Todd Phillips, director of “The Hangover” and its upcoming sequel, praised Mel Gibson as an actor but defended his decision to fire Gibson from his small role in “The Hangover 2,” Entertainment Tonight reported Tuesday.
Gibson was reportedly furious at producers of the sequel for firing him. His cameo as a tattoo artist in “The Hangover 2” was seen as the first step in a Hollywood comeback for Gibson after a legal battle with ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva, who alleges he assaulted and threatened her.
Grigorieva says Gibson punched her twice in the head and broke two of her teeth as she held their infant daughter Lucia.
Zach Galifianakis, who starred in “The Hangover” and returned for the sequel, intimated to a podcast interviewer that he was “in a deep protest right now with a movie I’m working on, up in arms about something. But I can’t get the guys to [listen] … I’m not making any leeway.”
Galifianakis did not mention “The Hangover 2” or Gibson by name in the interview, but Phillips said the decision to fire Gibson was the result of protests from the cast and crew.
“He’s one of our finest actors and, quite honestly, one of our finest directors,” Phillips said of Gibson at the 14th Annual Hollywood Awards Monday night. “But ‘The Hangover 2’ is a family … and as much as I loved the idea, a lot of people didn’t … I didn’t want anything to come in between that family.”
Gibson was replaced in “The Hangover 2” by Liam Neeson.