"I got the tweet at the same time as all of you and was just as surprised. Nevertheless, I heed the call,” said Gibson in a statement.

President-elect Donald Trump’s naming of Mel Gibson as one of his “special envoys” to Hollywood surprised many, including Gibson himself. Trump on Thursday said Gibson and his fellow pro-Trump actors Sylvester Stallone and Jon Voight would act as his “eyes and ears” in the industry.

The US president-elect made the actors his "special envoys" to Hollywood, which he said had lost business to foreign countries and needed to be "bigger, better and stronger" than ever before