Gary Oldman on Mel Gibson’s anti-Semitic remarks: ‘Take a f**king joke. Get over it’

Gary Oldman has seemingly defended Mel Gibson over his 2006 anti-Semitic remarks, and says we should “take a f**king joke" and "get over it”.

The Batman actor said “we’ve all said those things".

“We all hide and try to be so politically correct. That's what gets me,” he continued.

“I think it's like, take a f**king joke. Get over it.”

In 2006, Gibson was arrested for suspected drink-driving in Malibu and made anti-Semitic remarks to a policeman, which he later apologised for – explaining that the comments were “blurted out in a moment of insanity”, branding the incident as “despicable' behaviour”.

According to a police report, Gibson asked the officer if he was Jewish and said: “F**king Jews. The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.”

Oldman thinks that Gibson should not have been chastised and those who have are “f**king hypocrites”.

“I don't know about Mel. He got drunk and said a few things, but we've all said those things,” the Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy actor told Playboy.

“We're all f**king hypocrites. That's what I think about it. The policeman who arrested him has never used the word n***** or that f**king Jew?

“I'm being brutally honest here. It's the hypocrisy of it that drives me crazy.

“Or maybe I should just strike that and say ‘the N word’ and ‘the F word’, although there are two F words now.”

Oldman sympathised with Gibson, describing how he has become “an outcast, a leper”.

“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,” he continued.

“He’s like an outcast, a leper, you know?

“But some Jewish guy in his office somewhere hasn’t turned and said, ‘That f***ing kraut’ or ‘F**k those Germans,’ whatever it is? We all hide and try to be so politically correct. That's what gets me.”

“You have to be very careful about what you say," he continued. "I do have particular views and opinions that most of this town doesn’t share, but it’s not like I’m a fascist or a racist. There’s nothing like that in my history.”

Spokesperson for Oldman, Douglas Urbanski, denied that the actor has defended Gibson in any way, rather he is addressing the subject of political correctness.

He also noted that the interview took place over nine hours and certain issues were onmitted from the piece to give "the impression of a certain sort of narrative".

"On the topic of Mel Gibson, Gary does not 'defend' him," Urbanski told The Independent.

"Noteworthy, however, is that other artists - notably Robert Downey Jr. and Jodie Foster - have loudly defended Mel Gibson spanning the past few years."

"Political correctness is a thing that drives Gary and many many others crazy," he continued. "This theme he addressed Nil By Mouth, in 1997. In this interview, Gary is doing what many intelligent people do: he is illustrating the absurd by being absurd."

"I found his attitudes as an artist and his work ethic first class and deeply professional. These are all hallmarks consistent with how Gary has lived his life and career. I found it the sort of outspoken piece that perhaps a young Kirk Douglas may have given in a different era, perhaps when he was fighting the blacklist even, minus the bad words!"

Read the full interview in Playboy's July/August double issue, out on Friday 27 June.