If pain, as Mel Gibson has said, is "the precursor to change," then the Oscar-winning star may be bound for a new direction.
Gibson, 50, was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving at 2:36 a.m. Friday in Malibu, according to authorities and online records from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
The actor-director was zooming along Pacific Coast Highway in a 2006 Lexus sedan, going about 80 mph, when he was pulled over by deputies, Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for the sheriff's department said.
Gibson's blood-alcohol level was found to be 0.12, Whitmore said; the legal limit in California is 0.08.
The star was booked, and later released from custody, Whitmore said. His bail was set at $5,000, online records show.
Gibson's bail was set at $5,000, online records show.
"We don't have any information on [the arrest], but are checking into it," said Alan Nierob, Gibson's publicist.
This is at least the second DUI arrest for Gibson, though the first since he was widely reported to have begun attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in the early 1990s. The earlier DUI bust occurred in 1984 in Toronto, where Gibson was filming Mrs. Soffel with Diane Keaton.
Twenty years ago, Gibson responded to his troubles by stepping back from his movie career.
"I wasn't channeling the energy properly," Gibson said in a 2004 CNN profile on the star. "It was too much in the race, and I didn't have enough petrol, but I was going for the finish line anyway."
When Gibson returned to Hollywood, his demons weren't far behind. By 1991, he told ABC News, he thought about jumping out a window.
"I just didn't want to go on," Gibson said.
His problems, Gibson explained, were "spiritual bankruptcy"--and addiction.
"I would get addicted to anything, anything at all," Gibson told ABC News. "Doesn't matter what it is--drugs, booze, anything. You name it--coffee, cigarettes, anything."
Gibson, who went on to win two Oscars for Braveheart, talked up his low points while stumping for 2004's The Passion of the Christ, the gory account of Jesus' final hours. Gibson, who wrote and directed the self-financed epic, said he pursued the biblical tale after reconnecting with his religion and turning his life around.
Last appearing on the big screen in 2004's Paparazzi, the erstwhile Lethal Weapon is scheduled to unveil his latest film as a director, Apocalypto, in December.