Gary Oldman, everyone’s favourite Harry Potter character who died too young (RIP Sirius), is kind of a nasty piece of work. He gave an interview recently with Playboy in which he defends the actions of Mel Gibson and Alec Baldwin, claims that he calls people n***ers and fags and “fucking Jews” all the time and that it’s no big deal and is just generally a hot ass mess.
Here are some specifics for ya:
“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**king hypocrites. That’s what I think about it. The policeman who arrested him has never used the word ‘n***er’ 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 strike that and say ‘the N word’ and ‘the F word’, though there are two F words now.”
“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. If I called Nancy Pelosi a c**t – and I’ll go one better, a fucking useless c**t – I can’t really say that. But Bill Maher and Jon Stewart can, and nobody’s going to stop them from working because of it. Bill Maher could call someone a f*g 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.”
No, man, you really DON’T get it.
Anyhow, the Anti-Defamation League came for his ass for spreading stereotypes of the Jewish people (WHY JUST THAT? Why not EVERY comment he made???) and so he issued a half-hearted apology that really comes off as just extreme sarcasm in every sense. I’ll paste it in its entirety because it’s hilarious how sorry he’s NOT:
Dear Gentlemen of the ADL:
I am deeply remorseful that comments I recently made in the Playboy Interview were offensive to many Jewish people. 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. Anything that contributes to this stereotype is unacceptable, including my own words on the matter.
If, during the interview, I had been asked to elaborate on this point I would have pointed out that I had just finished reading Neal Gabler’s superb book about the Jews and Hollywood, An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews invented Hollywood. The fact is that our business, and my own career specifically, owes an enormous debt to that contribution.
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 – Gary Oldman.
LOL, they “surely are the chosen people”? That just sounds so flippant. The whole thing does. Wow, you read a book about Jewish people, look at you go! This dude ain’t sorry – just like he’s not sorry for talking about fags and n***ers or any of it. He’s really, truly become a hateful “oldman” – ridiculous.
YOU are utterly bigoted, TWICE as intolerant, and the ONLY hypocrite between the two’s of youse.
Shame on you.
Hey, I LOVE Israeli Jews. But EFF the ADL. They’re a skunk of a completley different stripe.
where is the apology to blacks, gays …what a cock sucker…i guess he heard those 8 little words …you will never work in this town again
I think what Gary was mad at was the judgment placed on people in general, not specifically Mel and Alec: they were just examples, and that the people who place such judgement are also as guilty as the people they judge but perhaps in other ways. It was a let he who is without sin cast the first stone kind of thing. He’s basically saying we’re all assholes, why point these two out…because they’re famous?
Exactly. He never actually condoned the use of the words or expressed any homophobia or racist beliefs but condemned the context of privilege and the whole”but its ok because it’s “””””””””satire”””””””””” that stupid shows like family guy use to get away with perpetuating stereotypes of minorities while mega failing grasp the concept of satire.
Jon Stewart gets it though. Don’t talk shit about him
Jen get yo shit together.
Agreed and it just goes to show how bent out of shape people get when they even think someone isn’t being politically correct.
um i kinda see his point. he wasnt saying it was ok, he was just point out the hypocrisy.