Actor Mel Gibson has been hitting the headlines with his latest film The Patriot - and not just because of his reported $25m fee.

Instead, the American revolution movie has been courting controversy due to its historic inaccuracies and its anti-English feel.

The film centres on Gibson's character, plantation farmer Benjamin Martin, a pacifist who is ultimately compelled to take up arms against the English when his eldest son is captured by the King's army and sentenced to death.

Gibson, aged 44, seems unperturbed by the furore surrounding the film. He maintains he never set out to make a documentary and says the film should be viewed as entertainment, despite it being based on real life events.

"It's the movies, after all," he says. "You need to juice these things up a bit."

He shrugs off the fact the film has been criticised for its portrayal of the English, although he concedes that they are clearly the bad guys of the film.

"Somebody has to be, I mean what can I say? You go to any country and you'll find somebody has done something horrible to somebody else," he says, before adding with a smile. "We're giving the Germans a break."

On a more serious note, Gibson adds: "There were actually some really horrible things done, not just by the British to the colonialists but between the colonialists, the loyalists and the rebels."

Although Gibson grew up in Australia, he was born in the States and lived there until he was 12 when his father moved him and his nine siblings to Sydney.

The actor says he now feels as much American as he does Australian and likes to think he is part of both countries.

"I don't think of myself as either American or Australian really, I'm a true hybrid. It's a good thing for me because both of them are really good countries," he says.

Gibson has come a long way since he attended drama school in Sydney and enjoyed early success in the Mad Max films.