Although everyone in Hollywood has an opinion on the Oscars Will Smith/Chris Rock incident, one person who seemingly didn’t want to get involved in a discussion about it is Mel Gibson. In a recent interview about his new movie Father Stu, Gibson was asked by Jesse Watters how he felt he would have been treated if he had been in Will Smith’s place. Within moments, Gibson’s off-screen publicist ended the interview despite Watters attempting to get his bizarre question answered.
This weekend, the Grammys took several shots at the previous weekend’s Oscars, with presenters making sure they “would be keeping names out of mouths” and one presenter even coming on stage wearing a safety helmet. With opinions coming in from all sides, as well as the fast-changing actions of Smith himself, which led to his resignation from The Academy, it would not have been surprising for Fox News’s Jesse Watters to want to get the opinion of a star like Gibson, but his question was not actually about his opinion on the incident, but seemed to be angled more at Gibson’s personal history of alleged domestic abuse.
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Five minutes into the interview, Watters said: “You understand it probably better than a lot of people, with your career. I was wondering if, you know, you had been the one that jumped up out of his seat and slapped Chris Rock, if you would have been treated the same way, Mel?”
Gibson was seen hanging his head, then laughing and pointing at the camera, while almost immediately, a voice from off-camera told the host that their time was up and thanked him for his time. Although Watters attempted to continue the conversation, it was clear that the interview was over.
Mel Gibson Has Only Recently Returned to Hollywood Following a Decade of Being Out of Favor
While on the surface, the question, though strange in its hypothetical nature, is seemingly not anything that should see an interview being ended so abruptly, it is possible that it was taken as being directly linked to Gibson’s past legal and personal issues. Between 2006 and 2010, Gibson found himself in a bad place, with arrests for DUI, charges of domestic abuse, and reports of racism derailing his career.
Ten years later, Gibson’s 2016 movie Hacksaw Ridge gained a lot of attention after its two Oscar nominations, which led more people to want to work with the actor again. Gibson has a few new movies in production and is also set to star in the prequel TV event to the John Wick series of movies, The Continental. With his personal issues seemingly very much in the past for the actor, the question by Watters, whether intentional or not, clearly seemed to hit the wrong note with Gibson and his team. While Gibson may have his own opinions about the Will Smith incident, this was clearly a lesson in how not to find out what that is.
