Mel Gibson at a private screening of his film Apocalypto in Mexico City. (AP)

Los Angeles, March 24 (AP): Mel Gibson exchanged heated words with a professor after an on-campus screening of Gibson’s latest film, Apocalypto.

Gibson was answering questions from the crowd on Thursday when Alicia Estrada, an assistant professor of Central American studies at California State University, Northridge, accused the actor-director of misrepresenting the Mayan culture in the movie,observers said.

Gibson directed an expletive at the woman, who was removed from the crowd, representatives for the actor and the school said.

Estrada did not return telephone messages.

The R-rated film about the decline of Mayan civilisation shows Mayan rulers slitting throats, beheading and ripping the still-beating hearts from the chests of their enemies.

“The woman was a heckler who was rude and disruptive inasmuch as the event organisers had to escort her out,” Gibson’s publicist, Alan Nierob, said.

A student who attended the programme told the Daily News of Los Angeles that Gibson used the F-word and told the professor she should “get a history book and read”.

“It was a brief disruption to an otherwise interesting, stimulating event from our students’ perspectives,” said university spokesman John Chandler. “The students were very appreciative of Gibson being there. He spent a lot of time answering questions about moviemaking.”

Before the three-and-a-half hour programme ended, Gibson “expressed regret that things had got out of hand,” Chandler said. Apocalypto was released in December, less than six months after Gibson’s drunken driving arrest and subsequent anti-semitic ranting.