on set. I needed something - a prop - to distract him from the camera I was about to be pointing at his face. So I started brainstorming.He had done Hamlet, and I just let my mind wander...Hamlet...little ham...a baby pig? I don’t know what I was thinking, it was silly but I went with it. I called up an animal wrangler in Hollywood to find our piglet. And it actually did the trick. He was playing with this little animal, and he was having fun.So he’s holding this tiny pig on the floor, and I’m laying down, shooting, and the pig fell asleep. I was like, “Don’t move, Mel. Don’t move. Close your eyes.” And I grabbed that shot of the two of them, him faking being asleep and the pig actually asleep in his arms, and it was this really sweet moment. That little piglet changed everything.
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