Mel Gibson quietly battled the novel coronavirus earlier this year and has since made a full recovery.
“He tested positive in April and spent a week in the hospital,” the actor’s rep said in a statement to Us Weekly on Thursday, July 23. “He was treated with the drug Remdesivir, while in the hospital, and has tested negative numerous times since then as well as positive for the antibodies.”
Remdesivir is the first drug that has shown to be effective against the coronavirus. The drug’s manufacturer, Gilead Sciences, announced in June that it would be sold to hospitals for $520 per vial or $3,120 per treatment course for patients with private insurance. Remdesivir is slightly cheaper for patients on government-sponsored insurance.
Gibson, who won two Oscars for his 1995 film Braveheart, has been far less active in the entertainment industry since the 2000s, when he infamously made anti-Semitic and misogynistic comments during a drunken rant. He made a short-lived comeback with his 2016 movie Hacksaw Ridge, but his history of offensive behavior came to light again in June when Winona Ryder talked about it in an interview.
“We were at a crowded party with one of my good friends,” the Stranger Things star, 48, recalled to The Sunday Times. “And Mel Gibson was smoking a cigar, and we’re all talking and he said to my friend, who’s gay, ‘Oh wait, am I gonna get AIDS?’ And then something came up about Jews, and he said, ‘You’re not an oven dodger, are you?’”
Gibson’s rep told Us Weekly at the time that Ryder’s account was “100 percent untrue,” prompting the actress to double down on her story.
“I believe in redemption and forgiveness and hope that Mr. Gibson has found a healthy way to deal with his demons, but I am not one of them,” she said in a statement to Us in June. “Around 1996, my friend Kevyn Aucoin and I were on the receiving end of his hateful words. It is a painful and vivid memory for me. Only by accepting responsibility for our behavior in this life can we make amends and truly respect each other, and I wish him well on this lifelong journey.”
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