Do we like Mel Gibson?
Our score: 3 out of 10. A 3: real harm in his own reported words and acts, little dated good we could verify, and a company-keeping question mark.
Gibson is the actor-turned-director whose follow-up to The Passion of the Christ has been shooting in Italy. In January 2025 Donald Trump named him one of three Hollywood “special ambassadors”, which put his whole history back in the headlines. That history is the reason this card is not a quick one.
The big stories are old but they stick. Police reports from his 2006 drink-driving arrest, as cited in the media, say he made antisemitic remarks, and he apologised, saying “I am not a bigot”. In 2010 recordings surfaced of rants at his then-girlfriend, which Media Matters describes as racist and misogynistic. An apology is where a story starts for us, not where it ends.
The legal chapter: in 2011 he pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery of his former girlfriend, to end the case before trial. He got 36 months of probation and 52 weeks of counselling and served no jail time. In 2014 a Los Angeles judge vacated that conviction after he had completed the terms, and the report doesn't say why.
On LGBTQ+ people, the record is an allegation, not a campaign. In 2020 Winona Ryder told The Sunday Times that, at a party around 1996, he asked a gay friend of hers whether he would get AIDS. His representative flatly denied it, saying “This is 100% untrue”. We found nothing from Gibson on trans people either way, and nothing on climate or vaccines in a source we could open.
Then there's the company and the conspiracy question. Variety reported in February 2026 that Italian press, confirmed by sources, say excommunicated archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò has been giving Gibson input on the new film. Variety describes Viganò as a critic of gay rights and a supporter of anti-vaccine positions, and says Gibson had publicly defended him. Salon's June 2025 piece also notes Gibson sharing conspiracy theories about the LA wildfires and taking the Trump appointment. Gibson's side hasn't answered Variety on Viganò.
The fresh one is the Fan Expo clip. He was filmed making nonsensical hand movements behind the sign language interpreter introducing him. Gibson told TMZ his mind was “all over the place” on stage and that thoughtless idiocy was displayed. Some online called it overreaction to a bad joke, others pointed to his history. Where you land depends on whether you read it as a gag or as mocking a language people rely on.