Gary Oldman on "Nil by Mouth" by Henri Béhar ^Featured

Gary Oldman on "Nil by Mouth" by Henri Béhar         Article CANNES - May 8, 1997 Member of the Jury in 1993, Gary Oldman is back to Cannes both as an actor (Luc Besson's "The Fifth Element" opened the Festival) and, for the first time, as a writer-director. His film-making debut, "Nil By Mouth," is shown today in competition. Born in 1959 and raised in the south of London, Gary Oldman had already done theater when he made an explosive film debut as Sid in "Sid and Nancy." The ferocity with which he portrayed the lead singer of the Sex Pistols proved a double edged sword: it took him a long while to discard that image. As writer Joe Orton in Stephen Frears's "Prick Up Your Ears," shown in competition a few years later, Oldman displayed a lightness of touch and a vocal agility the like of which has yet to be seen and heard this side of Meryl Streep and Tim Roth (Guildenstern to Oldman's Rosencrantz -- unless it's the other way around). From that point on, Oldman would take all sorts of accents: Irish-American in Phil Joanou's "State of Grace," American in "Murder in the First Degree," New Yorker in Julian Schnabel's "Basquiat," Southern US in "The Fifth Element" in which, he readily admits, he modeled his 23rd-century intergalactic tycoon on Ross Perot. One wondered how long it would take for Gary Oldman to use that absolute ear in order to capture a reality he would feel close enough to to render onto the screen. "Nil By Mouth" is that film. To call it a portrait of a dysfunctional family would be the understatement of the century (see reviews). If the actor proved he could lick a blood-dripping blade like nobody else could (Francis Coppola's "Dracula") and can leave teeth marks on any scenery when required, he does not appear in "Nil By Mouth," yet his presence cannot be missed throughout the film. FILM SCOUTS: Before "Nil By Mouth" was screened in Cannes, rumor had it that a) it was as close to early Ken Loach as one could imagine or dream of; and b) it would make "Trainspotting" look like "Snow White." GARY OLDMAN: Where did you hear *that*? (he laughs) I think people lay the foundation for you. I don't know if there could be a "Nil by Mouth" without people like Tony Richardson, Ken Loach, Mike Leigh -- I guess it follows in the tradition of that type of British film. And John Cassavetes. That was something my chief-editor pointed out to me. "And Scorsese," he said. I readily admit that "Nil By Mouth" is not so much influenced by as it is inspired by Cassavetes. I don't see Scorsese in there anywhere. Yet, when Stephen Frears came up to the editing room and I showed him 20 minutes (we were still editing at the time), even he said, "It's so vivid! It's like Marty." And my friend (director) Peter Medak said it reminded him of Pasolini. F.S.: Not too shabby! G.O.: I must say, those are not necessarily bad people to hang on the wall! (He chuckles). I think it's all in there because of what you're surrounded by, what you like and what appeals to you and what moves you when you watch movies... And I guess at the end of the day, it's a Gary Oldman movie. I just went with what I like and trusted my instincts, my tastes, my eye and my idea. It would be a sad day just to watch it and say, "I've achieved everything I've ever wanted to achieve." I don't know if anyone ever does. But if nothing else, it's a very honest film. F.S.: What does the title means? G.O.: "Nil by Mouth" is the thing that normally hangs over a bed or is on the chart of a patient in the hospital, to inform the staff and the people not to give him fluids or any foods. An exampl e of that actually comes up in the movie with the character who is talking about his father whom, as a boy, he visited in hospitals. But I also use the title ironically because the film deals with drinking and drugs and people who abuse one another. No communications skills. When they do actually say something, more often than not they hurt one another. The language in the movie is very brutal and is quite profane. F.S.: How autobiographical is it? G.O.: Ah... "Gary Oldman's autobiographical film." Anything we do is autobiographical, whether I'm writing and making this film or playing Dracula. You invest the character that you're playing. To make it three-dimensional, you go to areas and places and into the well of your own experiences and history. So, yes, those are things that happened. I wasn't just a fly on the wall and privy to the conversations, the dialogue that took place. There are events in there that happened, that I lived and witnessed when I was growing up in that neighborhood. A lot of the locations in the movie are actual locations. Even though I wrote this in New York, 5000 miles away, I could place and visualize every location when I was writing it, and then I went back to London, most of the pubs and the bars and the clubs were still there from when I was growing up. F.S.: What triggered the decision to sit down and write this story? G.O.: Most of the time, when I watched movies that supposedly were a representation of my class or where I come from, I just wouldn't buy it. So I had the idea swimming around inside my head. Finally, I decided to take some time off and deal with it. I said to my agent, "I don't care if Stanley Kubrick or Martin Scorsese calls me. I'm not acting this year. I want to sit down and address this thing which has been bubbling around in me. Otherwise, it will just always and continue to be a dream." F.S.: Being "a fly on the wall" or "privy to certain moments," however harsh, is not nearly enough. There must have come a time when you took it one step beyond and said, "I want to tell it." G.O.: Yes. The telling of it came out of me getting sober. Going into recovery from alcoholism. Without it, there would be no "Nil by Mouth." The making of the movie, being able to look back at it objectively is a direct result of me putting down a drink. The film deals with co-dependency and how it affects the family, whether it's alcoholism, drug abuse or sexual addiction. "Nil By Mouth"... They should have put that on my glass every time I had a drink. F.S.: In a way, then, was putting it down on paper perhaps the last step toward your complete rehabilitation? G.O.: Yes. I would say that. There is an element that is based on a 12-step spiritual program. I jokingly said to a friend of mine, "I think I'm the only alcoholic in history that has a 4th and 5th step in competition in Cannes!" But it was in a sense cathartic. It was a completion of the journey for me in dealing with baggage on which I continue to work on on a daily basis. F.S.: So there was no burning desire to direct with a capital "D"... G.O.: I think the two go together. The writing and the visual conception of it. The yearning to do something that was mine. That creatively I could, as it were, own the whole kingdom and, to an extent, dictate and control the creative experience. With acting, it obviously depends on whom you're working with. F.S.: To a degree, one would assume. For like it or not, and however good the director and/or the editor, in a film your performance is taken away from you. G.O.: True. It's not as collaborative as people imagine. I like to refer to it as benign dictatorship. I don't mean to sound ungrateful: acting has given me a rich, wonderfully interesting life. But at some point, boredom sets in. I mean, I have been acting nearly 20 years and I feel like I've virtually expressed every emotion there is to play. I did 8 or 9 years in th e theater. There comes a moment in the process where the director has to surrender the play and give it to the actors. When the performance begins, when you are up there, you are, in a sense, your own editor: you can slow it down, you can speed it up. It's a whole different ballgame when you're acting on a movie set. It's almost like you post your performance. You know what I mean? Once you've posted it, you've sent the letter. That's it! No control. Now when you direct... I must say it was a wonderful feeling standing in a room with a man walking in with a camera on his shoulder, turning to me and saying, "Okay, Guv'nor. Where do you want it?" F.S.: There's also that annoying little problem of typecasting. "Need power, need lack of inhibition? Need madness and intensity? Check Gary (Oldman), Chris (Walken), Willem (Dafoe)." G.O.: Oh, yes. But I would be the first to put my hand up. Over the last couple of years, I have been somewhat typecast. I make decision to do or not to do a movie based on what is going on in my life. I have some real skeletons in the cupboard. Movies that I didn't do that maybe I should have done. There does come a point in your life when the main preoccupations are, "How long is it going to shoot? And where?" "Oh, that's a good script *and* I would like to 3 months in Australia." Or "I need to spend time with my son this year. I've promised. I do not want to go to Poland for 20 weeks in the winter." Plus there's a misconception out there, people tend to associate "Gary Oldman" with what he plays. Most people who would know me will tell you I have a good sense of humor and 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! F.S.: Have you ever paused to wonder why they gave you those parts as opposed to the others? G.O.: I think I have the facility to be able to do that and, I guess, do it well. You know, people talk about a "vulnerability mixed with intensity," there are qualities that people recognize and want to buy, if you like. But then people assume that I'm crazy and start thinking you're "difficult." Which amazes me! I'm always on time. Never late. I know the lines... It's quite a dream working with me, really. I never give you any trouble. I do as I'm told. Director is the boss. F.S.: Have you ever found a part you were taking on helped you solve a personal problem? G.O.: You mean psychologically? Working something out? Unfortunately, most of the parts I've played would probably land me in jail! (He laughs) I used to be under the impression that in some kind of wanky bullshit method idea, acting was like therapy: you get in and grapple with and exorcise all those demons inside of you. I don't believe that anymore. It's like a snow shaker. You shake the thing up but it can't escape the glass. It can't get out. And it will settle until the next time when you shake it up. I don't know if I really can say that I've worked out anything in my life psychologically or emotionally through playing. What you can do is find the similarities with what's going on in your life -- and sometimes playing a role has a strange way of echoing it. I remember when I first saw "Hannah and Her Sisters," I came out and met a friend of mine for coffee. He said, "What was it like?" I said, "Like an afternoon around my house!"

