Mel Gibson Calls Robert Downey Jr. “Generous & Kind” For Defending Him After 2006 Arrest & Antisemitic Comments

Mel Gibson expresses his gratitude to Robert Downey Jr. for having his back after his 2006 arrest and antisemitic remarks.

In a new interview profiling Downey Jr., Gibson talked about the support he received from the Oppenheimer star.

“One time, I got into a bit of a sticky situation where it kind of ended my career,” Gibson recalled in an Esquire interview. “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 canceled.”

He continued, “A couple of years into that he 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.”

Jodie Foster also contributed to the profile and talked about how she pulled him aside during the filming of 1995’s Home for the Holidays to talk to him amid his addiction struggles.

“I took him aside at one point during filming and said, ‘Look, I couldn’t be more grateful for what you’ve given in this film,’” she told the publication. “‘But I’m scared of what happens to you next. Right now, you are incredibly good at balancing on the barstool. But it’s really precarious, and I’m not sure how that’s going to end.’”