Playboy hasn’t released their interview with Gary Oldman yet, but it’s going to be very interesting to see the blowback when they do. For now, The Daily Mail has some quotes from the piece and… well, Gary sort of went off. I thought Gary had mellowed out over the past decade, and he was no longer the angry, aggressive man he was in his 20s (and 30s). But Gary can still get angry. And obscene. And he defends his abuser/bigot friends passionately. Some highlights from his Playboy interview, via The Mail:
On Mel Gibson’s anti-Semitic rants: ‘I just think political correctness is c**p. That’s what I think about it. I think it’s like, take a f***ing joke. Get over it. I don’t know about Mel. He got drunk and said a few things, but we’ve all said those things. We’re all f***ing hypocrites. That’s what I think about it. The policeman who arrested him has never used the word n***** or that f***ing 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.’
On Alec Baldwin’s homophobic slurs: ‘Alec calling someone an F-A-G in the street while he’s pissed off coming out of his building because they won’t leave him alone. I don’t blame him. So they persecute. 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’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*** those Germans,” whatever it is? We all hide and try to be so politically correct. That’s what gets me. It’s just the sheer hypocrisy of everyone, that we all stand on this thing going, “Isn’t that shocking?”’
Gary says he’s ‘not a bigot.’ ‘No, but I’m defending all the wrong people. I’m saying Mel’s all right, Alec’s a good guy. So how do I come across? Angry? It’s dishonesty that frustrates me most. I can’t bear double standards. It gets under my skin more than anything.’
Satire/free speech: ‘Well, if I called Nancy Pelosi a c*** — and I’ll go one better, a f***ing useless c**— I can’t really say that. But Bill Maherand Jon Stewart can, and no****’s going to stop them from working because of it. Bill Maher could call someone a fag and get away with it. He said to Seth MacFarlane this year, “I thought you were going to do the Oscars again. Instead they got a lesbian.” He can say something like that. Is that more or less offensive than Alec Baldwin saying to someone in the street, “You fag”? I don’t get it.’
12 Years a Slave & the Academy: ‘At the Oscars, if you didn’t vote for 12 Years a Slave you were a racist. You have to be very careful about what you say. 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[.’
For the love of God, Gary. You are really going to get THIS frustrated and angry about people being horrified that Mel Gibson is an anti-Semitic racist and violent misogynist? You’re really going to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Alec Baldwin because he has the “right” to call people f-gs? If we’re making this into a free speech issue – which I guess is part of Gary’s argument? – Mel and Alec can say whatever they want. And we can call them bigots and homophobes and woman-beaters because that’s free speech too. But I think Gary’s point is that we’re all hypocrites and we should all just get over it? Er. Well, no. Anyway… have at it.
Cele|bitchy | Gary Oldman defends Alec Baldwin & Mel Gibson: ‘We’ve all said those things’