Mel Gibson has apologized for mocking an American Sign Language interpreter while at a fan convention.
Over the weekend, Gibson attended Fan Expo Canada and shortly after taking the stage to talk during a scheduled event, he started making gestures behind the interpreter’s back as they signed in ASL. Brief video of the moment started making the Internet rounds as people started calling Gibson out for the mockery.
On Monday, the “Braveheart” actor apologized for the moment and assured there was “no intended maliciousness.”
“Sometimes when you get pushed out on a stage in a spotlight your mind is all over the place, and sometimes spontaneous thoughtless idiocy is displayed – there was no intended maliciousness attached, and I certainly apologize to anyone who was upset by it,” Gibson said in a statement obtained by TheWrap.
The brief video of Gibson was taken down but plenty of people online clocked the mockery and were quick to call him out.
“Fan Expo Canada owes the interpreter and the deaf community a sincere, profound apology for inviting Mel Gibson to attend knowing he’s a bigot and misogynist,” one user wrote. “His actions were grossly disrespectful and inappropriate towards her, and ableist to the deaf and hard-of-hearing community.”
Another user said: “Always disappointing to see my language mocked. We work hard to get our language recognized and be taken seriously.”
Gibson is no stranger to issuing public apologies after controversies. In 2006, he said he was “ashamed” for the antisemitic remarks he made to a Jewish police officer who pulled him over and arrested him on suspicion of DUI. In 2010, he was embroiled in another controversy when his then-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva released a recording she had made of him making racist comments and threatening her. Gibson later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor battery charge stemming from the incident.
He has since rejoined the public spotlight as his new movie “The Resurrection of Christ” — a sequel to his 2004 film “The Passion of the Christ” — is slated for release in two parts in 2027.
