I think filmmaking should be a wonderfully free collaborative process, and it so very rarely is. I often see directors as jailers of my talent.
GARY OLDMANIf one could have a wish, or an alternative life, I would’ve liked to have been John Lennon.
More Gary Oldman Quotes
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I wasn’t ever a huge fan of comics. Just not one of those kids, you know?
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To be able to do this job in the first place you’ve got to have a bit of an ego.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Shakespeare doesn’t really write subtext, you play the subtext.
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I applaud anything that can take a kid away from a PlayStation or a Gameboy. That is a miracle in itself.
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On set I keep myself to myself; I’d rather the director speak up. I’m not gonna direct a younger actor. I think the power of example works best, actually.
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The script is your map of the world, isn’t it? And if someone knows that if it’s well-written, you get all of the beats, it will tell you everything you need to know.
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People who know me , they know I have a sense of humor, I’m a bit of a joker, a bit of a clown really, and I would love someone to exploit that side of me and send me a romantic comedy.
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Reality TV to me is the museum of social decay.
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I did have a knack for playing weirdos. There’s still sort of this perception of me out there as being this crazy guy.
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I’m rarely asked to play the smartest man in the room.
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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.
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There are roles that you chase sometimes.
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I want my weekends off and I want to put my kids to bed. Those are good reasons to want to be in ‘Batman 2’.
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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.
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Wanting to be a good actor is not good enough. You must want to be a great actor. You just have to have that.
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I like celluloid, I like film, I like the way that when a movie is projected it sort of breathes a little in the gate. That’s the magic of it to me.
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I was never really that interested in the punk movement. I was a blues guy: I liked Motown, James Brown.
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What other people think of me is none of my business.
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I’m almost incapable of lying. I’d be a terrible spy.
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I don’t think Hollywood knows what to do with me. I would imagine that when it comes to romantic comedies, my name would be pretty low down on the list.
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I’m not the best audience for that because I’m not a great science-fiction fan. I just never got off on space ships and space costumes, things like that.
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You take what you know, and you put it through your own prism. If I play characters that break down or cry, it’s Gary Oldman crying; it’s not the character crying.
GARY OLDMAN