Gary Oldman Rants About Political Correctness, Defends Mel Gibson And Alec Baldwin (UPDATE)

Gary Oldman Is Really Upset About Not Using Offensive Language

In addition to revealing that he pretty much hates all the movies he's worked on that you love, actor Gary Oldman defended Mel Gibson and Alec Baldwin's respective anti-Semitic and homophobic remarks in a new interview with Playboy.

Note: This article contains explicit language that may offend some readers.

After establishing that the "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" star is a curmudgeon of the highest order, Oldman discussed his new movie's apocalyptic themes, before being asked about his own view of the future.

“I think we’re up shit creek without a paddle or a compass,” the 56-year-old actor told Playboy, before going on to lament the rise of "helicopter parents," and children that believe that they are the "center of the fucking universe."

Oldman went on to say he thinks "political correctness is crap," and launched into a defense of Gibson and Baldwin.

"I think it’s like, take a fucking joke. Get over it ... No one can take a joke anymore," he told the magazine, later adding, "I don’t know about Mel. He got drunk and said a few things, but we’ve all said those things. We’re all fucking hypocrites."

He continued: "That’s what I think about it. The policeman who arrested him has never used the word nigger or that fucking 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."

Oldman went on to defend Baldwin's repeated use of homophobic slurs, before explaining that Gibson is an "outcast" and a "leper" because Hollywood is a "town that's run by Jews."

"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 fucking kraut” or “Fuck 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."

From there, Oldman freely admits that the interview had gone, "very badly," and remarked, "You have to edit and cut half of what I’ve said, because it’s going to make me sound like a bigot."

A little too late, but then he returned to his problem with political correctness, and he made sure the interview was not one people would soon forget.

"People in this culture are able to hide behind comedy and satire to say things we can’t ordinarily say, because it’s all too politically correct," he explained.

He continued, "[If] I called Nancy Pelosi a cunt -- and I’ll go one better, a fucking useless cunt -- 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 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."

How Oldman's publicist allowed this interview to continue is a mystery, but he then complained that political correctness also affects awards season. "At the Oscars, if you didn’t vote for '12 Years a Slave' you were a racist," he said. "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."

UPDATE: The Anti-Defamation League issued a statement in response to Oldman's remarks in Playboy:

“Gary Oldman’s remarks irresponsibly feed into a classic anti-Semitic canard about supposed Jewish control of Hollywood and the film industry,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "He should know better than to repeat and give credence to tired anti-Semitic tropes. Mel Gibson’s ostracization in Hollywood was not a matter of being ‘politically incorrect,’ as Mr. Oldman suggests, but of paying the consequences for outing himself as a bigot and a hater. It is disturbing that Mr. Oldman appears to have bought into Mr. Gibson’s warped and prejudiced world view.”

UPDATE 3: The ADL has responded to Oldman's apology, calling it "insufficient."

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