Tuesday, 16 December 2008 | 3754 hits | Print |  Write e-mail

The Salon Interview "the wild one" 1997 ^Featured

The Salon Interview "the wild one"         Article BY RICHARD COVINGTON LONDON --tormented geniuses and shakespeare-quoting villains with attitude, no one beats Gary Oldman. This summer alone, the 39-year-old British actor is playing the fiendish Zorg in "The Fifth Element," a madman who hijacks the presidential plane in "Air Force One" and the sardonically evil Dr. Smith in the movie adaptation of the campy '60s sci-fi TV series "Lost in Space," currently being filmed at Shepperton Studios near London. The canny Oldman has let himself be type-cast for the money. The wages of villainy helped finance his directorial debut, "Nil by Mouth," a stark autobiographical indictment of family violence in working-class south London that was a controversial hit at this year's Cannes Film Festival. The film opens this fall in the U.S. Divorced from Uma Thurman and separated from former girlfriend Isabella Rossellini, Oldman still smarts from his lurid press as a womanizer and Hollywood hell-raiser. A recovered alcoholic who once put away two bottles of vodka a day, Oldman met his current wife, American model Donya Fiorentino, in a rehabilitation center. The couple now splits time between a house in the Hollywood hills and a flat in London. Oldman started his career at London's experimental Royal Court Theatre and first grabbed cinematic attention as punk rocker Sid Vicious. Since then, the mercurial actor has put his stamp on a wildly mixed bag of roles, from gay playwright Joe Orton to Beethoven, Dracula, Lee Harvey Oswald, painter Julian Schnabel and the Rev. Dimmesdale, who sins with Demi Moore in "The Scarlet Letter." Interviewed during a break in shooting "Lost in Space," Oldman, sporting a buzz-cut and sparse goatee that made him look like a brown-haired Van Gogh, was a study in restraint and dry wit. But when certain buttons were pushed -- "fucking Merchant-Ivory movies," the rage in families, press gossip about "crazy Oldman," method acting hocus-pocus -- his eyes burned platinum. Although he says that the fire has gone out of his passion to act, it appears that the volcano is only smoldering. Why were you attracted to the role of Dr. Smith? I thought it would be nice to do something my kid Alfie could watch. How old is your boy? Eight and a half. I've played many weird, sick and twisted characters so it's nice to play a weird, sick and twisted character my kid can see. NOT LIKE "Murder in the First?" No, I don't think he's quite ready for that. I find "Star Wars" quite violent, to be honest with you. It's been interesting watching it with him this second time around. I can see how the first one worked. I thought he was very clever with it, using the Force. What is it? Is it spirituality? Is it God? I felt it outlived its sell-by date with the second and third in the series. My son loved all three. But I started to get irritated by that plastic, rubbery-looking puppet Yoda. 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. My big love was the Beatles. I was more into music. The first film I ever saw at the cinema was "A Hard Day's Night." My sister took me. Did you want to be a rock star? I think so. If one could have a wish, or an alternative life, I would've liked to have been John Lennon. I was more into the music and where that put me in my head, in my imagination, in my fantasy, as opposed to getting off on someone else's. Did you ever play music? Not as a child. It never came up, the idea of playing music . 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. Actually playing music was something I came to later. I found one of those Liberace records in the attic somewhere, Liberace plays classics. I get obsessions, so I kind of got obsessed with it. I got obsessed with classical music, I got obsessed with Chopin, with playing the piano. When was that? When I was 13. That was my project. I suddenly switched from contemporary music to classical music. Then I bought every book imaginable about Chopin. I sometimes feel that I would do things and I was in a way acting them, more than actually doing them, like I was acting playing the piano. I suddenly got obsessive about boxing and Muhammad Ali around the time he was fighting Joe Frazier. I went off and did boxing. I looked incredibly good in the gym. Were you a good boxer? No. I was terrible. But you would look at me in the gym and say, "The kid's a natural." I had all the moves down, hitting the punch bag, shadowboxing, skipping. I could play a boxer, but I wasn't a boxer. It was just my obsession at the time. Oh, I'll try this now. I want to be a boxer. I want to be a classical pianist. I want to be a soccer player. Now I can be them all. You played Sid Vicious and Beethoven. Do you want to play any more musicians? No, two musicians in one career is maybe enough. Did you feel comfortable playing those roles? Yeah. At the time the Vicious thing was a real break for me as an actor. Why? At the time, I thought God knows where acting could have possibly led. Who would've known where acting would've taken me. "Sid and Nancy" was the first big screen film I did. I wasn't in a position where I could pick and choose and turn things down. So I was gigging, I was jobbing. It led to something else and that led to something else. It was a long time ago now, all of that, a lot of water under the bridge. You spoke of obsessions, do you still have obsessions in your work? The obsessions have gone. I don't like acting so much any more. Why is that? The fire is gone. What happened? Dunno. Don't know. Fire meaning anger? Just the fire to want to act. I taught a class of students years ago. You'd say: What do you want to do? What do you want to be? You'd hear: I want to be a good actor. Wanting to be a good actor is not good enough. You must want to be a great actor. You just have to have that. It's not something you can wear like a coat. It's in you. It's like a furnace. And I don't have that anymore. I don't have, not the ambition within the career, but the ambition within the work. Where did that fire come from? Is it something you want to get back? I think it comes from your early influences, what shaped you where you grew up. Truffaut said of Charlie Chaplin, there is much explosiveness in misery. Has the misery been worked out, the explosiveness in your own motivations? Yeah. In your formative years, there's a whole bunch of shit that shapes you, all the baggage we all carry forward with us from back there. 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. I don't want to go see a fucking Merchant-Ivory movie with a few people walking around in linen suits getting a little bit pissed off with one another. It has nothing to do with me. You know what I mean? I just go, So what? That's a nice frock [points to a poster of the film of "Sense and Sensibility"]. Another fucking novel, one of those books. What is it about? It ain't got ... When you go to a cinema, you should come out like having a rocket up your ass. "Sense and Sensibility" doesn't do it? It don't do it for me, no. Also, watching people with money having a good time is not good drama. You ever notice that? In a movie, you watch people having a really good time, they're getting drunk, they're getting high and they've got money. Where's the drama? This is not interesting. What does it take for you to generate that drama, to have that rocket up your ass? Go see my movie. What I like, which brings us back to "Lost in Space," is that the war, the rage within families fascinates me. That's what I'm interested in when I go to the cinema. That can be "Macbeth," a dysfunctional family. That's what stimulates me. It reminds me of being human. Stella Adler said that life corrodes and erodes the spirit. On a journey of however many years on this planet, we have the inevitable loss of our parents, we have divorce, death, cancer, all these things that chip away at the spirit. And she said art reminds us that we have one. Why did you decide to make "Nil by Mouth"? Because it was in me. It was almost like the solution that I'd been looking for to a problem. Was it solved in the making of the film? Yeah. Was it completely autobiographical? Not completely. What I mean is was the source of that rage within families that you talked about, was that reflected in "Nil by Mouth"? Oh yeah, absolutely. It's an emotional well I've been drawing on through all the work. Through all your films? Yeah. It's what a writer of music will draw on. You hear it in Beethoven. You see it in Pinter. You see it in the Sistine Chapel. It's what shapes us and makes us who we are and how we experience the world. "Lost in Space" is about this rage. Look at them. The guy never spends any time with his son. It's the kernel of everything, who we are, how we feel. My son Alfie doesn't like loud noise, OK? He's almost phobic about it. With sirens, he'll get to the point where he'll scream, like hysteria. I took him into a drum shop and a friend started playing the drums. Alfie was beside himself with the noise. But when he was playing the drums, making the noise, he was fine. And that's about control. It's about wanting to control the noise. Is that the way you are? Yeah. That's why I want to be an actor, I guess. I saw other actors doing it and I said I want to do that. But I want to do it better. But you don't walk around like a sort of bomb ready to detonate? No, no, no. There's somewhat of a misconception about me in the world, in the press, bullshit stuff. Well, let's fix that. What's the perception in the press? I always read "madman" or "genius," "volatile," "angry," "crazy," "mad" Oldman. People just associate me with the people I play. I have an absolute facility for it. I can turn it on and turn it off in my sleep. Acting is not difficult for me. There's no hardship in it for me. There's no identification with the roles you play? Well, you live with them, but you cannot become them. Any actor who says he can become a character and gets totally lost in the role is full of shit. Because you would have to be clinically diagnosed as a schizophrenic. You can't get lost in the moment. You have to keep a sense of perspective? I think so. Absolutely. What do you do when you're on stage and you're in a comedy and you deliver a funny line? Do you carry on speaking and walk all over your laugh? No, you wait, you wait, you wait and then you carry on. You look like you're totally in the play, in the moment, but you have a sense of perspective. But you draw on your past. If you have a scene with a big emotion, whether it's hysteria or laughter or tears, then you draw on stuff, memories, experiences. If that's method acting, fine. That's how I've always instinctively acted. The big emotion we all have is called families. When you finished "Nil by Mouth," did you figure that the emotion that drove you to make the film didn't exist anymore, that you had exorcised certain demons of your past? I don't think the well is dry. When you said that you had lost the fire to act, was that due to making "Nil by Mouth"? I think acting can get boring. Not to sound ungrateful because I've had a very nice lifestyle and a very interesting life as an actor. It's been a great gift. You can get bored and say: You know, I've been doing this for 20 years and maybe it's just time to do something else. Also I have bundles of creative energy. Acting is just a third of my creative energy. You get associated with something you do and people expect you to keep doing that thing. What do you mean you want to write? Why? You're an actor, aren't you? You do this. I've always found the downtime an occupational hazard. On a movie of this scale, there's a lot of downtime between shots. It's an opera, a military campaign and you're one small cog in the piece. There's downtime at the work and there's downtime in between jobs. What would you rather do? One of the things I liked about directing was that it demanded so much of my energy and attention. You don't stop thinking. It uses the whole canvas. You're working with the actors, the cameraman, the painter of light, the author, with images, music. It's all-encompassing. I thought a very beautiful way of putting it was Roberto Rossellini talking about the movie he made in India. He said it was like a word that had been on the tip of his tongue for years. And that he found it. It was "Europe 51," it was "Stromboli," it was "Paysan," "Open City." And now the words were this. Making "Nil by Mouth" was exactly like that. I was searching for it and there it was. Since you're not directing "Lost in Space," does it seem like a step back to be only a part of the puzzle? No, because you know that going in. You have to surrender to the process -- otherwise you would drive yourself mad. You would become one of those people who continually moan. Acting also helps me financially. Without the acting, I couldn't have made "Nil by Mouth." How did that come about, to get Luc Besson to produce it? He's just a friend. I was about to begin the thing with the cap in my hand, the tour for funds. It was over lunch and he just said, "Oh, I'll do it." Was this before you had signed on for "The Fifth Element?" Yeah, and then he phoned and said would you be in "The Fifth Element," and I said yeah, sure. One good turn deserves another. How was it shooting "The Fifth Element?" Much the same as this really, a lot of waiting around. Boring interviews? No, they're not so bad. I've just done 150 in Cannes, at least, but not about "Lost in Space." What is it like working with [director] Stephen Hopkins and William Hurt? Not to sound boring and clich�d ... You never hear in these things: Oh God, he's a real shit, just doesn't know what he's doing. William's boring, the director's a mess and I just can't wait to get off this piece of shit. Next question. You never hear that, do you? Being a man immune to bullshit, I thought you would tell me the straight story. No really, I'm very happy with the way it's going. The film is a lot darker than I thought it would be. How do you mean? In the way it looks or psychologically? No, visually. I guess I came in with a preconception. One finds it very hard to shake away the image of papier mach� rocks and cheesy series. This keeps the spirit of the series and yet Hopkins has moved a long way from it. I think it will still keep the fans of the TV series happy. It's not campy? No. I don't know who would want to watch that for two hours. Does it bother you to be in a film that is bound to have all this merchandising tied into it, with dolls of all the actors and the space creatures? It's very much in people's minds that with a film like this, it's inevitable. This could become a franchise, like "Superman" and "Batman." I was in a store with Alfie the other d ay. They've covered everything with "Star Wars." There's practically nothing left that hasn't been "Star-Warred." It won't be a problem for you if this movie becomes like that? Will it detract from the acting? No, because Akiva [producer and writer Akiva Goldsman] has written an intelligent script. It's not just a shoot-'em-up, let's cram in all the special effects we can and razzle dazzle 'em with laser guns. There's a good story here. It's a film about the family and an absentee father, the relationship between husband and wife. Obviously, we're put on a planet and there are aliens. You have to put that family in danger, just to keep the audience watching. What's your role? I'm the outsider who becomes a surrogate father. Maybe the real father becomes a better father. It's not just one broad brush stroke of villainy. Do you get tired of playing villains? Yes. What would you like to play? I'd like to do a comedy. Have you done any? Well, I did "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead." It's comic, but a bit intellectual. I'd like to do something more slapstick and physical, sillier than that. Maybe doing something with Jim Carrey would be fun. In that style or with him? With him and in that style. That might reignite the fire. Do you see yourself playing comic roles convincingly? Yeah. I do, but it's people out there. Maybe they don't. If you look at "Dracula," you can see I can play comedy. It's the lack of imagination from the people handing out the parts. Have you found that difficult to deal with in shaping your career? Not initially. I've worked with Stephen Frears, Mike Leigh, Francis Ford Coppola, Alan Clarke. It's been a very varied, eclectic kind of menu, my career. More recently, I've been type-cast. I've let myself be type-cast. Why? There's more money in it. More money so that you could turn to directing? Yeah. "Nil By Mouth" was two years of my life. To take yourself off the market for two years and work on a film was financially devastating. How much did it cost to make? About $4.25 million. But you were acting at the same time? No. I took a break from the editing to go and do "Fifth Element" and then I came back to "Nil by Mouth." Then I mixed it. When I was mixing it, I also did "Air Force One." What is that about? It's about a man who takes over the presidential plane. You're the one who takes it over and Harrison Ford is the president? Yeah. There you go. And you're a demon again, up to your old tricks? Up to my old tricks, yeah. How was it working with Harrison Ford? It was good. Wolfgang Petersen is a funny guy. Why do you say that? Because he knows exactly what he's doing. He knows the genre and he doesn't pretend it's anything else -- "Hey guys, we're making great art." He very much loves his wife so he likes to be home on weekends. He likes to be home and have dinner. We'd come in and start shooting at 9 and finish at 6. I've never worked with anyone so relaxed on a set. He has a wonderful sense of humor and doesn't take himself or it too seriously. So it was quite the joy to work with him. Stephen's also quite relaxed. How does he work with you on your performance? Stephen steps in now and again. Good directing is knowing when not to say anything. Stephen will give you the odd direction on where to take a scene, give a bit of weight to an intention or a particular line. He doesn't go back and forth with you over how to play a scene? No. It's a hard role being a director. You have to work with different egos and give them what they need. William asks a lot of questions. How about you? If I have a problem or I'm not clear about something, I'll raise my hand and say I'm a bit confused or help me with this. When I say a good direc tor knows when not to say anything, what I mean is you just have to let actors open up their shoulders a little and give them room. You obviously have the whole picture in your head. You've worked on it maybe six months in prep. You have all these ideas and you have to allow an actor to be able to come up with a better idea than you. If you're not seeing it immediately, as the director, you're not meeting equally. What do you mean? When I first meet with a director, he's had six months meeting with designers, thinking out the story. He's way ahead of me. What you have to remember as the director is that you have to give the actor room to find his performance before you step in and say do it like this. Within there somewhere, there may be a better idea than yours. If the director imposes his ideas, the actor's own ideas don't have a chance to come out? Yeah, you kill it. Can you think of examples? I can't really. I'm not talking about huge, monumental changes. I'm talking about a nuance that someone will have in a reading in which they can suddenly show you what a scene is about. You go: Omigod, so that's how you're reading the line. You think the scene's about this. That's interesting. I hadn't thought of it like that. What will you be working on next as a director? I don't know. Do you find it easy to work in Hollywood? Does it make any difference working in England or the U.S.? When I'm in the system, I'm in the system. I don't necessarily have to be in movies that I would go and see. I work. I'm not precious about it. But with the films you want to direct? I'm not likening myself to him, but [director John] Cassavetes was in some bad movies and I'm sure he thought, one more of these and I can go make "Faces" or something. I'm committed. If I say I'm going to do a film, I won't walk through it. I'll be a mensch. I won't take just any old piece of shit. I'm not out there doing "The Rock IV." It's my bread and butter. But your real ambition is to be a director? I'm bubbling around a few ideas in my head. You hear actors talking about directing as a natural extension of acting. But I don't see it that way. I have no desire to sort of throw a camera around. When I do it again, I will do it hopefully from the same spring. It's an emotional commitment, two years of your life. Just to kind of job it would be so destroying. I can't imagine sitting in an editing suite looking at the images coming back at you that you don't really care about. There'd be no point to that. If someone wanted you to direct a movie about rich people having fun? I don't think I'd do it, no. July 9, 1997

Tuesday, 16 December 2008 | 3204 hits | Print |  Write e-mail

The Oldman without a face / 2001 ^Featured

The Oldman without a face         Article Thursday, February 8, 2001 NEW YORK -- The worst-kept secret about the lurid sequel to The Silence Of The Lambs is not the brainiac ending, but the identity of the madman with the mangled face. "We won't try to keep it secret," says sardonic Englishman Gary Oldman, the actor in question. "We can't keep anything secret! I can't even walk down to the bottom of my street (in Los Angeles) without it being on the Internet." In Hannibal, which opens across North America tomorrow, Oldman plays the vengeful billionaire Mason Verger, one of Dr. Hannibal Lecter's early victims. Verger is now using his wealth to track Lecter down for just deserts. Long ago (in Thomas Harris' novel, not in the original movie), the psycho serial killer helped the poor fellow to carve his own face right off, leaving a pulpy porridge. This man-monster is left with one good eye and a gash for a mouth. Oldman is virtually unrecognizable under the astonishingly effective, if horrific, makeup. Audiences will not see Oldman's name on the screen until the end. By contractual obligation, no advertisements announce his participation. It's a game. "I thought it would be fun, because I have been the man of many faces, to play the man with no face," says Oldman, a 42-year-old chameleon who has played the likes of doomed punk rocker Sid Vicious, controversial playwright Joe Orton and JFK killer Lee Harvey Oswald. Colourful commentator Mel Gibson, who produced Immortal Beloved featuring Oldman as Beethoven, once said of the mercurial actor: "He's like Mr. Potato Head. He just kind of becomes something else." In Hannibal, says Oldman, "I'm faceless and nameless." The makeup, as is always the case with this kind of distortion, was an ordeal to put on. Yet the actor felt liberated. "You ever put on one of those rubber masks at Halloween?" Oldman asks rhetorically. "You feel uninhibited, don't you? You feel that, really, people can't see you. You get power from it. It was oddly very freeing, and yet I only had an eye to emote with." To Anthony Hopkins -- who reprises his role as Dr. Lecter and would happily do so again in the future if the circumstances were right -- Oldman is one of the reasons that Hannibal is a comedy, albeit a dark, disturbing one. "Gary Oldman made me laugh," says Hopkins. "I thought he was so funny." "It's decadent and quite absurdist," Oldman says of the laugh-riot elements of Hannibal. "But Tony (meaning Hopkins) is funny. It was there in The Silence Of The Lambs when he was in the cell. I guess we've just turned up the volume in this one. It's more melodramatic, I think." Hannibal is the kind of movie Oldman enjoys making as an actor -- a big-budget spectacle with time for rehearsals, a budget for multiple takes of scenes, and the luxury of working for a name director like Ridley Scott, who gives his cast members the freedom to develop within the confines of the script. Otherwise, both as an actor and as a one-time director (he made the autobiographical urban drama Nil By Mouth), Oldman is miserable. He cannot get money to make his next father-and-son script into a film. He cannot abide being in small films with no budget to allow actors to do their work properly. "I despair for the cinema," Oldman says. "I think that there never has been a more irrelevant time to be an artist. I just think it's going down the pan (as in toilet). If they (the Hollywood moguls) could just put black leader running through the projector and make money doing that for two hours, they would rather do that than make a movie. People don't care anymore. The process is just thrown away

