Mel Gibson worked.
Mel Gibson . Director Peter Weir cast him as one of the leads in the critically acclaimed World War I drama Gallipoli ( 1981 ) , which earned Gibson a Best Actor Award from the Australian Film Institute . Gibson produced , directed , and starred in the epic historical drama film Braveheart ( 1995 ) , for which he won the Golden Globe Award and Academy Award for Best Director , along with the Academy Award for Best Picture . He later directed and produced the financially successful and controversial , biblical drama film The Passion of the Christ ( 2004 ) . He received further critical notice for his directorial work of the action-adventure film Apocalypto ( 2006 ) , which is set in Mesoamerica during the early 16th century .