Joseph L. 🏴‍☠️

Mel Gibson paid Robert Downey Jr.'s insurance bond when no insurer would cover him. Eight years later, with Gibson's own career in ruins, Downey asked Hollywood to forgive him. In 2003, Downey was coming off years of drug arrests, and no insurance company would cover him on a film set. Gibson, a producer on The Singing Detective, covered the insurance bond himself so Downey could play the lead. Downey has said Gibson also told him not to give up hope and urged him to find his faith. The only thing Gibson asked in return was that someday Downey help the next guy. In 2006, Gibson was arrested in Malibu, and his own career collapsed. In October 2011, Downey received the American Cinematheque Award and asked Gibson to present it. In the video below, Downey tells the room why he chose him. About that old favor, he says Gibson "didn't imagine the next guy would be him." Then he urged Hollywood to forgive his friend. Gibson later told Esquire it was "a bold and generous and kind gesture." Did Downey owe Gibson that speech, or was it a risk nobody else in Hollywood was willing to take?