Filmmaker and actor Mark Duplass won’t be seeing “Daddy’s Home 2” this weekend, and in a new tweet, he’s made his disdain clear to his 400,000 Twitter followers. Instead, Duplass would rather see one of many other great movies also on the big screen this weekend, and perhaps his followers will be encouraged to follow suit.
I like many of the people involved so I hate to do this but I must say NOPE NO WAY to “Daddy’s Home 2” bc it stars Mel Gibson and it’s 2017 and there are plenty of great movies to see this weekend in theaters.
— Mark Duplass (@MarkDuplass) November 9, 2017
Gibson — an Oscar-winning director and producer for “Braveheart,” plus one of the most commercially-successful actors of the ’80s and ’90s — has been the source of several off-screen controversies during his decades in the industry. In 1991, he made disparaging comments about gay men when speaking to the Spanish newspaper El País, which he defended in Playboy years later before ultimately apologizing at the end of the decade, blaming alcohol (Gibson told The New York Daily News last fall that he’s been sober for a decade; he was previously charged with three DUIs, including two in a three-week period in the summer 2006).
At the time of the second of those arrests, TMZ reported that Gibson referred to a female sergeant as “sugar tits” and also said, “The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world;” he apologized multiple times, explaining that the remarks were “blurted out at a moment of insanity.”
In a leaked 2010 audio recording of a conversation he had with Oksana Grigorieva, the mother of the eighth of his nine children, Gibson deployed racial slurs against African Americans and Mexicans; he later plead no contest to a charge of misdemeanor battery against Grigorieva. Duplass notes that his lack of support of Gibson is partially predicated on that he’s had “many incidents over time” and his “personal sense is he’s sorry he got caught, not sorry he did those things.”
when a person has that many incidents over time i find it hard to support them. my personal sense is he’s sorry he got caught, not sorry he did those things. i could be wrong. but i’d still rather support people/storytellers that i admire.
— Mark Duplass (@MarkDuplass) November 9, 2017
The responses to Duplass’s original tweet were fairly split between those who agreed and dissented, with some calling the post “lame” and Duplass a “hypocrite.” One user referenced Gibson’s recent work with the Survivor Mitzvah Project, a charity that assists Holocaust survivors.
No room for forgiveness in Hollywood I guess.
— Joseph Carney Sr (@happyjose) November 9, 2017
This is the height of hypocrisy. Go through all the people you worked with in your career. Pretty sure there were some cretins you turned a blind eye to.
— Joe Borri (@JoeBorri) November 9, 2017
I️ like you Mark, but seriously give it a rest.
— Nate Saienni (@NateSaienni) November 9, 2017
When asked whether he would ever collaborate with Harvey Weinstein or Kevin Spacey following the sexual harassment and assault allegations made against them this fall, Duplass heavily implied that his answer was no.
we can’t support these people or these movies. period. just my opinion of course. best to u.
— Mark Duplass (@MarkDuplass) November 9, 2017
This isn’t the first time the multi-hyphenate Duplass — of late the co-creator and executive producer of the HBO series “Room 104” — has tweeted about Gibson; he made a cheeky “Teen Wolf” reference in October 2016.
there’s something going on here pic.twitter.com/TAOZYXAizp
— Mark Duplass (@MarkDuplass) October 18, 2016
Gibson-directed “Hacksaw Ridge” won two of the six Academy Awards it vied for this year. Meanwhile, “Daddy’s Home 2” — out in theaters tomorrow — also stars Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, and John Lithgow. Its predecessor had a Christmas 2015 opening weekend that exceeded $38M, and made nearly $243M at the international box office. Both films in the series were directed by Sean Anders.
Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
