Gary Oldman followed Jonah Hill‘s lead, by making a public apology for his ill-chosen words during a promotional appearance on a late night talk show. Appearing on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” Wednesday night, Oldman spoke from the heart about his Playboy interview, admitting that he’d said “some things that were poorly considered.”
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“Once I saw it in print, I saw that it was insensitive, pernicious and ill-informed,” the actor said. Echoing Hill’s sentiments after he slung a homophobic slur at a paparazzo earlier this month, Oldman said, “Words have meaning and they carry weight. And they carry on long after you’ve said them.”
Oldman came under fire for defending the prejudicial comments of Mel Gibson and Alec Baldwin during the Playboy interview. “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,” Oldman said in the interview, trying to speak on the hypocrisy of political correctness, of persecuting others for things that most people have probably done as well.
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In defense of Baldwin, Oldman said, “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.”
“I don’t condone or excuse the words that I used in any context,” Oldman said on Kimmel. “I just basically shouldn’t have used them, but I did and I have deeply injured and wounded a great many people.” He went on to say he wanted especially to apologize to his younger fans, feeling that he’d let them down with his words.
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“I am a public figure. I should be an example and inspiration and I am an a-hole. I am 56. I should know better,” Oldman said. “I extend my apology and my love and best wishes to my fan base.”
Oldman made a lengthy apology to the Anti-Defamation League, which came out quickly against his comments in the interview. In his statement, he said that he was “deeply remorseful” for his comments, and that seeing them in print made him understand how “insensitive they may be.” But the Anti-Defamation League deemed that apology insufficient.