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I’m rarely asked to play the smartest man in the room.

Gary Oldman

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
Wanting to be a good actor is not good enough. You must want to be a great actor. You just have to have that.
GARY OLDMAN

Actor Enough Goodness Greatness Yourself
As a drama student I got into Thirties and Forties suits.
GARY OLDMAN

Drama Myself Student
I wasn’t ever a huge fan of comics. Just not one of those kids, you know?
GARY OLDMAN

Children Comic Fan Huge Myself
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
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
I’m almost incapable of lying. I’d be a terrible spy.
GARY OLDMAN

Capability Lying Myself Terrible
You can play older than yourself. You can play younger than yourself up to a point, and then that just becomes impossible because you carry a weight with you that you can’t shift, unless you have very boyish looks.
GARY OLDMAN

Impossible Old Play Point Weight Younger Yourself
Being a good director is knowing sometimes when not to say something.
GARY OLDMAN

Director Goodness Silence Time
You choose your friends by their character and your socks by their color.
GARY OLDMAN

Character Choice Color Friendship Yourself
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
I enjoy playing characters where the silence is loud.
GARY OLDMAN

Character Enjoyment Loud Play Silence
Overall I enjoy a certain anonymity. I live a very normal, very ordinary life.
GARY OLDMAN

Anonymous Enjoyment Live Myself Normal Ordinary
So Harry Potter came in and it is nice that I have kids of the right age. I took them to London and they walked around the set and met Harry Potter and that is thrilling.
GARY OLDMAN

Age Children Myself Right Thrill
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 had a guitar when I was 6 or 7, a plastic guitar with the Beatles’ faces on it. It would be a collector’s item now. It would fetch a hefty sum, I imagine.
GARY OLDMAN

Collection Guitar Imagination Instrument Musician Old
I like a cheese and pickle. Nice cheese and pickle on a real old-fashioned bread. Ploughman’s lunch.
GARY OLDMAN

Fashion Myself Old Reality
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
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.
GARY OLDMAN

Breathe Gate Magic Movie Myself Projection Way
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 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.
GARY OLDMAN

Comedy Exploitation Humor Love Myself People Romance
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
I took a bit of a back seat, I had kids and I wanted to focus on them. There’s that period in the late ’90s, the early 2000s, where I didn’t do a great deal.
GARY OLDMAN

Children Deal Focus Greatness Myself Period Time
I still don’t have a publicist. If I’m in a film, you have an obligation to promote it, I’ll do as much as I can.
GARY OLDMAN

Movie Myself Obligation Promote Public
I went and lived in Chicago for a year , and I studied at the police academy.
GARY OLDMAN

Academy Live Myself Place Police Study
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
My passion and energy get mistaken for anger.
GARY OLDMAN

Angry Energy Mistake Passion

I’m rarely asked to play the smartest man in the room.

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I’m rarely asked to play the smartest man in the room.

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