Mel Gibson is still trying to move on. The Blood Father actor opened up about his 2006 anti-Semitic rant in a new interview on Variety’s podcast Playback.
“Ten years have gone by,” Gibson, 60, said on Thursday, October 27. “I’m feeling good. I’m sober, all of that kind of stuff, and for me it’s a dim thing in the past. But others bring it up, which [I kind of] find annoying, because I don’t understand why after 10 years it’s any kind of issue.”
Gibson made the remarks when he was arrested for drunk driving in Malibu on July 28, 2006. The controversy plagued his career for years.
“Surely if I was really what they say I was, some kind of hater, there’d be evidence of actions somewhere. There never has been. I’ve never discriminated against anyone or done anything that sort of supports that reputation,” he said on Thursday. “For one episode in the back of a police car on eight double tequilas to sort of dictate all the work, life’s work and beliefs and everything else that I have and maintain for my life is really unfair.”
Days after the 2006 incident, the star apologized for his actions through his publicist, Alan Nierob. “I acted like a person completely out of control when I was arrested, and said things that I do not believe to be true and which are despicable,” Gibson said in a statement at the time, via The New York Times. “I am deeply ashamed of everything I said, and I apologize to anyone I may have offended.”
Gibson didn’t return to the big screen until years later in 2010’s Edge of Darkness. He then landed roles in movies including The Beaver and The Expendables 3. He is currently promoting Hacksaw Ridge, which he directed.
Earlier this week, the star briefly opened up about his sobriety during a Beverly Hills afterparty for the war drama. “Sobriety helps you refocus everything,” he exclusively told Us Weekly on Monday. “Believe me, it doesn’t do any good to have a snort.”
