Mel Gibson would be a chef if he wasn't famous

Asked what his alternative career would be, he said: "I'd be a chef. I can [cook]/ I like making a Malasian soup called a Laksa. Of course you can't sit down the next day."

The 61-year-old star also admitted he has a sweet tooth, but tries not to eat too much chocolate because it makes him "balloon out".

Discussing his guilty pleasures, he said: "Man I love chocolate but I can't do that, I'd balloon out."

And when he was then handed a box of chocolates by 'Extra' presenter Renee Bargh, he said: "I'll imbibe guiltily tomorrow."

Mel and his partner Rosalind Ross welcomed son Lars into the world last month, and the 'Braveheart' star previously admitted he was delighted to see how quickly the tot was growing and developing.

He said: "He great, he's growing, he's eating like a little pig and is doing just great.

"He even smiles. Two weeks old, he has a grin going, so something's funny -- I don't know what."

And while he insists he doesn't eat a lot of chocolate, Mel recently admitted his friend Denzel Washington gave him some "brutally honest" advice at the Oscar nominee luncheon.

Mel - who will be hoping to pick up a Best Director prize this weekend to add to the same honour, which he scooped for 'Braveheart' in 1996 - said: "20 years ago is the last time I did one of the lunches.

"I bumped into Denzel... He was brutally honest and told me I need to go to the gym. I was like, 'OK -- you, too.'"

But if he does with the award, the Australian star - who also has seven kids, Hannah, 36, Christian, 34, Edward, 34, William, 31, Louis, 28, Milo, 26 and Thomas, 17, with ex-wife Robyn Moore and seven-year-old daughter Lucia with ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva - won't have a lot of time to celebrate as he's very busy with work.

He said: "I think I will be working on a couple of acting gigs, and then I'm working on a directing gig that I want to get going in Europe."