Tuesday, 16 December 2008 | 3128 hits | 2 comments | Print |  Write e-mail

Danger, Will Robinson! By BRUCE KIRKLAND ^Featured

Danger, Will Robinson! By BRUCE KIRKLAND         Article Sunday, April 5, 1998 HOLLYWOOD -- "Danger, Will Robinson!" As a blast from our pop culture past, these 'immortal words' ring out once more inside a space ship stranded somewhere at some time in the near future, in some alien galaxy. The Robinson family is Lost In Space again, this time in a movie. New Line Cinema is risking $80 million that the rising popularity of perpetual re-runs of the campy 1960s TV show, which is the movie's inspiration, will propel Lost In Space into Titanic territory at the box office. It is the most expensive movie the mini-studio New Line has ever made. There are clues that the investment will pay off handsomely. There are lucrative commercial tie-ins including a collection of toys, a soundtrack featuring The Propellerheads and Death In Vegas, a pre-paid phone card for U.S. customers and an elaborate contest that culiminates in free trips to London, England, where the movie was shot. In addition, foreign sales and ancillary markets have already been lined up so that 80% of the massive budget is already covered. The star cast, including Gary Oldman, William Hurt, Matt LeBlanc and Mimi Rogers, has already been signed up for a sequel that will be triggered when the box office reaches at least respectable and attainable numbers (although studio officials refuse to say exactly what those numbers are). In blunt words, another star franchise is born. The movie opened in Toronto theatres this weekend. The TV show Lost In Space, the brainchild of sci-fi producer Irwin Allen (Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea) ran from 1965 to 1968. It succeeded on the cult factor generated by cheesy special effects and soap opera plots. Actors deliberately overplayed scenes as camp comedy. Ultimately, the show was killed by competition from the rival Batman series, which out-camped Lost In Space by a wide margin. The movie, to the shock of anyone expecting Lost In Space to maintain its goofy good nature and its over-the-top campiness, plays it straight, for the most part. The filmmakers and the actors, most of them serious craftsmen, simply refused to mess around with the movie. It's a huge gamble. "One of the scariest things to me," says 15-year-old Lacey Chabert, the Party Of Five star replacing Angela Cartwright as Penny, "is (wondering) what are people really expecting, having seen the old show. Are they expecting the same characters? Ours are so different. It's a lot to live up to." Oldman took over Jonathan Harris' role as the villainous Dr. Zachary Smith for personal as well as financial reasons: "I've never made a film that my kids could go and see. Next week my son (a nine-year-old) visits and I'm going to take him to the cinema and buy him some popcorn and take him to see Lost In Space." The child will encounter an intense space drama full of exploding space ships, battles with giant alien spiders and intimate scenes exploring the chasms between absent or thoughtless fathers and their psychologically damaged sons. There are brief campy moments and the invocation of now famous original lines such as, "Danger, Will Robinson!" But those are asides, not the main thrust. "Would people really be interested in going and just watching 90 minutes of camp?" Oldman asks rhetorically. "There would be no point in doing it (the Lost In Space movie) unless you've got some sort of new take on it." Oldman figures the filmmakers have a new take. 'A CUT ABOVE' "I like the serious underbelly to it," continues Oldman. "There were some issues that they tried to get across. The little girl (Penny) says: 'Don't fall in love with anything because you lose it, kid!' And the father is too busy saving the world to save his own family. There are serious themes in it that make it just a cut above that sort of movie which is just a rollercoaster ride." Director Stephen Hopkins, who admits he is not satisfied with some the movie's scenes, says he had an enormous balancing act. "It's a very fine line the whole film is walking on. I don't know if it works or not. It's an odd movie because it has light moments, it has very dark moments, it has scary things, it has a couple of adult themes thrown in. So all the characters had to have some grounding. They had to have some believability. That's why I went after these kind of actors for the film." Even as a kid in England, where Lost In Space played in the early 1970s, Hopkins related to the show as drama, not comedy. "When the show became really camp towards the end, it lost its interest for me. I don't think you can really make a big, long space movie where everyone is acting in a totally preposterous way. "Hopefully, this is a really sophisticated kids' film. I think there are still enough wacky ideas left in the movie that it will still make it unusual." Hopkins feels under intense pressure. Even some of the original actors have put the thumbnail screws on. Jonathan Harris, who turned down a cameo in the movie (June Lockhart, Angela Cartwright and robot voice Dick Tufield all signed on) took the enterprise seriously. He encouraged Hopkins during a pre-production meeting but he inscribed an autograph for Hopkins with a dire warning: "Dear Stephen, don't f... it up!" William Hurt, cast as the absentee father John Robinson, is convinced Lost In Space works. Hurt, an unusual casting choice, admires the combination of genres because Lost In Space is both a big space movie based on an old TV show and a drama layered with Freudian twists about families -- particularly the father-son relationship. "You want to make a movie for younger audiences. You want to because you see that what they are getting is what you would think of as not very good. And also because they are wonderful. And you also wanat to do it because you don't want to lie to them," says Hurt. 'IMPORTANT STUFF' "So that's a challenge for an artist. How do you give something to a younger audience that's not condescending, that explores certain issues but in a way that's palatable, that doesn't terrify them to death, that doesn't drive them to despair, and yet pays attention to what are going to be some of the central issues of their lives? "Yeah, okay, there's a lot of 'business' going on but what the film is actually about is pretty important stuff. How do we begin to face this notion that we are creating an uninhabitable planet? And what are we going to do about it? Okay, maybe the solution here is a flight of fancy, but still ..." Hurt says. "There are a lot of very interesting things that went into the making of the film, a lot of thought, a lot of deep thought. It makes it very unusual for the genre it is going to be described as being part of. I think it actually transcends the genre but it's going to be good!" THE LOST IN SPACE FILE: ORIGINS: A comic book, then a TV show from 1965-68. STYLE: Serious space drama with campy asides. "Real people, big monsters," says producer/screenwriter Akiva Goldsman. "I'm not the right guy for camp. Strange but true (since he wrote Batman And Robin). My writing generally, if it errors, errors on the side of too dark." DANGER, WILL ROBINSON: The movie would never survive without that line, says Goldman. "It's an icon."

Tuesday, 16 December 2008 | 2369 hits | Print |  Write e-mail

Lost no more / 1998 ^Featured

Lost no more         Article Wednesday, April 1, 1998 Gary Oldman finally wins his long battle with the bottle By LOUIS B. HOBSON -- Calgary Sun HOLLYWOOD -- In his new movie Lost in Space, Gary Oldman is wandering aimlessly through the galaxy. In real life, Oldman is finally master of his destiny. In 1995, Oldman finally admitted he was an alcoholic and checked into a rehabilitation clinic in Los Angeles. The year before, he had filmed The Scarlet Letter in Nova Scotia, an event he sadly doesn't remember. "I know I was in the film because I've seen it, but I don't really have any memory of making it," he admits. "I'm a slum kid from London, England, who was raised in a dysfunctional, alcoholic family. I'm ashamed and saddened that I didn't cope better." Oldman, 50, says he realized 20 years ago he was an alcoholic. "I knew I was in trouble, but the curse for me was I could do this acting thing better drunk than some people do it sober. "I was also a private drunk. I didn't do my falling-down routines in pubs. I drank myself into oblivion in the privacy of my hotel rooms or my home." Demi Moore observed Oldman's tragic behavior on their set of The Scarlet Letter. Having triumphed over her own drug and alcohol addictions, she urged Oldman to confront his demons. At the time, Oldman was engaged to Isabella Rossellini, who also urged him to seek help. While he was in rehab, Oldman met Donya Florentino. He broke off his engagement with Rossellini and married Florentino a few months later. It was Oldman's third marriage. He was married to British actress Lesley Manville and Uma Thurman. Oldman has a nine-year-old son, Alfie, from his first marriage. "It broke my heart Alfie has to grow up in a broken home. My father left our family when I was seven. I knew I was hurting my son as much as I'd been hurt by my father." Oldman and Florentino have a seven-month-old son named Gulliver Flynn Oldman. "Gulliver has turned the lights on in my life. We all live in L.A. and I have less excuse now than ever to pack up my bags and head for a movie set. That's one reason I did Lost in Space. It's a movie of mine that Alfie and I can see together." In Lost in Space, which opens Friday, Oldman plays villain Dr. Zachary Smith. It's his fourth bad guy in as many pictures. "No more villains. I can't do another one. They helped pay the rent through the rough part of my life, but they've also made me forget why I became an actor in the first place. "The tragedy is they were the best roles I was being offered. I would love to have played Jack Nicholson's role in As Good As It Gets, but I'm too young and the rest of the stuff I read was crap." Oldman denies reports he punched out Robert De Niro because they were both interested in the same woman. "I've only met De Niro once very briefly. The whole story is nonsense, but it's just one of many. There would have to be two of me if even half this stuff they print about me were true. "One person simply couldn't be in all those places at the same time."  

Tuesday, 16 December 2008 | 2597 hits | Print |  Write e-mail

HE'S MADE HIS MARK / 1996 ^Featured

HE'S MADE HIS MARK         Article By REBECCA ASCHER-WALSH HE'S MADE HIS MARK as Sid Vicious and Lee Harvey Oswald, Dracula and Beethoven. He was once married to Uma Thurman and is now engaged to Isabella Rossellini. But at 10 o'clock this Saturday morning, Gary Oldman, an actor who needs no more than a sneer to convey a world of disillusion, is looking like nothing so much as a chicken. He darts his head in the doorway, his spiked and gelled waxen hair sticking up like a cock's comb, his surprisingly slender body making its way to the chair with a nervous determination. Although his gaunt face has filled out a bit in recent weeks, his body is still remarkably tiny: His black leather belt is cinched so tautly that his baggy black jeans fan out at the hips. He sits, lights a cigarette, stands up, takes his black windbreaker off; pulling at the collar of his blue buttoned-up shirt, he tries to settle in again. Oldman--who appears to shift with the mere toss of a wig from punk nihilist in Sid & Nancy to elegant vampire in Bram Stoker's Dracula to embittered genius in Immortal Beloved --seems ill at ease playing himself. It can't be an easy job. He's mentioned in the gossip pages for his involvement with his glamorous Beloved costar Rossellini, whom he met and fell in love with on the set. He's caught in a swirl of attention for three current movies--not just Immortal Beloved but also Murder in the First, in which he portrays a sadistic warden to Kevin Bacon's prisoner, and The Professional, in which he plays a pill-popping (and Beethoven-loving) DEA agent. He's attempting to change his life: Released only about five weeks ago from rehab, where he was treated for alcoholism, the 36-year-old English actor is trying to redefine himself before the rest of the world has the chance. In keeping with the philosophy of Alcoholics Anonymous, Oldman isn't talking about the course of his recovery, although he acknowledges his addiction. "I think people are naive about just what chemical dependence is," he says, "about how destructive and powerful and overwhelming it is." And he knows what the media can make of details. He's had his fill of tabloid tales of his raucous behavior, including a drunken-driving incident with Kiefer Sutherland aboard in 1991, which landed Oldman in a Los Angeles jail for a night. These days, Oldman is taking responsibility for his actions. "There is a certain code of behavior," he says. "The bottom line is the Ten Commandments, right? Don't cheat, don't steal, love thy neighbor. We're given this. I can't talk about the psychology of a serial killer--I don't know what's inside their heads. But for most people, we're not necessarily always responsible for our thoughts, but we're accountable for our actions. Someone can go, 'If that baby doesn't stop crying, I'm going to go in and strangle the f---er.' Now that would be a thought. Do you go strangle the baby or do you not? We're given a code to live our lives by. We don't always follow it, but it's still there." Oldman's personal problems may have fueled his acting, but apparently they've never interfered with his performance. People who have worked with him say he has always been a true professional. For some, like Rossellini, his presence was a major incentive to take a role. "Gary was one of the prime reasons I accepted the part in Beloved. I've always been a fan." "What's so great about Gary is, whatever he's done in his life, he's brought to good service," says Tony Scott, who directed True Romance (1993), in which Oldman played a dreadlocked drug dealer. "At times, it might have been perceived as being bad for him, but it's always benefited him and his personality and his acting. The bad times make him better." First heralded for his performance opposite Chloe Webb in 1986's Sid & Nancy and his '87 turn as playwright Joe Orton in Prick Up Your Ears, Oldman has slipped nimbly and regularly into the devil's skin, playing an Irish mobster in State of Grace (1990) and Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK (1991) before his breakout as Francis Coppola's Count Dracula one year later. Oldman is the maestro of misery in Beloved (left, with Rossellini) and Murder(with Bacon) "The best example of Gary is Sid & Nancy," says Cary Elwes, who acted with Oldman in Dracula and considers him a mentor. "The whole film you see a character who's hit rock bottom, and when he comes out of a restaurant eating pizza and starts dancing with those little kids--that's very much the essence of his person." Always an intense presence on screen, he has a reputation for disappearing into his roles. "I love him deeply," says Marc Rocco, director of Murder in the First, "but sometimes Gary doesn't understand the word cut. I had to run down to the dungeon and physically stop him [when he was] clubbing Bacon." Oldman laughs when told Rocco's story, smoke curling out between his thin lips. "Any actor who tells you that they become the people they play--unless they're clearly diagnosed as schizophrenic--is bulls---ting you," he says curtly. Nevertheless, even Rossellini admits that Oldman's work on the big screen had her fooled. "The first time I met him, he was the opposite of what I expected because he always plays dark characters. But he was charming and fun and funny--and he made me a cup of tea." As Beethoven, Oldman must inhabit a cruel spirit who takes out his frustration at the loss of his hearing on those around him. "I used to joke, `Can't we just have him kicking a woman?'" he says, waving off the romance of playing such a genius with a flash of his hand. Playing famous people, he says, is "a double-edged sword because in one sense you have a lot of material to work with, but in a strange kind of way that puts up a framework that you have to keep within. You can't play Beethoven with pink hair, but to an extent, because no one has ever met him, who's going to tell me that's not Beethoven?" Still, Oldman is a thorough researcher. Although an accomplished pianist, "I chained myself to a Steinway for about four hours a day to prepare for the role," he says. He also adopted a bowlegged strut from what he judged in pictures to be Beethoven's wide stance. "I think he has some sort of extreme muscle memory," says Immortal director Bernard Rose. "Once he's done a scene and got it right, if you're shooting coverage, he'll do things that you thought were just completely spontaneous at exactly the same speed and energy as many times as you want." There's more to Oldman's control of his instrument. "He has almost a unique ability to change his appearance," Rose continues. "And how he does it is quite mysterious. He's actually a slightly built guy, but when you look at him in the film, he looks big and stocky--and he wasn't padded or coated in latex--he just sort of does it. You can never see Gary." Mel Gibson, who coproduced Immortal Beloved, agrees: "I've often said he's like Mr. Potato Head. He just kind of becomes something else." "I can never seem to have my own hair," Oldman says. "In Romeo Is Bleeding, I have longish hair. Then I do Murder in the First and [have] my hair cut. And then they want me to play Beethoven, and I have short hair, so I have to wear a wig. I don't know how Dan Day-Lewis always seems to have his own hair, but that's a huge talent in itself. I hate makeup and wigs. With Beethoven, I said I wanted to play a role where I didn't have to do anything stupid with my hair, and my agent said, `Read it again.'" Ultimately, the appeal of playing a stricken genius won out. "People who are artists and brilliant and gifted, they have so many emotions and feelings that are sort of bubbling around inside of them," says Oldman. "But you can imagine that there's a great deal of love there." Oldman grew up in New Cross, a working-class neighborhood of South London, where he and his two older sisters were raised by his mother after his father, a welder, deserted the family when Oldman was 7. His father, who rarely saw his son, died several years ago at 62 from complications of alcoholism. Rebellious and bored with school, Oldman dropped out at 16 and went to work in a sports-equipment store. Away from the influence of teachers, he began to read and study literature, as well as continuing to teach himself to play the piano. He also began to win small stage parts and met his mentor, drama teacher Roger Williams. "[Acting] was like this shadow opening up to me," Oldman says. "[Actors] find it very difficult to live in the here and now. Acting is a license, in a way, to live in the moment." Oldman as Dimmesdale in Letter (left) and in earlier film Sid & Nancy(with Webb) That license wasn't always something Oldman could appreciate. In earlier days, even as he was being hailed as an actor's actor, his life was a shambles: In the late '80s he married English stage actress Lesley Manville, with whom he has a 6-year-old son, Alfie. The marriage ended, and in 1990, he wed Uma Thurman; that union dissolved in less than two years. "Sometimes acting gets in the way of living life," he allows. "It's very consuming." "Sometimes when he's off the set, he's a little sad or doesn't feel so good," says Luc Besson, the French director of The Professional. "But on the set, he's like an angel." Adds Cary Elwes: "He has one of the most beautiful souls. It's very pure, and very gentle. One has the feeling when one's around Gary that one wants to protect him from all the darker and negative forces that are at work in the world." Unfortunately, Elwes wasn't around when dark forces struck in the form of the California earthquake of Jan. 17, 1994. Oldman had just begun filming Murder in the First on a Los Angeles soundstage. He felt as if the world were crumbling. "I was thrown against the wall and I was actually under the door frame, which is where you are supposed to be," Oldman says, smiling--as he does best--ironically. "But the door frame was the set, and there I am, holding on to props. I'm holding on to cardboard, and I can still smell the glue that's drying." Two days later the cast and crew returned to a surviving set--and a newly self-protective costar. "At lunch, you'd see Gary in the middle of the biggest parking lot he could find, with a fold-up chair and a tray," says Rocco. "I think he saw all of the telephone poles and measured off where they would land. There was no way anything was going to fall on him." As a father, though, Oldman finds himself in the role of protector. When asked if he worries about being the kind of father to Alfie that Oldman's father was to him, the actor says, "I see my son, so I've already broken the cycle." He's considering renting an apartment in London so that Alfie would have his own bedroom when Oldman comes to visit. But for now, Oldman is living in New York with Rossellini and her two children, Elettra, 12, her daughter with Jonathan Weidemann, and Roberto, whom she adopted as an infant in late 1993. With filming completed on The Scarlet Letter (in which he plays the haplessly passionate Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale opposite Demi Moore's Hester Prynne) and with no movie project looming, he's giving thought to what, besides staying sober, he'd like to do next. Maybe it involves playing kinder, gentler characters, although, as Oldman notes, even an actor known for being able to reach any extreme has limitations placed upon him: "I don't think Hollywood knows what to do with me. I would imagine that when it comes to romantic come dies, my name would be pretty low down on the list." Oldman's one resolute plan was to return to the stage next November, to star in a two-month-long American Repertory Theatre production of Shakespeare's Richard III in Boston. "You can't have that language at your fingertips and not be a better person for it," he explains. The role is hardly a kinder, gentler change of pace, but Oldman shrugs, as if he can't help himself. "I've always had an excuse not to go back to the theater," he says. "What if I say that I'm going to do a play in September and then I get a movie offer? You know, if you live like that, you'll never get anything done. This time, I committed, come hell or high water." Only five days later, Oldman has bowed out of Richard III. Apparently, hell is on hold. (Additional reporting by Beth Pinsker)   Copyright 1996 Entertainment Weekly Inc. Letters to the Editor | EW New Media  

