In
an interview with men's fashion glossy GQ, actress Winona Ryder
recalls a drunken Mel Gibson telling an anti-gay joke and disparaging
Jewish people.
The 39-year-old appears in Director
Darren Aronofsky's much heralded thriller Black Swan, which
stars Natalie Portman as a lesbian ballerina. Portman
is considered a leading contender for an Oscar nomination.
“I remember, like, fifteen years ago,
I was at one of those big Hollywood parties,” Ryder said. “And
he [Mel Gibson] was really drunk. I was with my friend, who's gay.
He made a really horrible gay joke. And somehow it came up that I
was Jewish. He said something about 'oven dodgers,' but I didn't get
it. I'd never heard that before. It was just this weird, weird
moment. I was like, 'He's anti-Semitic and he's homophobic.' No one
believed me!”
In Black Swan, Ryder's character
refuses to go quietly when she is replaced by Portman's younger
ballerina. Ryder said she could see parallels in the movie to her
own life as a Hollywood actress.
“I thought it was a cool parallel,”
she said. “Being replaced by the young thing. I know that
definitely happens in Hollywood. It's harder to find good roles, and
suddenly there's new girls. I'm at that age I've been warned my
whole life about.”