Updated

Mel Gibson is trying to dispel a rumor he started about himself.

When he was about 25 he says he blurted out in an interview that his father moved the whole family to Australia so that his sons wouldn't be drafted into the Vietnam War. Unfortunately, it stuck and he has been trying to clear it up ever since.

The truth of the matter is that his father had been injured at work and they had family in Australia.

"Even if you moved to Australia you could still be drafted," Gibson said. Fortunately, Vietnam finished by the time he was 16.

His new movie We Were Soldiers is about one of the roughest battles during the Vietnam War. It's in theaters Friday.