Although Gary Oldman’s manager said that his client was not defending Mel Gibson and Alec Baldwin in his controversial Playboy interview, Oldman released another statement late Tuesday apologizing for his comments.
Oldman’s interview with the magazine drew attention on Tuesday after it was posted online. In it, Oldman goes on a tirade against political correctness, especially in Hollywood. He also defended Baldwin’s use of homophobic slurs and Gibson’s infamous anti-Semitic rant.
“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,” Oldman told the magazine. “He’s like an outcast, a leper, you know?”
Later, Oldman’s manager tried to dismiss the weight of Oldman’s comments, calling the idea that he was defending the two controversial stars as “preposterous.”
Still, in an open letter to the Anti-Defamation League, Oldman apologized for the comments. The group slammed Oldman for the interview.
"I am deeply remorseful that comments I recently made in the Playboy Interview were offensive to many Jewish people,” Oldman said in the letter, reports Deadline. “Upon reading my comments in print — I see how insensitive they may be, and how they may indeed contribute to the furtherance of a false stereotype.”
He later continued, “I hope you will know that this apology is heartfelt, genuine, and that I have an enormous personal affinity for the Jewish people in general, and those specifically in my life. The Jewish People, persecuted thorough the ages, are the first to hear God’s voice, and surely are the chosen people. I would like to sign off with ‘Shalom Aleichem’—but under the circumstances, perhaps today I lose the right to use that phrase, so I will wish you all peace.”
image courtesy of image courtesy of INFphoto.com