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GO Time Out--New York / 1998 ^Featured

GO Time Out--New York         Article GO Time Out--New York Feb. 5-12, 1998 Issue No. 124 Recovery Mission: Oldman isn't worried he'll start drinking again: "I know where insanity is," he admits. "It's just at the edge of my arm." HIGH AND DRY--The ever intense Gary Oldman has cleaned up his act and made a masterpiece: His writing and directing debut, Nil By Mouth, is a harrowing portrait of a miserable childhood and the drinking life he left behind. Article by Holly Sorensen Morton's--the slick Los Angeles eatery where there are as many deals cooking as plates of swordfish with mango coulis--isn't exactly the place you imagine eating with Gary Oldman. The 39-year old actor has long embodied a sharp, streetwise integrity, both in his signature performances in independent movies (Sid and Nancy, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Professional) and in his splashier turns in Hollywood fare (JFK, Dracula, Air Force One). You might expect to be sharing a few belts with him at a downtown watering hole. But this is a new day. As he walks into Morton's in his velvet blazer and T-shirt, Oldman exudes an unexpected softness. His face is like a traffic light that alternately flashes passion, wit and extraordinary sweetness, depending on the topic, and all of those come up when he discusses the big issue of the day: his powerful writing and directing debut, Nil By Mouth. The film portrays a working-class family struggling with addiction, spousal abuse and loss, and the action takes place in the South London neighborhood of Oldman's childhood. Far from being wistfully nostalgic, Nil By Mouth is devastating in its honesty and relentless in its originality. It heralds the arrival of not only an important new filmmaker, but a new Oldman as well. Time Out New York: You were the toast of the Cannes and Toronto. Are you surprised? Gary Oldman: Yes, it's odd to me, because this is a very colloquial film, very specific in setting. The vernacular--there are English people who can't understand it--it's like a code. We're very much surprised at the response outisde of Britain. American response has been incredible, the French. Most surprising is the Japanese. They say that will be our biggest market. TONY: The presenting producer is Luc Besson; the first acknowledgement is to Coppola, two directors that you have worked with. What was their involvement? GO: I worked with Luc; we've done favors for each other. I was in The Professional. I liked him, and I signed to do it before I even read the script. I did it for peanuts. I did The Fifth Element for nothing; he was doing my movie and called and asked if I'd be in his. We asked Coppola for permission to use Apocolypse Now. He sent us back a piece of paper that just said "Gary can have whatever he wants." I'm keeping it, in case we work together again; I'm going to paste his letter over every deal point. Size of trailer? "Gary can have whatever he wants!" Final cut? "Gary can have whatever he wants!" TONY: Was directing harder than you thought? GO: I always had an idea of how difficult it was. I've always been aware of time, of turning up, knowing the lines, being prepared. I've always tried to be director-friendly in that way. But basically, directing is like bending backwards, trying to stick your head in your own behind. I was very clear how I wanted to do this and how I wanted it to look. [Frames his face with his hands] This is our landscape. That's where the film lives. It's like that story about John Ford, out in the desert with a young executive of the day, and he said to Ford, "What are you going to shoot out here? There's noth ing here." And Ford said, "I'm going to shoot the most important thing in the world: the human face. TONY: Who is the actress who plays Janet? I read that she had never acted before, and she's just fantastic. GO: That woman, Laila Morse, is my sister. Laila Morse is an anagram for mia sorella, or "my sister." I moved the letters around. Not a lot of people know it. TONY: Also, a Kathleen Oldman is credited with a song at the end of the movie. GO: That's my mom. I would've had her play the role in the movie, but that's another story. The character my sister plays is a key character. I went through a long audition process with people, and the music and dialogue and tone of the character is based on my sister. It's not her, it's not about her, but based on her. And when you've got a tune in your head of how you want the lines read...I could hear her when I was writing it, saying, "Did you have a drink? You get fucking lippy when you have a drink!" I met all these actresses, some of whom were brilliant, but I didn't want to be in there every day, spoon-feeding these lines to someone. I couldn't find anyone to sound like her, to hit those rythyms. They all came in and they acted. I mean, I can be as over-the-top as I want in the films I do. And I am. But I don't like watching it. TONY: Were you surprised at how good she is? GO: Yes. The other actors--when you throw a cat in amongst the pigeons like that, they will either tear it to pieces or they will go with it. And what I loved is that they embraced her, and they had to look to their game. Because what they were getting back was so fucking real. TONY: The casting is terrific. It's so nice not to see Hollywood pretty boys and models. GO: When these people come up on the screen--for certain, to an American audience--they won't know Kathy Burke. They'll just see the people. It's a compliment to the actors' work that people think it's improvised. Because they make that dialogue sound so real. TONY: Then there's the music. First, Eric Clapton does the soundtrack, which is incredible. And who is this Frances who sings several songs? I've never heard of her--she's great. GO: Frances Ashman. She was a waitress. I met her at a nightclub, and she mailed me a tape. She lived a block from the production office. She's the singer in the scene in the club. I put her in the scene for no other reason than I wanted to watch her in the dailies! TONY: How did you get Clapton? GO: I had a temp track; there were things that I wanted to hold onto that I liked. People wanted too much money for the rights to everything--I was pushed to the wall financially. We came back [to L.A.] knowing that I was going to have to give up the music that I had fallen in love with. I was sad. We had a screening, and Eric happened to be in town. I'm an aquaintance of his, so I said, "Come along to the screening; you'll like this film." So he came along and he said, "It's people like you who give me hope. It's right up my Strasse!" He said, "I know what to do with this." And he did, didn't he? He said, "If you don't like it, you don't have to use it." TONY: How was it for you to see it with an audience for the first time? GO: I was talking to David Lynch today; he's a neighbor. Very strange. He lives opposite me, and if you stand at the kitchen window, you can see him in his Mercedes going off to work. If he sees me, he'll wave and smile, and I'm transported into the lawn and picket fence of Blue Velvet--and the fireman, waving slowly. It's like life imitating art. [Adopts Lynch's American twang] "Come in fer a cup of cawfee!" So this morning I went to the studio he's built, and we were talking about movies, editing, what-have-you. And I told him the story of sitting at Cannes watching you movie with 2,000 people, with my editor, having not seen the film in five or six months. You're watching a scene, and in your head you go, "And cut." And it goes on a few seconds more! I found myself saying, "That could come out, and I could trim that." David said, "The more people there are in the audience, the slower the movie gets." That night, it was interminable! We were just saying if John Cassavetes was alive, he'd still be editing those movies. But this was representative of where my head was at the beginning of 1996. I'm sure in five years' time, I'll see the movie and say, "Did we really think that cut worked?" TONY: If you've had a rough childhood like yours, there is a tendency to be a perfectionist. The child is always thinking, If I were only better, things would be different. GO: Yeah, it triggers things like that. It pushes those buttons. I know my father is still an issue in my life. I was recently made aware that when a child is abandoned, as I guess I was, you invent the man. And it's a father figure, an icon, a myth--invariably it's a perfect picture. And you fall short of it--and you have to come to terms eventually with your limits. TONY: If this movie is about any one thing, it's about fatherhood. When the dedication to your own father comes up on the screen, it's devastating. GO: Well, it's personal, but not full-out autobiographical. Ray is not my dad. The dad Ray talks about is my father. TONY: But Ray is in the process of becoming the father he talks about. GO: Yeah. But most people assume my dad beat my mother up, and I'm Michelle, watching my mom and dad go through this thing. The tabloid press in England got hold of it and started running all these stories like "My dad's a thug!" and about him beating my mother up, which, of course, upset my mom and my family. We are a close family. [Oldman recently bought his mom a house in Beverly Hills; his father left his father for a younger woman and eventually died of alcoholism.] TONY: How did you come to write the screenplay? And how much of it is written? The film has a Cassavetes-Mike Leigh quality to it. GO: It's pretty much all in there. I write the overlapping ums and the ahhs. Obviously, it's a creative process, and if the actor said to me, "How 'bout I say it like this?" I'm not going to bully people. I started to do the script--I was sort of someone bemoaning what was out there, specifically what was coming out of England. I was in my cups, sitting at the bar, too much to drink: "I could write a fucking movie that's more fucking honest...." I was working a lot, so I couldn't. It's hard to turn around to people who make money off you and say, "I'm going to take a year off. I don't care who calls me--Scorsese, I don't care. I'm going to take two years, remove myself from the market and make a movie." YOu get to a certain point, and you can demand a certain kind of billing and money... TONY: Was that important to you? GO: Sitting here, I can't say that. Maybe one day it will be. I don't quite know what to make of it all. You know, I am the sole financier of Nil By Mouth. TONY: Wow, usually actors make headlines just for taking a pay cut. GO: If you see me in Air Force One, then you see Nil By Mouth, you get a pretty good idea of what I did with the cash. It does fit together, in a crazy way. There are two Garys that are operating. I'm out there looking for a good role, primarily. But I'm looking for a good price tag, so it would buy me freedom. But there's also the other Gary, who thinks he's wasting his time doing it. There are other things I should be doing. I shouldn't be struggling on a movie set trying to utter some unutterable piece of junk, when I could be playing Iago on the stage, or Hamlet. Nil By Mouth is representative of who I am as an artist and what I'm about. But when you play those great parts, and you say those great lines every night--you can't do Shakespeare eight shows a week for six months and not come out a better, more enriched person for it. You can't have understanding and poetry in your mouth and not have your life unfettered by it. I'm certainly going to get a lot more from it than saying, "Mr. President, get your hands up!" TONY: So what is your career strategy going forward? How is Lost in Space? GO: It's quite good. If it does well, you'll see me again as Dr. Smith. TONY: Will you write and direct again? GO: I want something to say. I've done Nil By Mouth; I've purged whatever that was. It wrote me. It was like a stream of consciousness. In five weeks, I had the first draft. Eric Clapton said, "It was like you throwing up over everyone." And now, when I sit down at the computer, there are the two Garys again. The Gary that lived in South London for 15, 16 years, and there is this Gary who went to drama school, got into theater, went to the West End, started to make movies, did more plays, came here, and really went into self-imposed exile, an a way. I wanted to come here--I loved America when I first came in '81. I moved to New York and I said, "I'm home. This is my town." I'm not one of those Brits that goes to the English pub and plays cricket under the Hollywood sign. I really immersed myself in the culture. And I work in the industry as an American. I have a fantastic ear, and I'm a great people watcher. I sit down at the computer and the two Garys battle. TONY: Is your goal to merge the two sides into a unified whole, or simply to make peace with the fact that your body holds two people? GO: The last one--to make peace. If, for instance, I start to write a piece that is set here, my tendancy is to say, "Who am I trying to kid?" and to keep going back to that old neighborhood. TONY: When you have an underprivileged childhood and you transcend it somehow, there is a lot of guilt in leaving it behind. GO: That's it. It's the guilt. You say, This is all phony. You feel phony in the new world. My therapist said, "There is no reason why you can't live where you live, go to Madison Avenue, observe it, and write something about it. What's dishonest about that?" But I have this real thing about it. And that's not helping. And writing is hard enough all by itself. If a script came to me to direct, maybe I would. TONY: Are you afraid of a relapse? GO: No, I'm not afraid. But I know where insanity is. It's just at the edge of my arm. It's as far away as that. There was a day--well, not a day; there was never just a day. There were three-day, four-day, one-week benders. You'd come out of a five-day run of mind-stoking consumption. Mind-stroking. And I would come out the end of it, and "Just this one time...." There were no excuses anymore. That was it. I just read this book, Drinking, A Love Story. There's not a sentence or a page I can't read without going, Yeah. Very simply, you have to live life on life's terms. There is no buffer anymore. You feel the feelings. You experience the experience. Sometimes that can be thrilling and wonderful. It's like the focus pullers--you finally see the image very sharp: "Ah, there it is." I used to--life was sort of a blur of massive color. But I'm still working on all of that, yeah. TONY: Did you carry around the romantic ideal of the drunken artist? And were you afraid stopping would make you less good? GO: Oh, yeah, "The edge. It gives me an edge. It gives me my spark." That's the drunk talking, not the artist. Because the drunk doesn't want to stop. He'll do anything. Like I said, there were just no more excuses. "Hey, the sun's shining! Let's have a martini! Hey, it's raining; let's have a bottle of whiskey. I'm happy; let's celebrate. I'm sad; let's drink." TONY: You have a new baby boy. How do the issues in the film resonate for you as a new father? GO: He's five months old, yesterday. I have another son, who's nine, and given the circumstances, I have a miraculously good relationship with him. I'm just trying to be the best dad I can be. For me, it obviously had a lot to do with recovery and putting down the drink. All of this that I have at the moment is because of that. I'm just living the day, and having a bit of grace and gratitude, really. And it's hard for me. So far, I have a terrific marriage and I have a beautiful kid, and I'm remodeling a house. I've alway s had terrific friends around me who loved me, even though I couldn't always see it. But we're sitting here, I've made this film--I could never have done it before. So I've broken the pattern of fatherhood just through that. And maybe that's all it needed.

