Acclaimed British actor and filmmaker Gary Oldman is renowned for his versatility and intense character portrayals. He gained prominence with roles in Sid and Nancy and Dracula.
With a career spanning over 40 years and featuring diverse roles in The Dark Knight trilogy and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – for which he received an Academy Award nomination – Gary Oldman cemented his status as one of cinema’s most talented and transformative actors by winning an Oscar for Darkest Hour, playing Winston Churchill.
More recently, his portrayal of Jackson Lamb in the Apple TV series Slow Horses, based on Mick Herron’s novels, is a vivid illustration of the actor’s profound understanding and execution of complex characters.
His insight into Lamb’s persona is revealing: “Portraying a character with an overtly aggressive demeanour and a knack for shaming others in public can be surprisingly freeing.
“Despite his confrontational nature, I think Jackson Lamb is at least guided by a robust moral compass,” says the New Cross-born actor. “This intrinsic morality is what makes him – a character who doesn’t conform to political correctness – somehow endearing and likable.”
In reflecting on his career, Gary Oldman reveals humble surprise at the impact he has had on other actors. “It’s always nice to hear you have influenced others, but I think it takes you a while to truly believe that is the case.
“At 65, I’m just about at the point where I can accept the praise, I think! It’s difficult not to when big stars like Ryan Gosling or Tom Hardy or Michael Fassbender say, ‘You’re why I’m here’ – I’m amazed because I look at them and the work they’re doing and how special it is.”
“I’m always flattered and mystified.”
Yet for all the praise, the actor remains someone who refuses to dwell on his past roles.
“I don’t really look at old work. It’s too much for me to look in the mirror now, let alone see how youthful and full of life I was before,” he laughs.
Gary Oldman these days has full separation over his roles – “I take it all a little less seriously than I used to” – yet in the past the actor admits he would take a lot of his work home with him.
“With the roles that are more emotionally physical, they might be great characters and great scenes to play, but I would always have a cloud over my day.
“You get used to the demands, of course; but sometimes it’s nice to come away from the day fresh and not feeling drained.”
His career choices have been deeply influenced by his personal life, particularly his role as a single father. These decisions, while perhaps not the highlights of his career, were made out of a sense of duty and love.
He admits: “On the whole, I’m incredibly blessed, very fortuitously in my line of work and I will never say otherwise. But with the ups, big ups like this movie, this moment, there have been work that I had to do for just the cheque, because I was raising my boys by myself.
“I had to be there for them. I couldn’t be leaving for months at a time to shoot in Romania or South Africa, So I had to say no. I needed to be present for my kids. So that’s what I did, I took jobs that meant I could be at home for the school run, to be there to pay the mortgage. Maybe not my finest moments but I had responsibility over anything else.”
