When Robert Downey Jr. was honored in 2011 at the 25th American Cinematheque Awards, he asked Mel Gibson to present his award and Downey Jr. used the opportunity to advocate for the then-disgraced Gibson. “I asked Mel to present this award to me for a reason,” Downey Jr. began in his acceptance speech, “because when I couldn’t get sober he told me not to give up hope and he urged me to find my faith. It didn’t have to be his or anyone else’s as long as it was rooted in forgiveness.”
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Downey Jr. told the story of how he couldn’t get hired and how Gibson cast him as the lead in a movie that was originally intended for Gibson himself. He said that Gibson provided him with housing and food at this time, and told him to embrace the ugliest parts of himself, calling the process “hugging the cactus,” in order to turn his life around. With this history of help in mind, Downey Jr. asked Hollywood to forgive Gibson.