Tuesday, 16 December 2008 | 3080 hits | Print |  Write e-mail

Some glitter and Gary / 1990 ^Featured

Some glitter and Gary         Article Gary Oldman's film career has absorbed its fair share of the weird and the wired. By LOUISE CHUNN Saturday October 27, 1990 DON'T write your Gary Oldman headline before you meet him. He's not an Angry Oldman and he's sick to death of wisecracking journalists who tailor their copy to suit their puns. Though when he's telling you that he does seem a bit peeved, a little taut. But not angry. His appearance doesn't help dispel the media myths. In two separate interviews over less than a week, he managed to look as if he'd been woken up only minutes before setting a match to a Marlboro Light and hoarsely answering the first question. He was dressed in a suit on both occasions, but it too looked like it'd spent the night on the floor. One was worn with only a V-neck sweater underneath, the other with a washed-out black T-shirt. In the fashion of serious young actors, he looked cool, but there's still a 'sod you and your petty conventions' about dirty hair and stubble. Mickey Rourke would make a suitable point of reference, but then Oldman really might live up to his Angry Oldman billing. When a comparison with his American counterpart was raised, Oldman paused for a lot longer than was comfortable. Slowly he looked up and nearly whispered, 'But I'm a better actor.' We both laughed. Whether he likes it or not, the first impression of the actor is not a long way from the roles he's chosen. In a film career that was born with Alex Cox's manic Sid and Nancy, the story of the inglorious Sex Pistol Sid Vicious, he's scarcely ever played a character who's not weird or wired. That's why the next part you'll see him in is Oldman as Straight Man. Criminal Law is a fast-paced late 20th century thriller. Forget the subtle nuances that the genre might have played with 40 or 50-odd years ago, modern thrillers go for the burn - and that includes bodies of female victims mutilated then set on fire. Oldman doesn't play the psycho, but Ben Chase, the yuppie Boston lawyer employed to clear the murderer, sweet-faced Kevin (Footloose) Bacon. 'I've nothing in common with Ben Chase. That's why it seemed like a good idea to take the part. It was my first opportunity to ever play a leading man, in the true sense. And, yeah, it was fun.' Oldman knows damned well he wasn't first choice for the part. It was made a couple of years ago and was his first American film; he wasn't in a position to be picky. 'I'm not going to pretend - I can't pretend - it's a work of art. It's a little over-cranked, it pushes the plot along. It's a thriller,' he shrugs. But whatever its limitations (a belief-defying plot being the outstanding one) it gave him the chance to prove that unlike many British actors, he could manage a more than merely convincing American accent. If other films he's made have been performance-based, this one was 'very much a director's piece. So, in one scene you pick up the phone at a certain spot, you hit that spot, the camera's tracking, and it's going to zoom in, and scary music's going to happen and it's going to make the audience jump. 'You can't just decide that your character would rather sit on the sofa. Because if you do that then you're going to have to go to the door, and then cut to this, and so on. Can't do it. These kind of films are made with a built-in framework; you've got to stick with it.' Unlike many of the American actors he's now friends and professional rivals with, Oldman is a classically-trained 'act-or'. He didn't get discovered skateboarding on Santa Monica Boulevard or picked up from a model agency ca ttle call, but graduated from the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama with a BA Honours degree in theatre arts. He worked at York, Colchester and the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow. He turned down a small film role in Mutiny to play Sloane in Entertaining Mr Sloane at Chesterfield, then was spotted by Royal Court Theatre artistic director Max Stafford-Clark while appearing in Edward Bond's Saved at Westcliffe. 'He did what lots of young actors do. He sent me a letter telling me why he wanted to work at the Royal Court,' says Stafford-Clark. But it was a particularly well-argued letter so I went to see him in Saved. It was an extraordinary evening. Fifteen years after this play caused such a storm at the Royal Court, it was still having the same effect. Half the audience - there must have only been 30 of them - walked out. And I liked Gary's performance. It was very well thought-out.' Stafford-Clark cast Oldman as Scopey in Bond's The Pope's Wedding, his first major London role. It won him the British Theatre Association/Drama Magazine Award for 1985 and highlighted him as a rising star. Serious Money and Women Beware Women followed at the Royal Court, The Danton Affair and all three of Bond's War Plays at the Royal Shakespeare Company, and Oldman appeared in plays directed by key names in modern British television drama: Les Blair (Honest, Decent and True), Mike Leigh (Meantime), and Alan Clarke (The Firm). It could have gone on and on, the angry young roles eventually mellowing as Oldman joined the pantheon of revered British actors. But the movies found him first. Oldman still can't believe his luck. 'Who gets into movies? There are loads of actors out there in theatre who want to be in movies. I never thought I'd get into films in a thousand bloody years.' His head drops, he stares at his feet. 'I'm lucky .. I'm very very lucky. Here I am, I'm 32, which isn't really that old, and I've worked with Dennis Hopper. This may seem boyish - but he's worked with James Dean. It's - um - fun, and it's lucky.' Movies are a different discipline from the stage. 'They each have their own thing,' says Oldman, 'their own sensation.' But, oddly, it's not the switch from stage to screen that's forced Oldman into a complete rethinking of his work. It's the belief that to continue to act as he'd done - with enormous intellectual intensity and rigorous detail - would have destroyed him. 'I couldn't conceive of a career ahead of me as fucked-up as I was becoming. My acting was based on fear and neurosis. I would use the work as a stick to beat myself with, constantly researching parts, becoming very bookbound. I really gave myself a hard time over it, in the belief that if I was remotely good at the end of it, it was worth all the pain and anguish and shit I'd been through. I just couldn't keep going like that.' A close friend, he says, gave it to him straight: told him he couldn't diminish his talent by becoming less neurotic about it; told him he didn't need to punish himself in this way. He also went into analysis. 'Not in a heavy way, but just to understand what was happening. I felt I had to wash a lot of stuff away.' He doesn't make the link, but it seems that the sea change in his approach to acting coincided with a series of shattering events in his private life. His marriage to actress Lesley Manville, who he met at the Royal Court, ended in divorce. Although he managed to keep it quiet for a year, it's now common knowledge that he lives with American actress Uma Thurman, best known for her role as the virgin teenager Cecile in Stephen Frears' film Dangerous Liaisons. Manville, who now lives with actor Bernard Hill, has custody of Alfie, their two-year old son. Oldman sees him for one day a week. Like anyone going through a traumatic period, Oldman found solace in work. 'It's Doctor Theatre, isn't it. You can have hay fever and go on stage to play Hamlet and you won't sneeze once. The moment you come of fstage you start sneezing again. It's the same with emotion. You forget everything else, and just act.' State of Grace, an apparently ultra-violent film about Irish-American hoods in New York's Hell's Kitchen, was the first Oldman made using his new technique. He consciously decided against researching his part, in spite of the fact it's based on a real character who turned state's evidence against other members of his gang. 'It's the best thing I've ever done. Ever. Ever.' The American critics seem to agree. While they've been lukewarm about the film as a whole, mostly citing the graphic violence as reason enough to avoid it, Oldman has rated above co-stars Sean Penn and Ed Harris in the reviews. Hollywood Reporter, for example, wrote, 'Oldman steals the show, essentially by not stealing it. Playing a psychopathic, trigger-happy loon, Oldman keeps his remarkable performance balanced on the fine edge. It's a portrait that glues your eye to him every moment he's on screen, but one that's never over the top.' Directed by Phil Joannou, whose debut was the U2 concert film Rattle and Hum, State of Grace is a big-budget movie, and that provides a freedom too. 'We could do 20 or 30 takes - do it until we got it right. I'm not saying you always need that for it all to gel and be brilliant, but it lets you forget about the finance and just fly. On something like Prick Up Your Ears you had to get it in one or two takes. Because those kind of movies - British movies - are made for very little money.' THE conversation lands, with a thud, back in Britain. Having spent the last couple of years mostly based in the US, Oldman's now living in London. He enjoyed New York, where for the first time, his accent meant he was simply English, not South London working class. He is not finding the transition easy. But everyone loves you here, Gary. They're proud of your success, and that isn't true of all successful actors. 'Oh, I don't know. I've met some of that hostility.' Here? 'Here. In America, actors are very supportive of each other.' What do you mean? 'In America I have a different (long, pained silence) status. I don't want to slap myself on the back, but they're comparing me to people like De Niro. I'm more ..revered.' And it annoys you that you feel it's not true here? 'Yes, I guess it does.' 'He said that to me too,' says Max Stafford-Clark. 'It's not true. In fact, he gets enormous peer-group approval. People do perhaps feel that he's been abroad for a long time, and that it would be good for him and us if he came back here. And I personally think he ought to do some stage work, as the longer he stays away from it, the harder it is to return. After all, Dan Day-Lewis won an Oscar for My Left Foot and kept up his theatre commitments too.' OLDMAN wouldn't disagree. He was 'itching to do a play. I don't want to sound wanky, but it would be good for my spirit.' Only days later, he got his wish. He's been cast as Mick in a revival of Harold Pinter's The Caretaker, alongside Donald Pleasance, who originated the lead role 30 years ago. It will be directed by Pinter and will open in the West End in the summer. It's typical that Oldman should leap at the chance, regardless of how it fits in to the make-yourself-a-megastar plan. He could, after all, base himself in Los Angeles and go solidly for the big bucks, high-profile work. Or he could become involved in whipping up production money and developing his own projects. Instead he's content to see what comes in the letterbox and make decisions based wholly on the quality of the script and the people involved. Some critics think his choice of parts is askew, and he almost acknowledges as much when he starts talking about films 'all being a matter of taste, really'. 'I've met some wonderful, wonderful people. Okay, Alex Cox (director of Sid and Nancy) is barmy, but he's interesting. Nic Roeg - adorable. Whatever you might think of Track 29, he was just a sweetheart to work with. I la ughed my leg off making that film.' As an example of Roeg's black sense of humour, Oldman tells the story of spending the first night on set raping Roeg's actress wife, Theresa Russell. 'I'd not spoken so many words to her before then, so it was a very peculiar way of getting to know someone,' he giggles. He's just made Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, with which playwright Tom Stoppard made his directorial debut and won Best Film at the Venice Film Festival. He too gets the Oldman adoration: 'One of the nicest people on the planet really. Lovely to work with. After all, he's the only one around who really knows what it's all about.' Oldman's next projects are - like many potential films - awaiting firm finance. They need money to make Money, the much-talked about film version of Martin Amis's best novel in which Oldman has been cast as John Self. If Adam Brooks, the director, asks him, he'll gain the weight to play Amis's slobby anti-hero, but, he says, the part is about more than fat. 'It's the sadness of the character. You've got to ask yourself why is he fat. Why is he so fucking unhappy?' Oldman's also cast in a film of Edmund, a typically gritty David Mamet play. They don't need much money, but according to Oldman it's easier to get Dollars 50 million for a cartoon character blockbuster than Dollars 4 million for something that might be considered arty. 'It's not as if David Mamet's just some wanker, is it? You're talking playwrights,you got Mamet, you got Shakespeare .. He's up there with the boys, but even for a David Mamet script, you just can't get the money.' Neither Self nor Edmund will make shining cinema heroes. So, Ben Chase and Criminal Law notwithstanding, Oldman's still angling for the weird and wired. He says he can't wear his background like 'some medallion around my neck' but a tough childhood and an education system that let him down have left him with an affection for the wounded of the world. 'An actor invests characters with his understanding. If I was offered say an upper middle class or even upper class role, maybe I'd be in danger of patronising him. Maybe I wouldn't love the character, and you have to love the people that you play.' He laughs. 'It was no great surprise when they didn't offer me Room With A View.'  

Tuesday, 16 December 2008 | 3182 hits | Print |  Write e-mail

Quote, Unquote 2001 ^Featured

Quote, Unquote   Bridget Freer FHM May 2001       Article Bridget Freer FHM May 2001 Q. You play a US politician in your new film, The Contender. Ever had any real-life presidential encounters? A. Not so far, no. I was invited to Bush's inauguration but I couldn't go; that would have been quite exciting. I dare say I'll end going to one of those functions at the White House. Q. You were unhappy when you saw the final cut of The Contender. What didn't you like about it? A. I'd seen an earlier version at a screening that I personally felt was working, but somewhere along the way it was altered. I'd been working closely with Rod Lurie, the director and writer of the film, as a sort of creative team, but then he got some new friends - bigger, richer, more famous friends - and made changes to the movie that I was not a part of. In the early cut I saw, I was a complex character in a very ambiguous movie; then suddenly there was scary music playing every time I appeared. It came off the rails a bit. Q. There was talk of you getting nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar for The Contender - were you gutted you didn't make the list? A. I cared, yes. An Oscar would have been nice - it would have got me closer to what I want to do, which is make more films. But I didn't care for very long. The nominations come and if you're not on the list you go, "Oh well," like I've done a lot of times before. Q. You've played a lot of movie villains. Do people think you're a bad boy in real life? A. It's true, because I play villains so convincingly some people do feel I must be unhinged or something. A producer might say something like, "He's a good actor but he's a bit crazy, isn't he?" That gets a bit boring. I did make a comedy, Nobody's Baby, last year, but it's like trying to turn the Titanic on a dime. Q. Have you ever scared a small child? A. I don't scare kids. Although, years ago, I was staying with a friend, Doug, who has a little boy and one day one of his teachers took Doug aside and said, "Your son has a very over-active imagination - he thinks that Beethoven and Dracula are living at your house." So Doug says, "Yeah, they do." The teacher stepped back about four feet. If he'd said Lee Harvey Oswald as well, we'd have been in big trouble. Q. Your directorial debut, Nil By Mouth, wasn't exactly a barrel of laughs. Would you like to make a silly, throwaway comedy next? A. No. I have written another script, set in New York, which is lighter than Nil By Mouth, but it's not silly. I'm trying to raise money for it, but it's incredibly difficult to get a film financed unless it's star-driven - which is why an Oscar would be good. An Oscar carries some weight. Q. You recently said you were surprised that more people in Hollywood don't get murdered. Did you have any candidates in mind? A. No! It's just that there's so much two-faced backstabbing in the industry I'm surprised more people aren't bumped off - but I said it with a twinkle in my eye. If I didn't need to do it, I'd walk away from this business in a flash, because of the horrible people - liars, cheats, people who renege on deals... Q. When you played skinless freak Mason Verger in Hannibal, you wanted your role to be uncredited. Why didn't you want your name on the movie? A. I'm unrecognizable in the film because I have no face, so we thought we'd have fun with that. I'm a man with lots of faces, so we thought we'd give no name to the faceless man and see if people worked out who it was. Q. You'v e spoiled it now.... A. Well, you did ask. Q. You like to collect art. Is it all on show, or do you keep your canvases locked away? A. It's mostly movie artwork - I have an incredible selection of Cassavetes posters and a big French thing, 400 Blows - the Truffaut film. And a couple of Lautrecs and a Picasso pencil drawing. I might put the Picasso over the mantelpiece. Q. Have you ever given in to any artistic yearnings yourself? A. I've worked with Julian Schnabel, the abstract expressionist. One weekend, we painted a couple of pictures together on his tennis court, on these big old canvases. It's just fantastic, the feeling. I kept thinking about what I'd done, so the next morning he said, "Let's go take a look", His were rather good, but mine... I'd only put four big sploshes on and by the fourth bit of paint I'd already buggered the thing up. Julian just said, "Oh don't worry. I can salvage that," and he did something to it and sold it. Q. What's the best thing you've acquired from the set of one of your movies. A. The BAFTA award Joe Orton was given for Loot in Prick up Your Ears. They'd had a few made up and I said to the props guy, "Can I have one of these?" So he gave it to me. I really like it. Q. You're the king of accents. Is there one you can't do? A. I can do a rough approximation of virtually any accent. I've always done them; as a kid I used to do the Beatles as a party piece. When I was with the Royal Court Theatre we used to piss around and people would say, "I bet you can't do Zimbabwe," so I did it. The accent on The Contender - Illinois - was the hardest I ever had to do, because there's no melody to catch on to. Most accents have a music to them, but Illinois is a very flat, unimaginative thing. Q. Apparently, you snipped out a tabloid story about you headlined "Boozy Randy Horror". Have you got any other favourites you snuck into your scrapbook? A. Yeah, I kept that one for a while. Then there was the story about me beating up Robert DeNiro who I've never actually met. But it's the Internet that bothers me. I recently ran into an old sparring partner of mine, Winona Ryder, and we had our photograph taken. It was all very chatty, very pleasant - but on the net it was billed like some secret, romantic thingy, headline: "Gary and Winona back together." We were never together in the first place! Q. When you were a kid growing up in south-east London, you wanted to be a concert pianist. Did you get the piss ripped out of you by the local toe-rags for that? A. Oh yes - until you sit down and play Elton John. That shuts them up. But I kept the idea of wanting to act quiet because it's not something you do, is it, in Sarf London? Q. When you auditioned to study drama, somebody asked you what you had to fall back on and you said, "thieving". What was the biggest thing you ever stole? A. Um, I dunno, I can't talk about that. It was bits and bobs - all harmless fun, all part of growing up and being British. Everybody did it/ Q.What do you want to be doing when you're an old man? A. I have a romantic notion of me with the grandkids, sort of like Picasso or Peter O'Toole or someone. I may look better than Peter though. Maybe I'll go back into theatre. And of course I'll have written my book and've fucking nailed everyone - really given it to them. Q.You've gone though a bit of a drink problem. What was the first thing you noticed when you came off the booze? A. How much other people drink - way more than they'd like to admit to. I don't hanker after it because I know where it can take me. I don't ever want to go back to that. Q. So you're teetotal now? A. I had to stop completely, yeah. It's not difficult - the obsession lifts, but you have to work on it. Putting down the drink is just the beginning. Q. Finally, if you were given the chance to live forever, but were unable to ever have sex again, would you go for it? A. Yes. No hesitation. I could watch.

