Gary Oldman Plays…EVERYONE!

Hello and welcome to Cinema Wellman, I am your host David and today we’re going to focus on accomplished actor and friend of Cinema Wellman Gary Oldman.

Oldman has been nominated for three Oscars for his performances in Mank, Darkest Hour, and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. He won an Oscar for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour.

Many people know him for playing Commissioner Gordon in the Dark Knight trilogy and Sirius Black in the Harry Potter Universe.

Oldman was sensational in State of Grace, Romeo is Bleeding, and The Book of Eli. All were complex/conflicted characters, which he plays very well. 

He also has several over-the-top performances including quasi-Jamaican drug dealer Drexl Spivey in True Romance, Commander Zorg in The 5th Element (he used Bugs Bunny as inspiration), the evil terrorist Egor Korshunov in Air Force One, and Dr. Smith in the unfortunately terrible 1998 version of Lost in Space.

And, of course, he played corrupt DEA agent Norman Stansfield in Leon: The Professional who asks for, you know, EVERYONE!

If you’re watching on YouTube, you may notice that I’m dressed as Norman Stansfield today. If you caught that, you get an A++ for the day and should probably be hosting your own movie podcast.

In Oldman’s IMDb’s “trademarks” section: “Characters are usually borderline psychotics.” 

I love that about him. 

Gary Oldman is an extremely talented actor who has been creating memorable characters on screen for 42 years now. But he doesn’t only create memorable fictional characters onscreen, he also has played some amazing real people in movies, and hearing the list of people he’s portrayed, you’ll wonder how one person could convincingly play all of them.

Sid Vicious, Lee Harvey Oswald, Count Dracula (Vlad the Impaler), Ludvig van Beethoven, Winston Churchill, Herman J. Mankiewicz, and most recently Harry S. Truman.

That’s an amazing and eclectic group of historic people right there, and Gary Oldman crushed it every single time.

Not to pick on Tom Cruise, but I’m going to pick on Tom Cruise.

I don’t consider Tom Cruise an actor. To me, Tom Cruise is a movie star.

I don’t think there’s one Tom Cruise movie I’ve seen (and I’ve seen a ton) where I wasn’t aware during the entire film that I was watching Tom Cruise play a character (or attempting to play a character).

I’m not suggesting Oldman is the only one who has nailed it playing real people over the years; Anthony Hopkins has played Dickens, Hitler, Nixon, Picasso, and Alfred Hitchcock.

Meryl Streep has played Karen Silkwood, Julia Child, and Margaret Thatcher. 

When accomplished actors like Gary Oldman are involved (Daniel Day Lewis comes to mind as well), I feel like I’m watching THAT character or person, not an actor portraying them.

Cruise couldn’t have pulled off any of the performances I’m going to discuss today as we look at Gary Oldman playing EVERYONE. 

Many of the films featured today will touch upon Oldman’s method acting, a technique of acting in which an actor aspires to complete emotional identification with a part.

This includes extensive research and learning new skills. It sometimes involves physical transformations, and it always involves an unbelievable amount of dedication.

Method acting has been criticized by many (including other actors) as a dangerous technique, and there are many examples of actors “going off the deep end” when transforming into their character. 

Oldman may not be as method as Daniel Day Lewis or Joaquin Phoenix, but he certainly has a way of immersing himself into, and becoming, a character. 

Today we will look at seven roles, seven real people, and seven excellent performances.

The movies are also tremendous. These seven films average a score of 7.5 on IMDb, which is extremely high when it comes to IMDb.

The films will be presented in chronological order, so we’ll begin with the very first time I saw Oldman in a film. I really wasn’t aware of what I was in for. This first film is his 1986 portrayal of the bassist for the English punk band Sex Pistols…who also murdered his girlfriend.

English Musician Sid Vicious

in Sid and Nancy (1986)

R/112 m/IMDb: 7.0/directed by Alex Cox

I wasn’t a huge Sex Pistols fan, but I certainly knew who they were. Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten (not their birth names) led a band that made more infamous news than records.

Considered Pioneers of Punk, they were everything you’d expect from people who named themselves Vicious and Rotten.

The real Johnny Rotten hated this film. He once called it “Mere fantasy,” and added, “the only thing they got right was the name Sid.”

Oldman himself doesn’t like this performance. He claims he didn’t want to do it and was talked into it. 

You certainly wouldn’t know this by watching his performance. 

It’s a good thing that Oldman’s method didn’t include dabbling in heroin, but this shoot wasn’t without danger. Oldman was hospitalized during the shoot attempting to lose enough weight to convincingly portray the heroin addicted Sid.

Another bit of authenticity is the fact that Oldman wore Sid’s actual chain necklace during filming.

