Mel Gibson's vegetable redemption

Nov 16, 2009, 5:01 GMT

Mel Gibson. The \'Braveheart\' actor - who recently became a father for the eighth time when girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva gave birth to daughter Lucia Anne - says he is always looking to improve himself and insists the best suggestion he ever received was to take up gardening..EPA/HOW HWEE YOUNG

Mel Gibson thinks growing vegetables makes him a better person

The 'Braveheart' actor - who recently became a father for the eighth time when girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva gave birth to daughter Lucia Anne - says he is always looking to improve himself and insists the best suggestion he ever received was to take up gardening.

He said: "Some of the best advice I was given, a long time ago, was from a guy who said, 'You want to make yourself better, go and dig a ditch.' So, a lot of that's been going on, ditch-digging, vegetable-growing."

The 53-year-old star also claims the biggest changes he has noticed about growing older is the effect it has on his sense of humor.

He added: "The choices you make are just totally different because of maturity, male menopause, whatever outside influence is acting on you. You just look around and see, sometimes, that what you'd laugh at in 1970 is totally not funny now."

However, the actor doesn't believe time has taken too much of a toll on his body.

Speaking about playing William Wallace in 'Braveheart', he added: "He was something like 28 when he died. And I was already ten years older than that when we started shooting. But it doesn't matter really, if you can sell it. At least my knees weren't wrinkly."