 In casting, it was important to Mel Gibson (I) (qv) that he and  Farhad Safinia (qv) find actors that matched the archetype each  character represented. For instance, Rudy Youngblood (qv) struck  Gibson as fitting the mythic archetype of a hero. Gibson saw that as  necessary to allow people to identify with the film, since the  movies context is unfamiliar to most viewers, being in a foreign  language and concerning an indigenous culture in the 16th century.