Jodie on Mel: People Say Nasty Things When Drunk

Beaver director Jodie Foster says she has no regrets about casting her old friend Mel Gibson as her co-star, despite the star's headline-grabbing personal life. Foster says she knows moviegoers might be wary of Gibson—who pleaded guilty to domestic abuse last week—but she's willing to defend him. "People have struggles in life," she tells the Los Angeles Times. "Most of us don't have ours expressed on the Internet. I actually don't feel his struggles are that unusual. People say nasty things to cops when they're drunk."

"He has been through a tornado of crisis in his life and all I wish for him is that he has the strength to come out on the other side," she said, speaking the morning after the movie's sold-out SXSW premiere. "Whatever happens as a consequence of his actions, he'll have to accept that." The Beaver—in which Gibson plays a depressed dad who uses a hand puppet to communicate—was filmed in 2009 but not released until now because of Gibson's troubles. The SXSW audience quite liked the move, though critics weren't so keen. Click here for that story. (More The Beaver stories.)