Braveheart’s Mel Gibson has put on so much weight he was told to STOP eating to play Santa
BRAVEHEART star Mel Gibson says he is now so porky he was told to stop eating to play Santa Claus.
The Oscar-winner — once famed for his tough guy roles — was preparing to gorge on grub for his latest movie, Fatman.
But sibling filmmakers Eshom and Ian Nelms told him he was already the ideal shape to play an overweight Father Christmas.
Mel, 64, confessed: “I am reasonably porky.
“I said to the boys, ‘Hey should I eat more ice cream and cookies?’.
“But they said, ‘No you are perfect. Leave it like that.
“Just because we call it Fatman does not mean you have to be obese’.”
Aussie Mel was named People magazine’s first Sexiest Man in 1985.
But he revealed: “Believe me, I have the post 50 years of age insulin gut. Don’t worry — I am carrying.”
Mel, no stranger to controversy in real life, plays a troubled, boozy Santa in the new film on Amazon Prime.
He has to cope with a lack of well-behaved children, as well as marital woes, plus a hitman hired by an evil 12-year-old child.
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He said: “For me, it was taking an iconic character and examining the reality of who that guy might really be if he had the rest of the problems the most of the world has.
“Like if he has a mortgage to pay, if he’s got a sore back, if he’s fighting with his wife.
"It examines the humanity of who Santa might be without the big fantasy legend.”
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