Mel Gibson Says Winona Ryder Is Lying About ‘Oven Dodger’ Remark

HOLLYWOOD, CA (JTA) — Actor Mel Gibson said Winona Ryder’s allegations that he called the Jewish actress an “oven dodger” at a party 25 years ago “is 100% untrue.”

Ryder, who first opened up about the experience in a 2010 interview with GQ, spoke about it again in an interview published this week in the London-based Sunday Times in which she talked about her experiences with anti-Semitism in Hollywood.

“This is 100% untrue. She lied about it over a decade ago, when she talked to the press, and she’s lying about it now,” a representative for Gibson said in a statement to Variety.

He also said Gibson did not try to apologize for the remarks, as Ryder said in the interview.

“She lied about him trying to apologize to her back then,” the representative said. ‘He did reach out to her many years ago to confront her about her lies and she refused to address it with him.”

Meanwhile, TheWrap first reported on Tuesday that Gibson will not be reprising his role in Netflix’s “Chicken Run” sequel, citing unnamed sources.

Gibson’s career soured after a 2006 DUI arrest captured on tape in which the actor-director shouted anti-Semitic epithets at a Jewish traffic officer, saying “The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world!”