Jason Isaacs and Mel Gibson faced off in Roland Emmerich’s 2000 historical war drama “The Patriot,” and their antagonistic relationship on screen apparently took shape in real life after Gibson’s infamous 2006 arrest, which included the actor making comments disparaging Jewish people. Isaacs called Gibson’s tirade an “antisemitic outburst” in a new Vulture interview.
“He was very charming personally, and he’s intelligent and self-deprecating. He’s said and done some things that are unconscionable and unforgivable,” Isaacs said of Gibson. “I was invited by my friend to some charity cricket event for Australians in film. And he said, ‘If you come, Mel will.’ And I said, ‘I don’t want to see Mel.’ I hadn’t seen him since that terrible antisemitic outburst when he got stopped by the police. And my friend said, ‘Come on, mate. We’ll get loads of money for charity.’”
“So I went, and Mel was there, and he called ‘Jace’ across the room, very friendly. I went, ‘Rabbi Gibson, how are we?’” Isaacs continued. “He came up and he said, ‘I was really drunk, man. I was trying to get him to hit me or shoot me or something. I’m having a terrible time.’ And he proceeded to unload some very personal things. He’s not my friend, but — maybe to my eternal shame — I forgave him instantly because he was there making himself vulnerable.”
When asked by Vulture if “we should forgive those like Mel Gibson,” Isaacs replied: “No, you can’t forgive everything from everyone. I’m not saying I forgive Mel. I’ve seen him once a decade for five minutes. We text each other once in a blue moon about something or other. I don’t know what to do with the fact that he put a character into ‘The Passion of the Christ’ which is essentially a Jewish demon that doesn’t exist in the gospels. I have no idea what to do about him. But if he knocked on my door tonight and said, ‘Look, my hotel’s canceled. Can I stay?’ I’d say, ‘Yes,’ probably.”
Gibson’s antisemitic outburst soured his career in Hollywood, although actors such as Robert Downey Jr. and Jodie Foster have continued to support him over the years. Gibson told Esquire magazine last year that Downey Jr. was “bold and generous and kind” for urging Hollywood to forgive Gibson after his 2006 arrest.
“One time, I got into a bit of a sticky situation where it kind of ended my career,” Gibson told Esquire. “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. A couple of years into that [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.”
Gibson is referring to the 2011 American Cinematheque Awards ceremony, where Downey was the recipient of the annual prize and used his speech to speak on Gibson’s behalf. Downey, who is Jewish, asked Hollywood to join him in “forgiving my friend his trespasses, offering [Gibson] the same clean slate you have given me, and allowing him to continue his great and ongoing contribution to our collective art without shame.” He also noted that “unless you are completely without sin, in which case you picked the wrong fucking industry,” then you should consider giving Gibson a second chance.
In recent years, Gibson has starred opposite Mark Wahlberg in movies such as “Daddy’s Home 2” and “Father Stu.”
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