Mel Gibson prays before shooting scenes in Bulgaria and visits local churches

The controversial but deeply Christian Mel Gibson is praying before each scene of his The Expendables 3 movie, which he is currently shooting in Bulgarian capital Sofia.


Significantly, in any country he is filming, Gibson is always visiting the best known temples. Just a few days ago, he was spotted in Sofia's St. Alexander Nevski church. Witnesses report that the Braveheart star examined with great care and respect the icons and frescoes of the holy place.

Mr. Braveheart belongs to the conservative movement in the Roman Catholic Church, whose followers do not accept the reforms of the Second Vatican Council and continue to serve their services in Latin instead of the national language. However, Gibson stated that he does not deny the Pope and the Vatican. He is even planning to make a film about the deceased John Paul II.

The power of Gibson's faith became evident in a concentrated form in his scandalous movie The Passion of the Christ. In the words of the actor, he was dreaming for ten years to accomplish this project. He started the work at the time, when he ended up in the trap of feeling awfully lonely and empty, he said. Through the realistic story of the suffering of Christ, he wanted to help more people to get to know the power of the love of Christ and to help them to let Jesus save them.

The critical time he was talking about was 12 years ago. Back then, battling alcoholism, Gibson was even hunted by the thought of suicide, one of the greatest sins in his religion. Then he turned to his faith and preparing the movie about the life of Jesus Christ helped him. He financed the shooting of the movie from his own funds and then regained his original investments multiplied after the success of the movie.

The Passion of the Christ was harshly criticized by the critics for its bloody scenes and the accusation of the Jews for the death of Chirst. Despite, or perhaps because of this, the movie became a hit blockbuster.
The movie itself was not even filmed in English, but in old-Armenian and in Latin. But this was not the strangest aspect of the shooting process. Gibson provided each member of his team, regardless of what faith they were, access to spiritual leaders as an opportunity to pray many times a day, whenever and wherever they wanted to. Thus, along with the operators, lighting specialists, make-up artists, there were Orthodox priests, imams and Christian priests around on the set of the movie.

 

Hristo Shopov, who played Pontius Pilate in the movie, and other Bulgarian actor Hristo Zhivkov playing Joan, told that the there was a full spiritual harmony between the people on the set of the movie. The two harvested lots of praises for their performances and Gibson even stated that they deserved an Oscar.
Since Wednesday Gibson is filming on the set of The Expendables 3. Former Mad Max Gibson is going to join in as the villain in the action blockbuster along with co-stars Jason Statham, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Milla Jovovich, Jackie Chan, Mickey Rourke, Dolph Lundgren, Wesley Snipes and Antonio Banderas.

The filming of the Expendables 3 began in August in the Black Sea city of Varna and then continued mainly in the cinema center New Boyana in the suburb of Sofia.