Tuesday, 16 December 2008 | 3197 hits | Print |  Write e-mail

Big issue ^Featured

Big issue article         Article THE BIG ISSUE- interview Hollywood is a solidly Democrat town. Many of the biggest players either contributed funds to or even campaigned for the democratic party. The city's pretty forgiving of most human frailties- drug problems, or the alcohol addiction that Gary Oldman suffered from for years, for example. Being gay does not have the stigma it once had, but in the town where Pee Wee Herman's made a comeback as a serious actor (after the porn incident in a porno cinema) and no one bats an eye if you say you're a Scientologist, one thing remains beyond the pale. You can't get away with having right-wing sympathies. You might manage it for awhile while you're on top of the box-office pyramid, like Bruce Willis or Arnold Schwarzenger, but the Austrian's dwindling status seems to be slipping in inverse proportion to his vocal support for the Republicans' cause. So you have to give Gary Oldman credit for having the couldn't-give-a damn bolshiness to come out as a Republican sympathizer in this of all towns-even if he can't vote anyway since he is not a U.S citizen. But then again, the London born actor and the director of the acclaimed Nil By Mouth, who's made plenty of money playing the villain (most recently as Mason Verger in Hannibal) has never been shy about speaking his mind, even to diss a film he's helped shape. This is exactly what's happen with The Contender, a political drama written and directed by critic-turned film-maker Rod Lurie. The film depicts twisty horse-trading and back stabbing intrigue behind the scenes as a fictional president (Jeff Bridges) puts forward woman senator (Joan Allen) as his vice-presidential choice before a congressional president. It's headed by Republican representative Shelly Runyon (Gary Oldman) who is determined to scupper her confirmation by leaking what appear to be photos of her taking part in a frat- house orgy years before. Oldman is the best thing in the movie hewing depths of character from the nervous way he changes his glasses before he meets the press, or systematically tucks into a bloody steak, chewing demurely, during a confrontational lunch scene with Allen's Hanson. When it was released last October in the U.S., mere weeks before the election, Oldman, the film's executive producer, and his manager-producer-partner Douglas Urbanski (one of film's producers, who appears in it as Runyon's shadowy cohort, memorably advising they should "gut the bitch in the belly") were openly critical of the final film. They charged that the editing & the soundtrack, supervised by Steven Spielberg personally (Dreamworks had bought the film for distribution), had turned the film into gooey liberal mush. And even though our interview was set up so Oldman could promote the movie, director Lurie's selling- out still seems to be smart. Sitting in the office of his production company (though situated in L.A, it's called SE8 in a post-coded tribute to his south London roots) and speaking in smooth, well-modulated, still mostly cockney voice, Oldman's manner doesn't seem angry, but the words are stingingly frank. I ask Oldman what went wrong with The Contender. "I'll tell you what went wrong: big shotism. The director got a big head. Thought he knew it all. He needed us when he needed us (then) Mr. Spielberg came on to this picture.. and Rod was just in his trajectory. I know it all now," he says. Is he bitter? "I'm not. I'm sad that had we continued the way we started- as a team - had we continued with that collaboration I think the movie could have been better. And that's why I am sad; I think it could have been a really great movie with some great scenes- it's uneven. How different is it from the film he thought he was making? "The script had flaws but it had a different energy and a different dynamic." He says. My character was more sympathetic, I guess, more rounded. And then those moments were taken away. They put bad-guy music on them, and I became the bad guy & they became the good guys, What we really liked about it was that it was grey, it was ambiguous, and it wasn't black & white - Rod is not the most talented person I've worked with." Oldman doesn't see things in black & white. He's an ambiguous guy. In fact, I leave the interview utterly charmed by the man, but little wiser about where he stands on specifics.Although no great fan of the rich, what he loves about America is couched in terms of monetary success. ""If you have a doorman in London, in the same position here he could own the building one day. In London he's always be a doorman," he explains. "There is hope that one can get on and be encouraged. It's like Michael Caine said: here a kid can look at a Cadillac and say I'm gonna get me one of those. In England they fucking scratch it." And yet the film-makers he most admires are all red-as-roses left wingers: Ken Loach, John Cassevettes and particularly Alan Clarke, who directed him in The Firm and whom he cites as one of the directors he as learned the most from. Oldman also professes great admiration for the brilliant Marxist journalist Christopher Hitchens, mainly because Hitchens has given the Clintons such a rough ride. As an ex-pat British subject, does he support Hitchens' demands for the abolition of the monarchy? "Of course I say I don't have an opinion one way or the other until you try to film in London and you want to put a bit of dolly track in the road, and it's "oh you can't close down the Queen's highway." Then you may have more of an immediate response about the royal family, in the moment." Following on from observing that the Windsors are just another very dysfunctional family, he does all voices for a hilarious, extemporized fantasy sketch about the Queen going for therapy. The sense I get is this - like most people, to be fair- Oldman's political sympathies are mostly built on personal experiences and emotional responses to personalities, hardly surprising in an actor. He asks me how are things going for Labour at the moment, and I tell him not so hot. "We're starting to miss Maggie, aren't we?" he observes. What he liked about Bush was that he was "a simple man who, as far as I could see, came over as very sincere. (In the debates) he didn't pretend to know everything, which is charming. Gore looked like a sweaty, rather overweight version of Christopher Reeves as Clark Kent, with that pathological sense of entitlement." Whatever his politics are, I can't help but like Gary Oldman himself, as a person and as an actor. He speaks his mind & pisses people off and has no shame about doing roles beneath his talents and then biting the hand that distributes the paychecks. I'm treated to another impression of Dino De Laurentis (producer of Hannibal) "Gary we make-a, a movie", while he's evasively explaining why he was uncredited for that film (we run out of time before I can get a complete answer). Currently he & Urbanski are having some trouble raising money for his next directorial project "Joe Buck", which is about sexual addiction. Oldman says that it was Francis Ford Coppola who taught him to accept that compromise might be productive. "I had an ideal, a dream, for Joe Buck and every door I open has been closed. But out of compromise and necessity, because I'm going to make this movie, I am enjoying the process far more than I think I would have done. Everyone's saying no, you can't do this or that, and it's like fuck them, I can." That doesn't sound very compromising, but given what a one- man riot Oldman was in his early years before he went to AA and beat his alcoholism, it's positively pipe-and-s lippers mellow. When I ask if the control-kick he gets as a director might be akin to the "god-like" feeling he says he got from drinking, he acts genuinely surprised, like the notion never occurred to him before. But clearly he's found something to temper all that anger in there, the anger you can see in Nil By Mouth's harrowing out-of-shot violence. At the time of our interview, it's been reported that his wife Donya Fiorentino, whom he met at an AA meeting, has gone back into rehab and Oldman is taking care of their 2 sons & her daughter from her first marriage by himself. Naturally, his wife's problems aren't mentioned in our chat (though he cancels a photo session twice, citing "personal problems"). But there's undoubtedly a keen tenderness there when he talks about how happy he is when his son Gulliver falls asleep on his lap when they curl up to watch the Discovery channel together.  

Tuesday, 16 December 2008 | 2864 hits | 1 comment | Print |  Write e-mail

The Many Lives of Gary Oldman ^Featured

The Many Lives of Gary Oldman         Article Onscreen he's played villains and punks; offscreen he's lived hard and fast. Now, Gary Oldman has faced down his demons--both in his personal life and in his powerful directorial debut, Nil By Mouth. By David A. Keeps. Photographed by Wayne Maser "When I was a kid, if you gave me a couple sheets of paper and some crayons, you wouldn't hear from me. I could do that for 10 hours straight. I was always drawing race cars and planes and rockets. And doing my own little bit of armchair Freudian analysis now, I realize I was always thinking of things that had speed and were going to take me somewhere." In his 39 years, Gary Oldman has gone the distance. He escaped his harsh working-class roots through the theater and won critical acclaim and star billing for a rogues' gallery of characters, including punk rocker Sid Vicious, gay playwright Joe Orton, Lee Harvey Oswald and Dracula. Along with peers Daniel Day-Lewis and Tim Roth, he redefined the British angry young man as an international film icon. He has also survived years of personal turmoil, tempestuous relationships and tabloid headlines, coming out of his darkness to a happy Hollywood ending. With Nil By Mouth, Oldman arrives as an auteur, having written the script, put up more than half of the $4.5 million budget, directed the film and commissioned a score by Eric Clapton. Set in the terminally depressed, brutally ugly pubs and housing projects of southeast London, Nil By Mouth is a wrenching drama of dysfunction, an unflinching look at mental, physical and chemical abuse. Much of the film was shot with telephoto lenses, shifting focus, cluttered framing and grainy color. "I wanted gray buildings and gray people," Oldman says. "Clapton described it as me throwing up. "I took a risk. I put my money where my mouth was so I wouldn't have men in suits coming to the table saying, I Can't you make the ending more upbeat? Because if it felt like a movie to me, I would destroy." Cast with largely unknown British actors, Nil By Mouth offers a claustrophobic portrayal of four generations of put-upon women: a tough granny, a widowed mother with a junkie son and an abused daughter, and the daughter's frightened little girl. The principal male character, Ray (Ray Winstone), is a physical and emotional terrorist who beats his wife (Kathy Burke, named Best Actress at Cannes). "In any other movie, Ray would get his comeuppance," Oldman tells me. "But he's as much a victim in that marriage as she is. Underneath that violence there's someone who is insecure and loving and caring." I meet Oldman at his new office, a walk-up above a ritzy storefront, just east of Beverly Hills. On the wall is an original poster for John Cassavetes' A Woman Under the Influence. Besides Cassavetes, Oldman's a big fan of Pasolini, Rossellini and Altman. Oldman is slight, almost scrawny, dressed in a blue sweater and cream-colored jeans. His face registers fleeting emotions. At times he looks rough, vulnerable, mean and terribly sweet. In just the right light, at just the right angle, he has all the beauty of a young David Bowie. Lighting a cigarette, he perches on an upholstered chair, but not for long. He stalks the room, talking about the reception his film has met in England: "They love me at the moment. I'm the prodigal son." It hasn't always been that way. He's been criticized for squandering his immense abilities playing designer villains in summer blockbusters such as The Fifth Element and Air Force One, movies "that don't in any way represent who I am or where I'm at," he insists. "The thing I find most annoying about England and this great tradition of theater is the way they look at me and say, He's good, but he can't do the classics. But you don't look at DeNiro and go, Yes, fantastic in Raging Bull, but can he do Shakespeare?" Besides, Oldman reckons, in his countrymen's eyes, he has committed the greatest sin: being a success in America. "I'd built up this whole thing about England, and I carried it around with me. But when I went back to make the film, I felt pretty comfortable. It slayed a big dragon in my head, a monster that I'd built up about England. I won't romanticize it. It wasn't cathartic; it wasn't some experience that was cleansing: I was making a fucking movie." Nevertheless, there is a lot of autobiographical material in the film. There's a scene taken directly from his memories: " I remember my mother took dinner into the pub and my father said, What's this? And she said, You live here, you might as well eat here." And there is they key moment in which Ray, the violent alcoholic tyrant, breaks down and cries while remembering how his father never gave him "one kiss or one cuddle." The scene refers to the central trauma of Oldman's life: how his father left his mother and him for a younger woman when Gary was only seven, and eventually drank himself to death. During the closing credits of Nil By Mouth, there's a line that simply reads, "For My Father." Oldman cast his sister Laila Morse as the widowed mother, and at the end of the film, an actress lip-synchs to a recording of his own mother singing "Can't Help Loving That Man of Mine." Though Nil By Mouth is littered with violence and expletives, Oldman's mother thinks it's terrific. "My family's proud of me," Oldman says. "But for them the true test of my celebrity is who I'm in a movie with. If it's not Michael Caine or Sean Connery, then I'm not doing too good." Gary Leonard Oldman [sic] was born March 21, 1958, in New Cross, a rough section of London. He was, he says, "an afterthought. One night my mother maybe just had one too many sherries. My uncle says that he saw me shortly after I was born and I stank of booze. Maybe he was standing too close to my daddy." Although it was a struggle to make ends meet after his father left, Gary, who reminded his family of the old man, was indulged. Young Gary wanted to be an astronaut, but first realized the power of performing when he did impressions of the Beatles at family gatherings. He had a crush on the actress Susan George and collected film soundtracks. He knew every word of Dustin Hoffman's performance as Lenny Bruce. (Oldman has a rapier wit and is a superb mimic. In our time together, he does Hoffman, assorted British snobs and a host of silly American accents.) He excelled at sports but was a poor, distracted student, leaving school at 16. Eventually, after failing an audition at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, he studied theater at the lesser known Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama. He quickly advanced through the world of British theater, did teleplays and films, and began landing career-making roles. His breakthrough was Sid and Nancy. With typical obsessiveness, he lost 30 pounds to play Sid Vicious and wound up in the hospital. Onscreen and off, it was his willingness to tempt fate that would come to define Gary Oldman. He was in rehab twice and is now clean and sober. "I believe AA is the greatest spiritual movement of the 20th century. It's a program of rigorous self-honesty, because, you see, you're only as sick as your secrets." In the beginning he drank socially. It was the thing to do in his harsh environment. "It was the passport to the world of men," he explains. It was also a theatrical tradition. ("Richard Burton, Peter O'Toole, John Barrymore--it's all romanticizing booze.") Eventually, he'd have private benders, checking into hotels and drinking his way through the minibar. He developed a reputation. "The myth, the legend, whatever you want to call it," he says. "And rightly or wrongly, I played up the image." In 1991 he was arrested for drunk driving after a night out in L.A. with Kiefer Sutherland. The incident has become part of the Gary Oldman Story, which bugs him a bit and makes him despair for what the media has become, but he takes it with a grain of salt: "It was like a wake-up call. I could have killed somebody. So, I stopped driving." He laughs at the method to his madness. "I couldn't let it get in the way of my drinking." It's been said that alcoholics are egomaniacs with low self-esteem, and for Oldman that was certainly part of it. "Looking back at the stuff I did, it was like walking in my father's shoes. Here's someone who hadn't really influenced me--we spoke on the phone a couple of times when I was a teenager--yet it was like I had a blueprint I was following. Then I'd get into therapy and realize I've just gotta stop this cycle." A year ago, Oldman married his third wife, Donya Fiorentino, an American model he met at a dinner party. His first wife was a British actress named Lesley Mannville, with whom he had a son, Alfie, now nine. In 1990 he married Uma Thurman, then 20; they divorced less than two years later. He was engaged to, but never married, Isabella Rossellini. "I've been in relationships where I've rehearsed the breakup while actually participating in the relationship. In here," he says, fingering his skull, "I've played all the scenes." Things are different now. His wife is also in recovery. "I'm learning that you can say something or do something and your partner can say, I don't like that, instead of running for divorce court." They had a son last year, Gulliver. "He's certainly living up to his name. He's a giant of a baby," Oldman says with pride. "And it's fitting that it's a boy. It's like I can put an emotional Band-Aid on someone. I can right some of the wrongs." These days, Oldman spends as much time as he can at home. His mother recently moved to L.A. to be near him, and he's thinking about resuming a documentary on her that he began filming some years back. He listens to Sinatra, plays piano and paints a bit (he's done some casual things with Julian Schnabel). He recently finished playing Dr. Smith in the movie version of Lost In Space, which, he says, is "darker, not at all camp as you might expect." He may dust off a "Woody Allen-esque" script he wrote a while ago. "Nil By Mouth" mustn't become the golden chalice. But I'm finding it very hard to write something at the moment." Not to worry. He'll direct again. And even though he claims to be a bit bored with it, he'll keep acting, keep taking chances. In his office, just before I leave, I hear him and his manager discussing something that will keep him close to home and make a lot of people happy, something really out there. Coming to you soon: a Gary Oldman sitcom? Harper's BAZAAR February 1998

