Gibson praises Downey Jr. for defending him after anti-Semitic rant

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Mel Gibson is hailing his old friend Robert Downey Jr. as “generous and kind” for supporting him after he made headlines for going on a foul-mouthed tirade following a 2006 arrest in Malibu, Fla.

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“One time, I got into a bit of a sticky situation where it kind of ended my career,” Gibson told Esquire magazine for its cover story on Downey. “I was drunk in the back of a police car and I said some stupid shit, and all of a sudden: blacklisted. I’m the poster boy for cancelled.”

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Gibson was referencing his July 28, 2006, arrest for misdemeanour drunken driving after he was stopped by police on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. But his apprehension made headlines after he spouted a series of racist statements.

“The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world!” Gibson yelled at the time, according to the 2006 arrest report obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

Despite his apology, as the news made headlines, Gibson, once one of the biggest Hollywood stars in the world, was unable to find work.

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But Downey, who Gibson hired to star in 2003’s The Singing Detective following his imprisonment for charges related to drugs, never turned his back on the Lethal Weapon star.

“A couple of years (after my arrest, Robert) invited me to some kind of award he was getting — we always had this kind of seesaw thing, where if he was on the wagon, I was falling off, and if I was on the wagon, he was falling off. So I was pretty much nonexistent in Hollywood at the time, and he stood up and spoke for me. It was a bold and generous and kind gesture. I loved him for that.”

When he was feted at the 25th American Cinematheque Awards in 2011, Downey thanked Gibson, with whom he starred in 1990’s Air America, for helping him relaunch his career after his struggles with substance abuse.

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“I asked Mel to present this award for me for a reason,” Downey said (per Entertainment Weekly). “When I couldn’t get sober, he told me not to give up hope and encouraged me to find my faith. It didn’t have to be his or anyone else’s, as long as it was rooted in forgiveness. And I couldn’t get hired, so he cast me in the lead of a movie that was actually developed for him.”

Downey then asked the crowd to stop feeling resentment toward Gibson.

“He kept a roof over my head and food on the table and most importantly he said if I accepted responsibility for my wrongdoing and embraced that part of my soul that was ugly — hugging the cactus he calls it — he said that if I hugged the cactus long enough, I’d become a man,” Downey said.

“I did and it worked. All he asked in return was that someday I help the next guy in some small way. It’s reasonable to assume at the time he didn’t imagine the next guy would be him or that someday was tonight. So anyway on this special occasion … I would ask that you join me, unless you are completely without sin in which case you picked the wrong f***ing industry, in forgiving my friend his trespasses and offering him the same clean slate you have me, allowing him to continue his great and ongoing contribution to our collective art without shame. He’s hugged the cactus long enough.”

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Gibson didn’t appear in any films for four years following his arrest, but he mounted a comeback in the 2010s with roles in Daddy’s Home 2, The Expendables 3 and the John Wick spinoff series The Continental. He also earned an Oscar nod for directing 2016’s Hacksaw Ridge.

In 2016, Gibson, whose father told the New York Times that he did not believe the Holocaust happened, called his arrest “an unfortunate incident.”

“I was loaded and angry and arrested. I was recorded illegally by an unscrupulous police officer who was never prosecuted for that crime. And then it was made public by him for profit, and by members of — we’ll call it the press. So, not fair. I guess as who I am, I’m not allowed to have a nervous breakdown, ever,” the Oscar winner said during an appearance on Variety‘s Playback podcast.

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The Passion of the Christ director urged the filmmaking community to move on, insisting he wasn’t a hateful person.

“Ten years have gone by,” Gibson stated. “I’m feeling good. I’m sober, all of that kind of stuff, and for me it’s a dim thing in the past. But others bring it up, which kind of I find annoying, because I don’t understand why after 10 years it’s any kind of issue. Surely if I was really what they say I was, some kind of hater, there’d be evidence of actions somewhere. There never has been.”

Gibson continued, “I’ve never discriminated against anyone or done anything that sort of supports that reputation. And for one episode in the back of a police car on eight double tequilas to sort of dictate all the work, life’s work and beliefs and everything else that I have and maintain for my life is really unfair.”

mdaniell@postmedia.com

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