Mel Gibson Inspired Robert Downey Jr. to Become a Family Man

As a father of nine kids, Mel Gibson considers himself an expert in the parenting department. The Braveheart actor recalled a memory between his children and friend Robert Downey Jr.

“I was in some shabby little room with all my children,” Mel, 68, told Esquire on Monday, April 8. “I had this tribe of kids, and they were all kind of youngish, and they were lying all over me, watching some crappy movie on TV and laughing. And Robert came in and sat and watched the TV, but I think he was watching us.”

Mel welcomed kids Hannah, Christian, Edward, William, Louie, Milo and Thomas with his ex-wife, Robyn Moore Gibson, before their 2011 divorce. The Lethal Weapon alum welcomed daughter Lucia with ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva and son Lars with current partner Rosalind Ross.

“When he got up to leave, I went out with him and he said, ‘Man, how do you do that? You’re like a saint.’ He looked at that in some kind of wonder,” the film director told the outlet of his fond memory. “I think he really wanted that sense of family.”

Robert, 59, became a dad in 1993 when he welcomed son Indigo with his first wife, Deborah Falconer. Their marriage ended in 2004, and he went on to marry his second wife, Susan Downey, the following year.

The Iron Man actor became a dad twice more, welcoming son Exton in 2012 and daughter Avri in 2014 with Susan. In addition to fatherhood, Robert just won his first Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in Oppenheimer at the 96th annual ceremony in March.

At the ceremony, host Jimmy Kimmel made light of Robert’s past drug addiction during a joke in his opening monologue. “I don’t care. I love Jimmy Kimmel,” Robert told the outlet of the moment that divided the internet and viewers at home. “I think he’s a national treasure.”

Susan, 50, has been his rock through everything he has accomplished in the past two decades. Robert revealed that he and his wife enjoy going on walks together for heartfelt conversations whenever they get the chance.

“Trying to figure out where we’re at, what’s pissing us off, what are we afraid of, what do we want, what will bring us closer together, how do we measure ourselves against relationships that we define as exemplary and not be repeaters or over-emulate? How do we want to shape our life?” he said of the interactions.