Tuesday, 16 December 2008 | 5159 hits | Print |  Write e-mail

"Nil By mouth" review ^Featured

"Nil By mouth" review         Article BY ROGER EBERT Gary Oldman's ``Nil by Mouth'' descends into a domestic hell of violence, drugs and booze, where a man can kick his pregnant wife and then, drunk, scrape out the words ``My Baby'' on the wallpaper with his bloody fingernails. It takes place in the pubs and streets of South London, where the actor grew up, and is dedicated enigmatically, ``In memory of my father.'' We want to stand back out of the way: Something primal, needful and anguished is going on here. Using a hand-held camera and closeup style, Oldman plunges into the middle of this family as its members spend a night at their local pub. At first we don't understand all the relationships, but Oldman uses the right approach: These people know one another so intimately and in such fearsome ways that any ``establishing'' scenes would dilute the impact. The center of authority in the film is Janet (Laila Morse), the worn blond mother whose factory job is one of the family's few steady sources of income. Her own aged, feisty mother, Kath (Edna Dore), is still around. Janet's daughter is Valerie (Kathy Burke, who won the best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival). Val's husband, Ray (Ray Winstone), is a violent drunk whose rage alternates with self-pity. Val's brother, Janet's son, is Billy (Charlie Creed-Miles). He has a drug habit. Ray's best friend, Mark (Jamie Forman), is emotionally dependent on him--maybe he's an excitement junkie, who feeds on the moments when Ray explodes. This family weeps, bleeds and endures. Billy, who lives with Val and Ray, is thrown out of the house after some money is missing; Ray beats him and bites his nose, and Billy staggers into a bleak dawn--homeless, although he still lives on the outskirts of the family, like a wounded wolf following the pack. A day or so later, Ray walks into a pub and finds his wife, Val, playing pool with a casual friend. Ray seems cheerful at first, but he has the personality changes of the alcoholic, and orders her home, where he weeps and explodes in a jealous rage, sure that Val (who is large with child) was having an affair with the man. She miscarries after his beating. One of the film's key scenes comes after Val returns home and is seen, black, blue and bandaged, by her mother. She tells Janet she was struck by a hitand-run driver. Janet clearly knows Ray beat her daughter, but accepts the story. The dialogue here is precise in its observation; Val's details all have to do with the location (``You know, down by the shops''), as if the story is proved by the fact that the shops exist. Her mother vows revenge on the bastard driver who committed the hit and run; both women understand this is code for Ray. (``You know what it's like going to hospitals late at night,'' Janet says at one point. In most healthy families, this is not something everyone knows.) The film's portrait of street life in South London is unflinching and observant. Billy, drifting, looking for a fix, gets involved in a strange fight over a tattooed street person and his little pet dog. He goes to his mother's factory to borrow money for a fix, and then asks her to drive him to a dealer. Back in her van, he starts to shoot up, and she snaps, ``Get in the back of the van where no one can see you.'' Just like a mother. The cost of Billy's habit is something Janet knows, just as in another family the mother would know the size of her son's paycheck. Gary Oldman clearly is dealing here with autobiographical wounds. I saw him after the film played at Cannes, and he volunteered the information that a ch air in the film is the same one his father sat in while drinking at home. He spoke in a flat voice, giving information, but I sensed that the chair was still occupied by the stabbing ghosts of days and words. Yet ``Nil by Mouth'' is not an unrelieved shriek of pain. There is humor in it, and tender insight. After he almost kills himself on a bender, Ray is hospitalized, and Mark visits him. In a monologue brilliantly delivered by Winstone, Ray complains about the lack of love from his own father: ``Not one kiss. Not one cuddle.'' In Ray's mind, he is the abused child. We sense Oldman's ability to understand, if not forgive. At the beginning of ``Nil by Mouth'' we cannot understand the South London dialect very easily, and aren't sure who all the characters are. By the end, we know this family and we understand everything they say, and many things they do not say. And we remember another very minor character in the film, the small child of Ray and Val, who sits at the top of the stairs during a bloody fight, and sees everything. Footnote: Dedicated to Oldman's father, the film is filled with personal touches. The actress who plays Janet, billed as ``Laila Morse,'' is the actor's sister; her stage name is an anagram of ``my sister'' in Italian. When Kath sings ``Can't Help Lovin' That Man'' over the closing credits, the voice dubbed onto the track belongs to Oldman's 75-year-old mother. And that is his father's chair.  

Tuesday, 16 December 2008 | 3180 hits | 1 comment | Print |  Write e-mail

"Rough Diamond" 1997 ^Featured

"Rough Diamond"         Article Rough diamond Gary Oldman is a new man. Derek Malcolm meets a reformed character Friday September 26, 1997 'Gary Oldman: Madman or Genius?', asked the cover page of Premiere, the movie magazine, three years ago. At that time, Madman seemed the more appropriate title for the tearaway and alcoholic British actor who, despite 'thinking he had Lester Piggott in his jockey shorts', was making it reasonably big in Hollywood. Now Oldman, though still living in Los Angeles - and with an American accent to hand if he wants to convince fans he isn't British at all - has certain claims to being considered, if not a genius, at least more widely talented than we might have thought. This is because he's, at last, kicked the booze, and married Andrew Ridgeley's American ex-girlfriend Donya Fiorentino, whom he met in rehab. It's also because, against most people's odds, he's directed his first film. Nil By Mouth, which won Kathy Burke the Best Actress award at Cannes, and should by rights have won Ray Winstone the Best Actor award, too. It is an entirely British project in style and content, set in the working-class area of south London where Oldman grew up. And it's a coruscating study of the damage that drink can do to a whole family. Winstone's paterfamilias abuses his wife (Burke) and makes life miserable for himself and everybody after his junkie brother-in-law steals from him. Totally paranoid, he believes his wife is having an affair. The violence begins. The film is an extraordinarily intense study of that kind of urban just-this-side-of-the-law existence which Oldman experienced as a teenager, but which most Hollywood stars, given similar beg-innings, would probably have been incapable of remembering with such accuracy - or, of wishing to see on film. That its artistic success meant a lot to Oldman was evident at Cannes when, hearing of the Guardian's first admiring review of the film, he is said to have shed tears. But don't bank on that. The Mail reporter, who also liked the film, said the actor cried on his shoulder - which Oldman says is 'utter balls'. One thing is certain. The film clearly meant a lot to Oldman, and much more than the rather silly villains he has, of late, played in such films as The Fifth Element and Air Force One. Those films, though, paid for Nil By Mouth, which cost about Dollars 4.5 million, much of that stemming from his own pocket. The film - its title echoing the notice beside the hospital bed of the insensate drunk at the centre of the story - ends as a kind of wary tribute to Oldman's father. Oldman senior left Gary's mother at the age of six and drank - like his son - eventually dying of alcoholism. It isn't true, as the tabloids said to Oldman's disgust, that Nil By Mouth entirely mirrors his father's life or that he was really so violent towards his wife. But there is no question that the feeling of redemption at the end of this very tough film, littered with swear words, has something to do with father and son. As Oldman puts it: 'I realised that I was repeating a lot of the behaviour of my dad, and what I've tried to do in my own life is to break that cycle. I drank for 25 years over my father, but in the end you have to resolve that or go under. You have to find some way to forgive. Wherever you are, dad, here it is on screen. I forgive you.' He says that whatever he has used for the story, he's used with discretion and respect; that certain things which happened in real life (though not between his father and mother) were far worse than anything he put in the film. 'You remember where the w ife gets beaten up? That was taken from an event that actually happened in my family. Only, in reality, the man hit the woman with a steel-capped boot and tried to drown her. Some things were so horrendous that I couldn't possibly put them in.' Winstone, he says, plays only a part of his father, with a bit of Oldman himself thrown in, plus a slice of a mate he knew at school and an ex-brother-in-law, too. It was a risky business, but his family have seen the film and he thinks 'they were very moved by its honesty'. He says he set out to make a sort of love letter, something from the heart. The last thing he wanted to do was patronise or disgrace them. 'They don't feel sorry for themselves. That is what's so champion about my family. We had some tough times. When my dad left, we didn't have two halfpennies to rub together. So mum went out and worked at two jobs. And she wasn't the only heroic woman in the family. They don't do so well on self-esteem, these amazing women. But they ought to, because there's an extraordinary stoicism and resilience about them. That has its bad side as it makes them keep coming back for more, no matter what. But they never, ever give up, and that's good.' At the end of the film, in a pub sing-song led by Edna Dore, there's an emotional rendering of Loving That Man Of Mine, from the film Showboat. The voice is that of Oldman's 76-year-old mother whom he brought over to New York for the recording. He also cast his sister who, at that time, had never acted before - she's listed as Laila Morse, which is an anagram for mia sorella. Burke sums up her performance: 'When she got over her nervousness at the start, I had to pull all the stops out to equal her. She knew exactly what it was all about.' No doubt about it, Nil By Mouth is an intensely personal affair, made the more so by Oldman's taking people off the streets of his old neighbourhood to be in the film. Despite the fact that he's made big money in the United States, Oldman insists he made the film for these people and resisted any attempt to water down either the accents or the language. 'Fuck America and the rest. They'll have to lump it. I've done enough for a general audience. This is for one particular one.' Oldman has done a lot for general audiences, and he shows signs of getting a bit sick of it. Particularly because that audience, or the people who want to attract it, want him to do roughly the same thing again and again, he believes. He says he knows he hasn't got Andy Garcia's face or a gym-honed body, but he doesn't see why he should play villains all the time. 'Honestly,' he complains, 'I am beginning to get tired of me.' 'Me' wasn't always Dracula and suchlike. After enrolling at the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama (where he's now an honorary fellow and rather prouder of that than of some of his other accolades), he made his name at the Royal Court in plays such as Serious Money and Women Beware Women. Then he broke into film, through television with Alan Clarke's The Firm, and Mike Leigh's Meantime, and with Alex Cox's Sid and Nancy, Stephen Frears's Prick Up Your Ears, and Nick Roeg's Track 29 - five widely differing parts that proved him much more than just a colourful character actor able to do a lot of accents. There weren't too many British films about at that time, and there were people like Daniel Day Lewis and Tim Roth competing for the few decent parts going. 'Daniel had the right accent too, which most people thought was well beyond me.' So Hollywood seemed the obvious place to go, both for the money, since he was skint at the time, and for 'the opportunity to get regular practice'. Once on the other side of the Atlantic, he landed the part of the lawyer in Criminal Law, who discovers his client is a murderer and rapist; he also played the role of a violent gangster in State Of Grace, and portrayed Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK. Then, Coppola beckoned with Bram Stoker's Dracula and that seemed to set so me sort of pattern for the rest of his American career. True Romance followed, a film in which he played a foul-mouthed and drug dealing pimp. 'When I read the Tarantino script, I laughed my leg off,' he says, 'I loved the whole cocktail of it. I thought it would lubricate my tool. But it hardly made me into a leading man.' Shortly after he arrived in LA from New York for Dracula, Oldman ended up one night wrapped round a lamp-post in his car (minus a driving licence) and then finally handcuffed in a police cell. It was the start of an affair with the tabloids back home which, he maintains, led to so many half-truths and 'downright lies' about himself; and the bitterness clung on. Broken relationships with Uma Thurman and Isabella Rossellini kept him in the gossip writers' headlines and the drinking did the rest. 'OK,' he says, 'I was an idiot. But I wasn't the kind of idiot they said I was. I did a lot of stupid things. When you're drunk, you think you can pull any bird in the room and they'll just love the idea of it. You also think you can say anything you like to anybody without them taking offence. Actually, you need the sauce to fill whatever hole that's there in yourself. And, believe it or not, I was always a bit shy and retiring really. Honest. 'But a lot of the time, I wasn't partying. I was drinking alone, which is worse, it's often solitary and desperate. I got to the point where I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I talked on the phone when it wasn't plugged in, and I was getting out of bed, crawling across the floor on my hands and knees, vomiting in the shower and blaming it on the shampoo. You name it, I've probably been there. And back again.' He went into treatment and, because he was a celebrity, couldn't do it anonymously. So he chose to come clean about it all. There was no announcement of nervous exhaustion. Instead he chose to say: 'I have this illness, I suffer from this disease and I need all the help I can get.' He remembers that on the wall at the Alcoholics Anonymous meetings he went to, were the words: 'Would you do to another person what you do to yourself?' And he thought: 'I wouldn't do it to an enemy.' Recovery, he now says, really meant being nice to himself. And what kept him going was the rather American thought that most people are a lot sicker than they think they are, and that most need therapy. Nil By Mouth was a kind of therapy by itself, though he is adamant that he could never have made it if he'd been set on drinking. He says it was the hardest thing he ever did. But still he wasn't falling asleep at night. 'I was so tired, I was going into a coma. I've never worked so hard in my life. And at the end I felt as if I'd never want to go through it again.' Oldman says he wants to make more films since he is ever so slightly bored with acting. But maybe if Woody Allen called . . . apparently he did once and the timetable just wasn't going to work out. Just his luck. Even so, he's quite grateful that acting has given him so much - such as the funds to acquire a valuable collection of paintings, and the capability of looking after his children (a son by his first marriage to Lesley Manville and his new wife is about to give birth) in ways that he, as a child, hadn't known himself. Celebrity doesn't interest him much, he says. In fact, he claims, it frightens him. 'I once had dinner with Brad Pitt at the Ivy in London and when we came out of the restaurant we were surrounded by hords of photographers waiting for him not me. We had to drive off like the clappers with them chasing. And they were chasing us right through the red lights. It was like the Grand Prix going through the centre of London. I couldn't believe it. 'For me, it's generally okay here. People just say 'Oh yes,it's him. So bloody what'. It's OK in New York too, because people are too busy going about their business to care. But in Los Angeles, you can't walk in the street or go into a shop or restau rant without a crowd forming. I can't imagine what someone like Tom Cruise suffers all the time, everywhere he goes. It's got to do things to your head and they can't be very nice things either.'  

