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Mel Gibson spoke publicly for the first time about his war of words with screenwriter Joe Eszterhas on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno Friday night, showing a sense of humor about his now infamous rants, which have been caught on tape on myriad occasions.

"Maybe you don't know this about me, but I've got a little bit of a temper," joked Mel, who did not seem to take kindly to the fact that Eszterhas recorded him in the privacy of his home: "Has it really come to the place where you can't blow off steam in your own home, even if you're justified?"

Related: Mel Gibson Costa Rica Rant Released 

Eszterhas recently released a recording of Mel exploding into an expletive-filled rant at his Costa Rica estate. The recording followed a bombastic, nine-page letter that Eszterhas wrote to Gibson that was leaked to the press, to which Mel responded that the Basic Instinct screenwriter had failed to deliver a worthy first draft of his planned "Jewish Braveheart"movie, The Maccabees.

"If he put half as much time and effort and creativity and imagination into a screenplay, which he was supposed to write, as he did into that letter, we wouldn't be having this conversation," said Mel. "It's kind of like you build a house, you hire a guy to put a roof on it, he comes over and eats lunch and talks about the roof, and then you get rained on all night. Wouldn't you be kind of peeved?"

Video: Mel Stuck South of the Border in 'Gringo'

Mel was also on the show to talk about his new movie, Get the Gringo, out on VOD via DirecTV on May 1.