Gibson, who recently lost his home in the Los Angeles wildfires, said in a statement that he received the news “at the same time as all of you and was just as surprised.”

“Nevertheless, I heed the call,” said the director and “Braveheart” star. “My duty as a citizen is to give and help and insight I can. Any chance the position comes with an Ambassador’s residence?”

Gibson is the director of the 2004 film “The Passion of the Christ,” which Jewish groups said promoted antisemitic tropes about Jews being responsible for Jesus’s death. Gibson recently said he will release a sequel to the movie and filming will begin next year.

In 2006, the “Lethal Weapon” star when on an anti-Jewish rant while being arrested for speeding and driving under the influence. He told the arresting officer “f—king Jews. The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.” The actor later apologized for his comments.

In 2020, Jewish actress Winona Ryder claimed that Gibson once called her an “oven dodger” — a reference to the crematoria at Nazi concentration camps during World War II — and asked her friend who was gay, “Oh wait, am I gonna get AIDS?” Gibson denied Ryder’s accusations. He has been accused of antisemitism other times as well and was caught on tape making racist and misogynistic remarks to his ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva. Gibson’s father, Hutton Gibson, was an antisemitic Holocaust denier.

On the flip side, Voight is an avid supporter of Israel and the Jewish community, and said he feels a “responsibility” to combat antisemitism. His father used to work at a Jewish country club in Scarsdale, New York. Voight, who was raised Catholic, said the kindness that Jewish members of the club showed his father and how they embraced him, even though he was not Jewish, helped develop Voight’s love of the Jewish community.

The “National Treasure” and “Ray Donovan” star condemned Hamas-led terrorists for perpetrating the deadly attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Last year, the Academy Award-winning actor criticized his daughter, actress and filmmaker Angelina Jolie, claiming she is “ignorant” and uniformed about Israel, and “influenced by antisemitic people,” after she criticized Israel’s military actions targeting terrorists in the Gaza Strip during the Israel-Hamas war. He has also said that he is “very disappointed” in Jolie’s anti-Israel stance. He previously bashed the United Nations as well, saying that although it claims to care about human rights, when it comes to the actions of Israel, “it’s just anti-Israel bashing.”