Robert Downey Jr. was honored at the American Cinematheque Awards last night, as numerous colleagues and friends made speeches in honor of the Oscar nominee and acknowledged the substance abuse-laden journey he took to arrive at the top of Hollywood.
But when it came time to take the stage himself, Downey shifted the focus to the man who introduced him: Mel Gibson.
"Mel and I have the same lawyer, same publicist and same shrink," Downey said of his Air America co-star. "I couldn’t get hired and he cast me. He said if I accepted responsibility – he called it hugging the cactus – long enough my life would take meaning and if he helped me I would help the next guy. But it was not reasonable to assume the next guy would be him.”
Speaking about Gibson - whose anti-Semitic and anti-Oksana Grigorieva tirades have been made very public over the recent years - The Avengers star added:
“Unless you are without sin, and if you are you are in the wrong f-ckin industry, you should forgive him and let him work."
Do you agree, readers? Should we forgive Mel Gibson?