Invited to comment on if it was fair that filmgoers may have avoided The Birth of a Nation due to the controversy surrounding Parker, Gibson said: “I don’t think it’s fair.
Mel Gibson has defended The Birth of a Nation director Nate Parker over the fallout from the latter’s arrest and trial on rape charges in 1999, which has overshadowed the release of Parker’s film.
Parker was accused of rape in 1999 along with Jean Celestin (who shares a story credit with Parker for The Birth of a Nation) by a fellow student at Pennsylvania State University.
The fact that he has to live with that stigma, and that it affects the art he does, is unfair.”