Gary Oldman Says He Was ‘Typecast’ as a Bad Guy for Years: ‘We Need a Villain and We’ll Get Gary’

Gary Oldman is detailing really his profession choices sewage “old” fast. The Oscar victor told Variety that he was “typecast” to play villains for years, ranging from “The Fifth Element” to “Lost successful Space” and “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” not to mention “True Romance” and “Hannibal.”

“I sewage benignant of typecast for a while,” Oldman said. “I became benignant of for illustration nan poster boy for nan ‘rent-a-villain.’ Sort of, ‘Oh, we request a villain and we’ll get Gary.’ I don’t cognize really that happened, but it happened. And it was nosy for a while, but eventually, I conscionable put a extremity to it. It sewage a small old. But they are nosy to play.”

Oldman continued, “This particularly, for illustration ‘The Fifth Element,’ overmuch for illustration ‘Lost successful Space,’ they’re comic villains. [‘Lost successful Space’] was fun, awesome cast. I thought nan story, it was a batch to put in. It was a batch of movie successful 2 hours. But [Dr. Zachary Smith] was nosy to play because it’s a villain pinch a lingua successful nan feature aliases a small shine successful nan eye.”

It was successful portion being formed arsenic Commissioner Gordon successful Christopher Nolan’s “Batman” trilogy that changed nan roles Oldman later landed. “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight” scribe David S. Goyer said during nan “Happy Sad Confused” podcast that he was “very surprised” to study that Oldman was to play Commissioner Gordon. “Now that I’m a much knowledgeable filmmaker, I realized that it’s really breathtaking to formed against type,” Goyer said. “It’s breathtaking for filmmakers, and it’s besides breathtaking for nan actors.”

Oldman went connected to later prima successful “Slow Horses,” “Mank,” “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” and “Darkest Hour” for which he won an Oscar for portraying Winston Churchill. He told IndieWire successful 2024 that he would want to return to nan “Harry Potter” beingness aft playing Sirius Black successful nan films. “I emotion Sirius,” Oldman said. “He wasn’t successful it enough. He turned up and past he went done nan veil,” adding, “Maybe successful a fewer years, I could do Dumbledore.” That grant has alternatively been fixed to John Lithgow for nan “Harry Potter” prequel TV series.