GARY OLDMAN a Candid Conversation with One of Hollywood’S Greatest Actors About Acting, Political Correctness and His Defense of Mel Gibson and Alec Baldwin
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PLAYBOY INTERVIEW: GARY OLDMAN A candid conversation with one of Hollywood’s greatest actors about acting, political correctness and his defense of Mel Gibson and Alec Baldwin When actors list other actors they deeply ad- punk-rock biopic Sid & Nancy and, the fol- Urbanski might hog the spotlight, but Oldman mire, Gary Oldman’s name inevitably shoots lowing year, in Prick Up Your Ears, in which clearly saw the interview as a rare opportunity to the top. Sid Vicious, Dracula, Beethoven, Oldman plays gay playwright Joe Orton. But to speak his mind like never before.” Lee Harvey Oswald, The Dark Knight’s it was portraying Oswald to newsreel preci- Commissioner Gordon, Harry Potter’s Sirius sion in Oliver Stone’s JFK in 1991 that had PLAYBOY: Let’s begin with an impressive Black—Oldman’s range is so staggering, a critics—and other actors— calling him Hol- factoid. Based on lead and supporting video meme went around recently called “20 lywood’s best new talent. But life wasn’t al- roles, you are one of the highest-grossing Gary Oldman Accents in 60 Seconds.” Google ways rosy. Years of hard drinking, four mar- actors in movie history, with films earn- it in awe. He’s Meryl Streep for dudes. riages (including one to Uma Thurman) and ing nearly $10 billion at the box office Like all great character actors, the man is a few behind-the-scenes controversies kept worldwide. That must feel amazing. less familiar than the roles he plays, which him lying low. Of being famous, Oldman, OLDMAN: I suppose it should. makes sitting down with him so intriguing. who has three children, once said, “I haven’t PLAYBOY: Any working actor would want His films have grossed more than Leo’s, got any energy for it.” a career like yours. Will’s, Brad’s or Denzel’s, yet Oldman re- Contributing Editor David Hochman, who OLDMAN: Except me. mains as blank as a stare from George Smiley, interviewed Jonah Hill last month, sat down PLAYBOY: Wait. You’re not happy with the “breathtakingly ordinary” British intelli- with Oldman over two consecutive days in a your career? gence officer Oldman plays in Tinker Tailor suite at the L’Ermitage hotel in Beverly Hills, OLDMAN: It’s not that so much as there’s Soldier Spy. That part earned him a 2012 a venue that stirred certain unchaste memories a perfectionism with me. Academy Award nomination for best actor. for the actor (stay tuned). Hochman also dis- PLAYBOY: When you look back at your This July he leads the human resistance in covered that hanging with Oldman is a two- credits, what makes you say, “I could Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. fer. “Gary’s longtime manager and producing have done better”? Born Leonard Gary Oldman in London on partner, Douglas Urbanski, sat in with us and OLDMAN: Most of it. March 21, 1958, he grew up working class hung on our every word,” Hochman says. “If PLAYBOY: Really? You don’t like Sid & and dropped out of school at 16. His father the name sounds familiar, it’s probably from Nancy? abandoned the family when Gary was young, hearing Urbanski on conservative talk radio, OLDMAN: I don’t like myself in the movie, but the budding actor later won a scholar- where he frequently fills in as a guest host for no. Frankly, I didn’t want to make it ship to Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage. He in the first place. I was talked into it at Performance. Acclaim on stage gave way also plays Harvard president Larry Sum- the time. And now, if I flip through the to audacious movie roles, first in the 1986 mers in The Social Network. At first I worried channels and come upon it, it’s “Fuck! PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARIUS BUGGE “If you’ve managed to work as long as I have, “Look, relationships are very, very hard. They “Alec calling someone an F-A-G in the street you understand that these roles everyone fusses just are. I mean, [I’ve been married] four while he’s pissed off because they won’t leave over are your career; they’re not your life. It’s times! It’s all been a bit of a disaster in that him alone. I don’t blame him. Mel Gibson is in just a job, really. Honestly, I forget I’m an actor area. I have very good artistic