Hollywood should "get over" Mel Gibson's antisemitic comments of 2006 because everyone has said similar things in their private moments, Gary Oldman has told Playboy magazine.
In a wide-ranging interview, the Oscar-nominated star of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy cited "political correctness" when asked to comment on Gibson's predicament, and said people should "take a fucking joke".
Added Oldman: "I don't know about Mel. He got drunk and said a few things, but we've all said those things. We're all fucking hypocrites. That's what I think about it. The policeman who arrested him has never used the word 'nigger' or 'that fucking Jew'? I'm being brutally honest here. It's the hypocrisy of it that drives me crazy."
After defending Alec Baldwin for "calling someone an F-A-G in the street while he's pissed off coming out of his building because they won't leave him alone", Oldman continued to lament Gibson's predicament. "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," said the British actor. "He's like an outcast, a leper, you know? But some Jewish guy in his office somewhere hasn't turned and said, 'That fucking kraut' or 'Fuck those Germans,' whatever it is? We all hide and try to be so politically correct. That's what gets me. It's just the sheer hypocrisy of everyone, that we all stand on this thing going 'Isn't that shocking?'"
Gibson's rant came after he was arrested for suspected drink-driving in Malibu eight years ago. According to a police report, the actor asked the officer if he was Jewish and upon receiving a comment in the affirmative said: "Fucking Jews. The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world."
Gibson later apologised, claiming the comments were made in a "moment of insanity". But the Lethal Weapon star also received criticism for what many complained was the dubious depiction of Jewish figures in his 2004 film The Passion of the Christ, and was later accused of Holocaust denial and using antisemitic epithets by the Basic Instinct screenwriter Joe Eszterhas.
Oldman, who stars in the forthcoming science-fiction sequel Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, eventually appeared to realise that his comments might permeate further than Playboy's readership.
"So this interview has gone very badly," he said, noting that he was defending "all the wrong people". Added Oldman: "You have to edit and cut half of what I've said, because it's going to make me sound like a bigot."
Elsewhere in the interview the London-born actor discussed society's moral decay, railing against reality TV and "some idiot who can't fucking sing or write or who's shaking her ass and twerking in front of 11-year-olds". He said he hated watching himself in the 1986 Alex Cox punk biopic Sid and Nancy, one of the films that first signalled his arrival as a hot young British actor, among other portrayals.
Oldman also said the world had "gone to hell". He said: "Culturally, politically, everywhere you look. I look at the world, I look at our leadership and I look at every aspect of our culture and wonder what will make it better. I have no idea. Any night of the week you only need to turn on one of these news channels and watch for half an hour. Read the newspaper. Go online. Our world has gone to hell."
