Actress Jodie Foster has defended troubled star Mel Gibson, saying she would love him for the rest of her life although he is “not saintly.”

"He's so incredibly loving and sensitive, he really is," she told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview Thursday. "He is the most loved actor I have ever worked with on a movie.”

“And he's not saintly, and he's got a big mouth, and he'll do gross things your nephew would do. But I knew the minute I met him that I would love him the rest of my life," she added.

Foster directs and co-stars with fellow Oscar-winner Gibson in their upcoming movie "The Beaver." In the film, Gibson plays a troubled husband and executive who adopts a beaver hand-puppet as his sole means of communicating.

"God, I love that man. The performance he gave in this movie, I will always be grateful for. He brought a lifetime of pain to the character that we've been talking about for years, that I knew was part of his psyche and who he is. It's part of him that is beautiful and that I want people to know, too. I can't ever regret that," said Foster.

Gibson's career has struggled since his 2006 arrest for drunk driving, which exploded into a major scandal because of anti-Semitic remarks he made to a highway patrol officer.

The star of "Braveheart" -- for which Gibson won two Oscars in 1996 -- had no starring role on the big screen from 2005 until last year's thriller "Edge of Darkness."