![Opening Ceremony - 49th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival Opening Ceremony - 49th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/451699388.jpg?quality=85&w=2400)
Actor Mel Gibson has shrugged off the recent controversy that enveloped fellow actor Gary Oldman, saying “these things happen” and adding that he considers the Dark Knight star a “good guy.”
During a recent interview with Variety, Gibson said he hadn’t been aware of Oldman’s notorious Playboy interview. The British actor apologized last month for the June interview in which he railed against political correctness in Hollywood and claimed Gibson was a victim of hypocrisy:
“Mel Gibson is in a town that’s run by Jews and he said the wrong thing because he’s actually bitten the hand that I guess has fed him—and doesn’t need to feed him anymore because he’s got enough dough. He’s like an outcast, a leper, you know? But some Jewish guy in his office somewhere hasn’t turned and said, “That f—ing kraut” or “F— those Germans,” whatever it is? We all hide and try to be so politically correct.”
Gibson made anti-Semitic remarks to a police officer in 2006 after he was arrested for driving under the influence. When informed about Oldman’s interview, Gibson said he had “nothing much to say” about it, before adding: “He’s fantastic. I know him. He’s a good dude.”
Oldman said on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that his comments were “poorly considered” and that his choice of words was “offensive, insensitive, pernicious and ill-informed.”
[Variety]
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Eyewitness Accounts From the Trump Rally Shooting
- Politicians Condemn Trump Rally Shooting: ‘No Place for Political Violence in Our Democracy’
- From 2022: How the Threat of Political Violence Is Transforming America
- ‘We’re Living in a Nightmare:’ Inside the Health Crisis of a Texas Bitcoin Town
- Remembering Shannen Doherty , the Quintessential Gen X Girl
- How Often Do You Really Need to Wash Your Sheets?
- Welcome to the Noah Lyles Olympics
- Get Our Paris Olympics Newsletter in Your Inbox
Write to Nolan Feeney at nolan.feeney@time.com