TORONTO — Actor Gary Oldman has defended Mel Gibson and Alec Baldwin for outbursts that sparked public outrage.
In an interview with Playboy, Oldman said Gibson has been a pariah in Hollywood since a 2006 DUI arrest in which he made anti-Semitic comments to a police officer. (Gibson later apologized and said the words were “blurted out in a moment of insanity.”)
“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 Oldman. “He’s like an outcast, a leper, you know?”
The 56-year-old star said people who criticized Gibson are hypocrites.
“He got drunk and said a few things, but we’ve all said those things,” Oldman said. “We’re all f***ing hypocrites. The policeman who arrested him has never used the word ‘n*****’ or ‘that f***ing Jew?’ I’m being brutally honest here. It’s the hypocrisy of it that drives me crazy.”
Oldman also said he doesn’t blame Baldwin for using a gay slur against a photographer outside his New York apartment building last November.
Oldman, whose credits include this year’s made-in-Toronto RoboCop, told Playboy he doesn’t like many of his own films.
“Most of my work I would just stomp into the ground and start over again,” Oldman admitted.
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On 1986’s Sid & Nancy: “I don’t like myself in the movie, no. Frankly, I didn’t want to make it in the first place. I was talked into it at the time … I don’t think I played Sid Vicious very well.”
On 1997’s The Fifth Element: “I can’t bear it.”
On 2008’s The Dark Knight and several Harry Potter movies: “It was work.”
In the candid interview, Oldman also took on the topics of parenting (“The kids honestly believe they are the center of the f***ing universe. But then they get out into the real world and it’s like, ‘S***, maybe it’s not all about me,’ and that leads to narcissism, depression and anxiety”) and the legalization of marijuana (“I’m not for it. Listen, if you want to do cocaine, heroin, smoke marijuana, that’s fine by me. It’s just that I worry about kids behind the wheel of a car more than anything.”)
Oldman weighed in on actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who died of a heroin overdose.
“There’s no argument about how good he was, but who knows what was going on inside? I don’t mean this disrespectfully, but maybe he looked in the mirror and always saw that very pale sort of fat kid,” he said.
Oldman called the Golden Globe Awards “a meaningless event.”
He said: “There’s nothing going on at all. It’s 90 nobodies having a wank. Everybody’s getting drunk, and everybody’s sucking up to everybody. Boycott the f***ing thing. Just say we’re not going to play this silly game with you anymore.”
Oldman conceded he likes Montreal band Arcade Fire and TV series like Mad Men and House of Cards — but he’s not a fan of much of what is considered entertainment these days.
“Reality TV to me is the museum of social decay. And what passes for music—it’s all on that plateau. Who’s the hero for young people today? Some idiot who can’t f***ing sing or write or who’s shaking her a** and twerking in front of 11-year-olds.”
In the Playboy interview, Oldman does not come across as particularly optimistic about anything.
“I think we’re up s*** creek without a paddle or a compass,” he told the magazine.
“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.
“Read the newspaper. Go online. Our world has gone to hell.”
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