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Andrew Garfield was featured in 2016’s Hacksaw Ridge, the Mel Gibson-directed, Best Picture-nominated film about Desmond T. Doss, who won the Congressional Medal of Honor for his service in World War II despite refusing to bear arms.
That film was considered something of a comeback for Mel Gibson, as he hadn’t directed a movie in a decade due to the fallout from the anti-semitic comments he made in 2006. Gibson also had a similar controversy in 2010 when he used the N-word in a voicemail to his then-partner Oksana Grigorieva.
Since then, though, Gibson hasn’t directed another movie (until 2025’s Flight Risk with Mark Wahlberg) and has largely starred in direct-to-on-demand B-movies.
Garfield, however, believes that Gibson deserves to be given another chance, arguing that “none of us are infallible” and that people like Gibson “can get help.”
“I learned a lot, actually. I learned that people can heal. I learned that people can change, that people can get help. I learned that everyone deserves respect,” Garfield told People while promoting his new romantic drama We Live In Time, which he stars in alongside Florence Pugh.
“And that people deserve second chances, third chances, fourth chances. That none of us are infallible.”
Gibson is certainly getting that chance as his next film Flight Risk stars Mark Wahlberg, Michelle Dockery, and Topher Grace, and is being released in theaters by Lionsgate on January 24.
As for Garfield, We Live In Time, which also stars Pugh, Adams James, Marama Corlett, Aoife Hinds, Heather Craney, and more, is now playing in select movie theaters in the United States.