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Any actor who tells you that they have become the people they play, unless they’re clearly diagnosed as a schizophrenic, is bullshitting you.

Gary Oldman

The thing a drama school can’t give you is instinct. It can sharpen instinct but that can’t be taught, and you have to have intuition. It’s an essential ingredient.
GARY OLDMAN

Drama Essential Intuition School Sharp Yourself
I was brought up by my mother and my two sisters, although they’re older than me and fled the nest very young, so I was technically raised as an only child, but I was very much loved.
GARY OLDMAN

Children Love Mom Myself Raise Sister
Overall I enjoy a certain anonymity. I live a very normal, very ordinary life.
GARY OLDMAN

Anonymous Enjoyment Live Myself Normal Ordinary
I was never really that interested in the punk movement. I was a blues guy: I liked Motown, James Brown.
GARY OLDMAN

Interest Myself Preference
People have an idea that one is in control of a career, a lot more than you really are. You can engineer things to an extent. But you are at the mercy of what comes in across the desk.
GARY OLDMAN

Career Control Ideas Mercy People Yourself
I know I’m pretty, but I ain’t as pretty as a couple of titties.
GARY OLDMAN

Beautiful Body Couple Funny Myself Sex
I never told my father I loved him before he died, and I have a lot of issues about that. They’re all swimming around in my head, in my heart, unresolved, and in a way it felt fitting to dedicate the film to him.
GARY OLDMAN

Death Dedication Father Head Himself I Love You Issues Movie Regret
My passion and energy get mistaken for anger.
GARY OLDMAN

Angry Energy Mistake Passion
Well, I needed the work – that’s the honest answer. I haven’t worked for a while, a couple of years. So I thought it would be nice to get back to work and earn some money.
GARY OLDMAN

Couple Honesty Money Myself Need Work
To be able to do this job in the first place you’ve got to have a bit of an ego.
GARY OLDMAN

Character Job Place Profession Requirement Yourself
But you see, I have played more good guys than I have played villains.
GARY OLDMAN

Goodness Play See Yourself
At the Oscars, if you didn’t vote for ’12 Years a Slave’ you were a racist.
GARY OLDMAN

Music Oscar Race Vote Yourself
It’s been said that alcoholics are egomaniacs with low self -esteem. It’s the prefect description. Being larger than life and yet your pride is crushed with self- loathing.
GARY OLDMAN

Alcohol Description Life Loathe Low Perfection Pride Self Esteem
Interesting things come your way but as you get older, your lifestyle changes. I don’t want to travel; I don’t want to be in a hotel room away from my family.
GARY OLDMAN

Change Family Interest Life Myself Old Style Travel
Getting sober was one of the three pivotal events in my life, along with becoming an actor and having a child. Of the three, finding my sobriety was the hardest thing.
GARY OLDMAN

Children Hard Important Life Myself Sober
Any actor who tells you that they have become the people they play, unless they’re clearly diagnosed as a schizophrenic, is bullshitting you.
GARY OLDMAN

Actor Movie People Play Yourself
Reality TV to me is the museum of social decay.
GARY OLDMAN

Decay Museum Myself Reality Social
Each role you play, they set a bar of challenges that you meet. And in the past, I’ve played characters that emotionally expressed themselves a bit more in a physical way. It was a joy, actually.
GARY OLDMAN

Bar Challenge Emotional Expression Happiness Joy Myself Play Role
Change is vital to any actor. If you keep playing lead after lead, you’re really gonna dry up. Because all those vehicles wean you away from the truths of human behaviour.
GARY OLDMAN

Actor Behavior Change Human Play Truth Vehicle
Rather like Batman, I embody the themes of the movie which are the values of family, courage and compassion and a sense of right and wrong, good and bad and justice.
GARY OLDMAN

Bad Family Goodness Justice Movie Myself Theme Value Wrong
The building of America has had its fair share of mistakes, but it’s a constitution that’s the jewel of democracy, the envy of many, and it’s the most generous nation in the world.
GARY OLDMAN

Building Democracy Fair Jewel Mistake Nation Share World
As an actor, you people-watch, you observe. And the more famous you become, the sad thing is you lose the ability to do that. Instead of people-watching, you become the focus of attention.
GARY OLDMAN

Ability Attention Focus Lose Observation People
I got obsessed with classical music, I got obsessed with Chopin, with playing the piano.
GARY OLDMAN

Classical Music Myself Obsession Play
The great thing about Google is that you type in neuro-surgery and somehow you end up with Peter Sellers or watching Frank Sinatra. Google is a great resource.
GARY OLDMAN

Google Resource Type
I did have a knack for playing weirdos. There’s still sort of this perception of me out there as being this crazy guy.
GARY OLDMAN

Crazy Man Myself Perception Play Weird
People imagine that actors are being offered everything and you are not. So things come in and sometimes there are things that I want and can’t get a meeting on, or go to a different actors.
GARY OLDMAN

Actor Different Imagination Offering People Yourself
Growing up in a particular neighborhood, growing up in a working-class family, not having much money, all of those things fire you and can give you an edge, can give you an anger.
GARY OLDMAN

Angry Class Family Growth Work Yourself

Any actor who tells you that they have become the people they play, unless they’re clearly diagnosed as a schizophrenic, is bullshitting you.

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Any actor who tells you that they have become the people they play, unless they’re clearly diagnosed as a schizophrenic, is bullshitting you.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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