Gary Oldman is in the upcoming Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, but it’s his very vocal rants in a new Playboy interview that are what’s going to be getting the real attention as the film’s premiere approaches.
Oldman basically comes out saying that we’ve all been too hard on guys like Mel Gibson and Alec Baldwin because we’re too politically correct as a society. In other words, using anti-Semitic and homophobic comments really aren’t that bad, you guys.
PLAYBOY: Mel Gibson?
OLDMAN: Yeah.
PLAYBOY: What do you think about what he’s gone through these past few years?
OLDMAN: [Fidgets in his seat] I just think political correctness is crap. That’s what I think about it. I think it’s like, take a f–king joke. Get over it. I heard about a science teacher who was teaching that God made the earth and God made everything and that if you believe anything else you’re stupid. A Buddhist kid in the class got very upset about this, so the parents went in and are suing the school! The school is changing its curriculum! I thought, All right, go to the school and complain about it and then that’s the end of it. But they’re going to sue! No one can take a joke anymore.
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–ger 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.
PLAYBOY: The three-letter one?
OLDMAN: 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 f–king kraut” or “F–k 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, “Isn’t that shocking?” [smiles wryly] All right. Shall I stop talking now? What else can we discuss?
PLAYBOY: What do you think of the pope?
OLDMAN: Oh, f–k the pope! [laughs and puts head in hands] So this interview has gone very badly. You have to edit and cut half of what I’ve said, because it’s going to make me sound like a bigot.
Oldman also ripped most of his own career, denigrated the state of society by saying it’s “gone to hell” (thanks, reality TV), said “at the Oscars, if you didn’t vote for 12 Years a Slave you were a racist,” and threw in a little politics just for good measure.
Seriously, there is so much batshittery in this interview the only real way to get the full impact of it is to read the entire thing. It’s mind-blowing and bordering on career suicide.
So how bad do you want to see Dawn of the Planet of the Apes now? Myself? Not quite as much as I did before.
Related: Samuel L. Jackson’s Playboy interview is an absolute must-read
Playboy Interview: Gary Oldman [Playboy]
Gary Oldman image by Joe Seer/Shutterstock