instincts, often a town that’s run by Jews. He’s like an outcast, until I’m reminded.” right on the money. Love, not so successful.” a leper. Shall I stop talking now?” 1 Sid & Nancy,” and off it goes. I don’t in weird diving suits with dots on their what will make it better. I have no idea. think I played Sid Vicious very well. I faces and cameras on their heads. Their Any night of the week you only need to don’t like the way I look in Prick Up Your mannerisms and facial expressions were turn on one of these news channels and Ears. I wasn’t the right person to play ape-like, which was fun to watch. But watch for half an hour. Read the news- Beethoven and turned it down half a the finished look comes later, through paper. Go online. Our world has gone to dozen times. rendering and special effects. When I hell. I listen to the radio and hear about PLAYBOY: The Dark Knight? Harry Potter? did Dracula and Hannibal I spent hours these lawsuits and about people like this OLDMAN: It was work. each morning having the makeup glued high school volleyball coach who took PLAYBOY: Uh, The Fifth Element? and strapped to my face. On Dracula the it upon herself to get two students to OLDMAN: Oh, no. I can’t bear it. hair alone was a major tribulation. But go undercover to do a marijuana bust. m PLAYBOY: You do realize you’re considered making Planet of the Apes I had no idea You’re a fucking volleyball coach! This is one of cinema’s all-time greats, right? what my co-stars actually looked like. I not 21 Jump Street. OLDMAN: It’s all so subjective, you know? mean, Charlton Heston was filming with Or these helicopter parents who over- I guess I shouldn’t complain. I’ve learned the apes. I used to love those behind-the- schedule their children. There’s never over the years that people get upset scenes pictures where you’d see an ape any unsupervised play to develop skills when they tell you something is their fa- with a great big cigarette holder or a bot- or learn about hierarchy in a group or vorite movie and you go, “Really? You tle of Coca- Cola in his hand—that old- how to share. The kids honestly believe liked that piece of shit?” That’s the sort time movie magic. It’s not like that now. they are the center of the fucking uni- of thing Sean Penn would say. So I now PLAYBOY: What’s this sequel about? verse. But then they get out into the real tell people, “Thank you, that’s great,” OLDMAN: We are 10 or 15 years on from world and it’s like, “Shit, maybe it’s not and move on. But you know, I remem- the last movie. The simian flu has pretty all about me,” and that leads to narcis- ber John Lennon saying that if he could, much taken care of the world’s popu- sism, depression and anxiety. These are he’d go back and burn most of the work lation except those who were immune just tiny examples, grains of sand in a the Beatles did. He said he’d re record all to it. Those who did survive are facing vast desert of what’s fucked-up in our the fucking songs, and I get that. Most chaos and complete societal breakdown. world right now. As for the people who of my work I would just stomp into the pass for heroes in entertainment today, ground and start over again. don’t even get me started. PLAYBOY: Come on. Even Bram Stoker’s PLAYBOY: Well, since you started. Dracula? OLDMAN: It’s like the old saying about OLDMAN: Look, I think there’s been some mediocrity: The mediocre are always really good work along the way, good at their best. They never let you down. moments. I can look at certain mov- It’s like the old Reality TV to me is the museum of social ies and think, That scene was good, or, decay. And what passes for music—it’s all There’s something I was trying get at. It saying: The on that plateau. Who’s the hero for young was the most thrilling experience watch- people today? Some idiot who can’t fuck- ing myself for the first time in JFK, for mediocre are ing sing or write or who’s shaking her ass example, because I couldn’t believe I was and twerking in front of 11-year-olds. in it—Oliver Stone at the very height of always at their I have two teenage sons and they oc- his powers, the sheer energy of it all, his casionally turn me on to stuff—Arcade commitment. When I saw the finished best. They never Fire, hip-hop or whatever. I go, “Wow, product I had to pinch myself. I thought, that’s interesting.” And I do watch tele- Wow, I’m in this movie.