Director Alex Cox’s 2nd choice to play Sid was Daniel Day Lewis!

I’d love to be able to see that film.

Is that something that AI can do?

Alleged Kennedy Assassin Lee Harvey Oswald

in JFK (1991)

R/189 m/IMDb: 8.0/directed by Oliver Stone

Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Kevin Bacon, Tommy Lee Jones, Joe Pesci, Sissy Spacek, Vincent D’Onofrio, the cast of JFK is quite impressive (even though Costner is the lead).

Gary Oldman is also part of this star-studded cast as the center of it all, patsy Lee Harvey Oswald.

He doesn’t have much screen time, but Oldman is one of the standouts in this conspiracy thriller, nonetheless.

Wallachian Prince Vlad the Impaler a.k.a. Count Dracula

in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)

R/128 m/IMDb: 7.4/directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Some may argue that this is a fictional character, but since fictional Count Dracula is based on the real Vlad the Impaler, it’s good enough for Cinema Wellman.

Oldman took the role just so he could work with director Francis Ford Coppola, and it turned out to be his first big American movie.

Oldman became the Count during the production as he stayed in character throughout.

He distanced himself from the cast and crew to create isolation and alienate himself.

He also slept in a coffin during the shoot. 

German Composer Ludwig van Beethoven

in Immortal Beloved (1994)

R/121 m/IMDb: 7.4/directed by Bernard Rose

You would think Gary Oldman playing Beethoven in a critically acclaimed film would have been nominated for a handful of Oscars, but it got none. That’s a head scratcher to me. 

Oldman practiced the piano 6 hours a day for 6 months. I realized that’s well short of the “10,000 hours” you need to master something, but that’s some serious preparation for a role, and it pays off. 

When Ludwig is shown playing in the film, that’s Gary Oldman playing. 

Once again, I’m not suggesting he’s the only actor to ever do this. Many do, but I find it impressive every time. 

I love that Stansfield was obsessed with Beethoven!

English Prime Minister Winston Churchill

in Darkest Hour (2017)

PG-13/125 m/IMDb: 7.4/directed by Joe Wright

Gary Oldman studied Churchill for a year to learn his mannerisms. And I’m no Churchill historian, but during my research of WWII while I was teaching, I watched a ton of Churchill footage, and while watching Darkest Hour I thought I was watching the real deal.

Oldman didn’t want to gain weight for the role so the best makeup prosthetics engineer in the business (Kazu Hiro, who ALSO won an Oscar for this film) was brought in to transform Oldman into a person he considers, “the greatest Brit ever.” 

He spent over 200 hours in the makeup chair, and that has to be horrible. Believe me, I enjoy sitting around, but that has to be a form of torture.

Oldman also developed nicotine poisoning by smoking 12 cigars a day. I believe the cigar budget on this film was over $100,000. 

This marked the 22nd time a Best Actor winner won for playing a real person. 

American Screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz

in Mank (2020)

R/131 m/IMDb: 6.8/directed by David Fincher

From IMDb: “1930s Hollywood is re-evaluated through the eyes of scathing social critic and alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz as he races to finish the screenplay of Citizen Kane.”

I love David Fincher movies and I never shut up about Citizen Kane, so it’s no surprise I loved this movie. 

Movies about movies are always a treat. In fact, that’s going to be an episode somewhere down the line. 

Speaking of such things…Oldman in Mank was the 11th Oscar nominee to play an Oscar winner/nominee.

American President Harry S. Truman

in Oppenheimer (2023)

R/180 m/IMDb: 8.4/directed by Christopher Nolan

I make it a habit to go into new movies blind. I want to be surprised.

If it’s a movie I really want to see, like Oppenheimer was, I even stay away from trailers. 

So, I didn’t even know that Gary Oldman was in Oppenheimer until I saw him onscreen as Harry S. Truman.

He’s only in one scene, and it’s a memorable one. 

The scene, in which Truman says upon meeting Oppenheimer, “Don’t you ever bring that crybaby back here ever again,” is historically accurate. 

Also historically accurate is Truman’s line, “blood on his hands? Damn it, I have twice as much on mine!”

He’s in one scene, and he made it count. He did it just to work with Christopher Nolan.

I don’t know who’s next in line for Oldman to step into, but I know I’ll see it.

 

If you count TV, he also played Roman official Pontius Pilate in a 1999 TV mini-series titled Jesus.

And he did two episodes of “Friends?!” What’s that all about? I need to find those!

Well, that’s a wrap for our look at Gary Oldman playing EVERYONE!

We hope you’re back again next week when we do something special for Women’s History Month!

Until then, take care.