Mel Gibson calls Robert Downey Jr ‘generous, kind’ for defending him after 2006 arrest

LOS ANGELES — Actor-filmmaker Mel Gibson has expressed gratitude to Hollywood star Robert Downey Jr. for having his back after his 2006 arrest and anti-Semitic remarks.

The actor talked about the support he received from the ‘Oppenheimer’ star during an interview and said: “One time, I got into a bit of a sticky situation where it kind of ended my career.”

Gibson recalled in an Esquire interview: “I was drunk in the back of a police car, and I said some stupid shit, and all of a sudden, I was blacklisted. I’m the poster boy for canceled.”

 “A couple of years into that, he invited me to some kind of award he was getting — we always had this kind of seesaw thing, where if he was on the wagon, I was falling off, and if I was on the wagon, he was falling off.”

The actor added: “So I was pretty much nonexistent in Hollywood at the time, and he stood up and spoke for me. It was a bold, generous, and kind gesture. I loved him for that,” reports deadline.com.

Actress Jodie Foster also talked about how she pulled him aside during the filming of 1995’s ‘Home for the Holidays’ to talk to him amid his addiction struggles.