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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.

Gary Oldman

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
The industry has changed. Two years ago I could tell a company I’ve got Russell Crowe and that would get the film made. Now they’d ask ‘And who’s the girl?’ Just one famous face isn’t enough any more.
GARY OLDMAN

Change Company Creation Enough Face Famous Industry Movie Myself
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
My favorite meal would have to be good old-fashioned eggs, over easy, with bacon. Many others, but you can’t beat that on a Sunday morning, especially with a cup of tea.
GARY OLDMAN

Fashion Food Goodness Morning Myself Old Tea
You choose your friends by their character and your socks by their color.
GARY OLDMAN

Character Choice Color Friendship Yourself
I have three kids who like Harry Potter so I was sort of aware of it. You can’t really move from it: it’s on buses, in stores, it’s everywhere. One of my kids has read the books; the other two are too small but they like the movies.
GARY OLDMAN

Aware Book Children Myself Small Store
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
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
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
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
I went and lived in Chicago for a year , and I studied at the police academy.
GARY OLDMAN

Academy Live Myself Place Police Study
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
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
But you see, I have played more good guys than I have played villains.
GARY OLDMAN

Goodness Play See Yourself
You always hope that the cloak of inspiration will fall, and you’ll be O.K.
GARY OLDMAN

Cloak Fall Hope Inspirational Yourself
My passion and energy get mistaken for anger.
GARY OLDMAN

Angry Energy Mistake Passion
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 drank for about 25 years getting over the loss of my father, and I took the anger out on myself. I did a good job at beating myself up sometimes.
GARY OLDMAN

Father Goodness Job Loss Myself Time
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
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 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
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
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
Shakespeare doesn’t really write subtext, you play the subtext.
GARY OLDMAN

Play Writing Yourself
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
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
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

Break Character Cry Knowledge Prism Yourself

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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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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