Mel Gibson Has ‘Done a Lot of Healing’: ‘He Has a Very, Very Big, Compassionate Heart’

Mel Gibson has “done a lot of beautiful healing with himself” following his 2006 DUI arrest, Andrew Garfield said in a new interview.

Garfield, 41, recalled working with the director on 2016’s Hacksaw Ridge during a chat with People published on Thursday, October 17. “And thank God,” he said of Gibson’s “healing” journey. “Because he’s an amazing filmmaker, and I think he deserves to make films. He deserves to tell stories, because he has a very, very big, compassionate heart.”

The Social Network actor opened up about what he learned from working with Gibson, 68, on Hacksaw Ridge.

“I learned a lot, actually. I learned that people can heal. I learned that people can change, that people can get help. I learned that everyone deserves respect,” he said. “And that people deserve second chances, third chances, fourth chances. That none of us are infallible.”

Garfield went on to say that Gibson was “the kind of director that would come from behind the monitors, just with his eyes wet.”

“He knew when it was right and he knew when it wasn’t right,” the Amazing Spider-Man actor shared. “And I just really trusted him. And he’s a visceral storyteller so he can feel … He’s like he can’t help but feel everything. He’s a real empathetic guy.”

Gibson directed Hacksaw Ridge a decade after he was arrested in July 2006 on suspicion of driving while intoxicated along the Pacific Coast highway in Malibu, California. The Braveheart actor pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of driving with an elevated blood-alcohol level and was sentenced to three years of probation, per People. Two other charges, of driving under the influence and having an open container of liquor in his car, were dismissed.

He was ordered to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings five times a week for four and a half months and then three Alcoholics Anonymous meetings per week for an additional seven and a half months. Gibson was hit with a $1,300 fine and had his driver’s license restricted for 90 days. The Academy Award winner was ordered to enroll in an alcohol abuse program for three months.

Gibson came under fire after making anti-semitic remarks during his arrest, which were documented on the police report. He spoke out in a public statement after his comments made headlines.

“There is no excuse, nor should there be any tolerance, for anyone who thinks or expresses any kind of anti-Semitic remark,” he said in the statement in August 2006. “I want to apologize specifically to everyone in the Jewish community for the vitriolic and harmful words that I said to a law enforcement officer the night I was arrested on a DUI charge.”

“I am a public person, and when I say something, either articulated and thought out or blurted out in a moment of insanity, my words carry weight in the public arena,” he said. “As a result, I must assume personal responsibility for my words and apologize directly to those who have been hurt and offended by those words.”

Gibson’s drunk driving conviction was expunged in October 2009 after completing the terms of his three-year probation. In October 2016, Gibson publicly revealed that he had marked 10 years of sobriety.

“I am a member of [the] 12-step program and I achieved sobriety like that,” he said during an appearance on Australia’s Sunday Night Channel 7. “I’ve got 10 years of sobriety under my belt.”