Tuesday, 16 December 2008 | 2426 hits | Print |  Write e-mail

"The Irish Times :South London's Finest (1997) ^Featured

"The Irish Times :South London's Finest (1997)         Article Saturday, October 4, 1997 South London's Finest Known as a villain on screen and an alcoholic in the tabloids, the vastly talented Gary Oldman has turned a corner by directing Nil By Mouth, a bleak, award-winning study of what drink can do to an entire family. Hugh Linehan meets him in London I don't think I've ever seen Gary Oldman look relaxed on screen, but sitting in a Knightsbridge hotel this week he seems very pleased with his lot, despite the fact that he's talking about how he waved goodbye to $2 million on his directorial debut, Nil By Mouth. "No, I probably won't get it back, but I don't really mind - it's my voice and my vision, so I'm quite happy to take a loss on it. Creative freedom has a price tag. The Americans didn't want to know this material - they just saw a lot of `f***s' and `c***s'. So you go off and you make this dark, lowbudget movie, and you have to say that you're making it for yourself." From Sid Vicious to Count Dracula by way of Lee Harvey Oswald, Oldman has played some of the most potent anti-heroes of the 20th century. His career path, from bright young thing at the Royal Court through some of the best British films of the 1980s to stock Hollywood villain, is a familiar and slightly depressing one for a British actor. The working class boy from south London has achieved wealth and fame, but recent performances in The Fifth Element and Air Force One seemed more generic and less inspired than, say, his lunatic portrayal of a home-boy drug dealer in Tony Scott's True Romance. But just as he seemed to be heading towards self-parody, filed in the casting lists under "psychopath", Oldman has reinvented himself as a director, and a very good one, too. Nil By Mouth, Oldman's compelling and savage portrait of a semi-criminal south London family torn apart by drink, drugs and violence, was enthusiastically received at this year's Cannes Film Festival, winning the Best Actress award for Kathy Burke's portrayal of the abused wife, Valerie. Oldman isn't giving up the day job in Hollywood, though. "To be very honest with you, these lucrative villains subsidise the more personal stuff. Air Force One's not a movie I'd particularly want to go and see myself, it's just not my cup of tea. But I'm lucky that I have this lucrative second career. I'm getting older, I'm nearly 40 and I've got responsibilities and a family (he has a son by his first marriage, and his new wife, Donya Fiorentino, is about to give birth). I've got to put food on the table and pay the mortgage like everybody else. If I want to take time away from the marketplace as an actor, and take two years out of my life to go off and do something like this that I feel very passionate about, I have to go and do a movie like Ai r Force One that buys me freedom, as cynical as that sounds." In the course of his "lucrative second career", Oldman has worked with some of the world's most successful and technically proficient directors, and seems to have picked up some tricks along the way. The sheer virtuosity and confidence of Nil By Mouth, shot in grainy 16-millimetre in long, hand-held takes, is astonishing in a debut film. "Without blowing my own trumpet, my editor told me that it wasn't like working with a first-time director. I guess I've picked it up by some kind of osmosis. I know what I don't like, and I had very specific ideas of how I wanted to shoot it. I wanted a dark quality, I didn't want it to be glossy. I wanted it to look the way I see the world." During production, Oldman ran a rough 10-minute excerpt for Stephen Frears, who had directed him 10 years before in the role of Joe Orton in Prick Up Your Ears. "Stephen said `It's nothing like what I expected. It's sort of like Scorsese, isn't it? It doesn't look British.' " But while Nil By Mouth is "cinematic" in a way that one doesn't expect from this kind of subject matter, he accepts that the film also shows the influence of the previous generation of British film-makers, many of whom he worked with as a young rising star in the 1980s. "This movie does follow in certain traditions. Without people like Alan Clarke, Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, there couldn't be a film like Nil By Mouth, but then without Rossellini, Pasolini and Cassavetes, there couldn't be a Ken Loach. I guess what I wanted was the feeling that one is a voyeur looking through the keyhole, but also to have that sense of claustrophobia. You're on the sofa in the room with these people, being suffocated by them." I suggest that one of the things that makes Nil By Mouth so impressive is its refusal to take the easy option of sentimentalising the pain of its characters. "Yeah, I was the sentimentality police. If anyone started to get self-pitying or sentimental, I'd knock it down." The name that recurs most often in our conversation is that of the late, great Alan Clarke, the brilliant television director whose unflinching, sometimes brutal portraits of life on the margins of British society in the 1970s and '80s are the most obvious forebears of the tough new strain of British cinema currently emerging. Clarke directed Oldman as the ringleader of a gang of football hooligans in his 1989 TV drama The Firm, which seems to offer the closest points of comparison to Nil By Mouth. But Oldman cites another Clarke film, Elephant, as a particular inspiration. Filmed in relentlessly long takes, Elephant depicts 18 sectarian murders in Northern Ireland without comment, and with virtually no dialogue. "That was such a brilliant idea. The reason it was called Elephant was because Clarkey went to Northern Ireland and asked what it was like living with the Troubles. Someone said it's like living with an elephant in your living room. In my film you're stuck in a room with all that negative energy. There's no communication going on. People pick up on the wife-beating and the physical violence, but for me it's more that the film is emotionally, verbally and spiritually violent." At the end of Nil By Mouth (the meaning of the title becomes clear in the film's pivotal scene), there's a moving rendition of the old song Loving That Man of Mine. The voice singing is that of Oldman's 76-year-old mother, while his sister also acts in the film (she's credited as Laila Morse, an anagram of mia sorella - my sister). What little hope there is in the culture he is depicting seems to reside in the qualities shown by the women, he agrees. "In my experience, women are generally emotionally stronger. Coming from a pub culture, your passport to manhood is when you're pushed up to the bar at the age of 14 and you're going to fart and play darts and tell dirty jokes and drink beer. In the film, the guys in the pub are talking nonsense, and the women at home are talking common sense. The men are like these whirlwinds that set off this chaos. They keep throwing all the pieces of the jigsaw up in the air, and the women are just pragmatic, getting down and trying to stick it all back together again. "But there's no hope at the end of this film - it's a bleak outlook. But I don't see what the answer is." He vehemently rejects criticisms voiced at Cannes of the film's "apolitical" stance. "People are political. It's in the fibre of the thing. This is as much about my feeling about the English class system as it is about anything else. "You're walking a bit of a tightrope, because it is so bleak, and the picture I've drawn of that part of London is not going to have the local council jumping for joy. But I photographed what was there. I tried very hard not to be sentimental or to poke fun at them because they haven't got the right wallpaper. I wanted to shoot London differently. I'm always fascinated by how dramatic and strangely beautiful those landscapes are." HE acknowledges that some parts of the film are deeply autobiographical. His own father was an alcoholic who left the family home when Oldman was six, and finally drank himself to death. Gary himself had a much-publicised struggle with his own drink problem - he's now officially a non-drinking alcoholic. "One woman said to me she quite liked my movie, but she found it too personal. Since when has `too personal' been a criticism of a work of art? It's all personal." So is there a lot of him, then, in Raymond - the tortured, violent, abusive petty criminal who dominates Nil By Mouth? "I've never hit anyone, because I'm not violent, but that self-loathing, and that alcoholic bottom he hits, talking to the walls, I've done all that." He sees a description of alcoholics as "egomaniacs with low self-esteem" as the perfect definition. He's wary, though, of anyone trying to draw too direct a correlation between his own experiences and the events in the film, after some bruising treatment at the hands of the British tabloids. "There's some things I've said, where maybe I should have guarded myself a little more. But the tabloid press run away and turn it all up side down, and all of a sudden I'm reading in the News of the World that my Dad beat up my Mum. My family call me up and say Dad never hit Mum and I go `I know he didn't. I never said that'." He knows that he has to expect this kind of treatment because of what he describes sardonically as his "swanky, slightly glossy profile", but his anger is clear. "Someone else popped up, who's a stepdaughter of my father. I've never met her, but a journalist called up, saying she wants to be reunited with me, and that we had both suffered at the hands of my father. How can you be reunited with someone when you were never united with them in the first place? I met this woman once in my life, at my Dad's funeral. "When I first started out doing this, people thought, he wants to make a movie, but he's not really known as a writer or a director. Does he know what he's doing? So you get over that hurdle. If people don't like it, I can still take it off the shelf every couple of years and show it to my friends, and say this is my voice, I did something here." Nil By Mouth opens on October 17th   Copyright: The Irish Times Contact: itwired@irish-times.com  

Tuesday, 16 December 2008 | 3202 hits | Print |  Write e-mail

Gary Oldman cashes out in "Lost in Space." ^Featured

Gary Oldman cashes out in "Lost in Space."         Article By Ray Pride APRIL 6, 1998: The big-budget, big-screen "Lost in Space" is enjoyable for its rapid-fire special-effects razzle-dazzle and snappy dysfunctional-family patter, but a lot of moviegoers seem anxious for a pumped-up version of a kid-hood television favorite. I've never seen the show, but the strange, funny amalgam of all sorts of influences kept me grinning. In particular, there's the diversity of acting styles, from William Hurt's distracted-dad scientist up against Mimi Rogers' loving-lusting Marie Robinson, to Gary Oldman's feathery Dr. Smith to "Party of Five"'s Lacey Chabert's sweetly chipmunky Penny, wide eyes glazed as if from a permanent sugar rush. Director Stephen Hopkins says that being hurled into space with his own family would be "like Thanksgiving dinner.... Forever.... and forever," and some of that dread comes through. Writer Akiva Goldsman's script is a few notches above his work on the past couple "Batman" movies, offering more conflict than camp, and even though 10-year-old Will Robinson seems to be the movie's true hero, narrative velocity is celebrated as much as innocence. That's particularly true with Dr. Smith, Gary Oldman's latest archvillain. Hearing the word, Oldman smiles, then rolls it into several extra syllables. "The arch-villain. Well, think of our cultural heroes, like Scrooge. Then in America, you've got a day that celebrates kicking us out. That's why we always get cast in these roles. But no more villains. If they do a sequel, I'm signed up. But no more for me." Oldman made his very personal directorial debut, "Nil by Mouth," then played the baddies in "The Fifth Element" and "Air Force One" before "Lost in Space." "Dr. Smith was the only role I was being offered," the 40-year-old actor says. "It was the only script that was half-decent. What you read out there, it's shocking." There was an article that said Oldman also found Dr. Smith closer to himself than other roles he's played. "Entertainment Weekly. Don't believe a word they say. Dreadful magazine," he says, rich blue eyes flaring. "All I meant was, I'm in a costume with my own hair and it doesn't involve all the fireworks I normally get asked to do, accents and makeup and wigs. That's what I meant. I'd just come on and throw those clothes on and I'd go to the set. It didn't require hours of makeup. I don't know if I've really played [a role like myself]. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern' is pretty close." Oldman says he's never been able to show any of his work to his kids. "That was the clincher for it. My nine-year-old is going to see Lost in Space' next week. I spend six months of the year away and you can't show them the result. What's this thing that's taken you away, this thing that you do?'" Oldman shrugs. "So next week I'll go to the Cinerama Dome, buy my popcorn, show him what I do. He likes the toys. I got these little action figures which he plays with. He's got an action figure of Dad. The youngest one is seven months, so he's teething. I gave him the toy, it went straight in his mouth and he chewed my head off!" Oldman doesn't have any great passion for the series. "As I said, when this came in, it was the only role I liked. But he's the only one in the film who captures the spirit of the original. They've taken a lot of liberties, gone in many directions with the other characters. Smith is a part that's just made up of moments. He stands outside, he's not part of the family or the crew. So you stand back, they do their stuff, then you throw in a catty remark. You get a handful of great lines." While Oldman liked the characterization of Smith in the series, "they wouldn't let me take from Jonathan Harris. The voice, a little bit, I tip my hat to him. He must be the first queen in space." When he was offered the role, "I said, Dr. Smith, God, he was after Will, wasn't he?' It was questionable, their relationship. He got even campier when it got to color. It was, Oh the world's just my oyster!' But Stephen wanted it more sinister, which I think is interesting. You're standing there, the other actors are doing all the hard work, then I throw in the funny line. I guess you could just ask for the laugh every time, but he wanted to give it the illusion of reality. At the end of the movie, I come running in, We're doomed, we're doomed,' and I mean it that we're doomed, and I don't remember Jonathan Harris going..."Oldman adopts a prissy voice"Oh! We're doomed. We're doomed.' Like lunch didn't come!"

Tuesday, 16 December 2008 | 3685 hits | Print |  Write e-mail

Dennis Miller Live with Gary (2001) ^Featured

Dennis Miller Live with Gary (2001)         Article Special thanks to Cheryl from Texas!: Dennis Miller (DM): My guest tonight played one of the most intolerant characters I've ever seen in recent film history with the stunning portrayal of the witch-hunting congressman in 'The Contender'. He can currently be seen in the film Hannibal, which opened today. I-, I don't exactly know what he plays in the movie, but I think it might be an entree. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome a truly brilliant actor, Gary Oldman. It's very disconcerting to see you come out in such a hip outfit after just watching you in 'The Contender' where you were the quintessential backbench weasel. Gary Oldman (GO): Yea. I am in those very stiff collars and three-piece suits. DM: Let me-, let me use your character in that film. Uh, I don't know; if you haven't seen 'The Contender', you must go rent it this weekend because it's truly a stunning film. Mr. Oldman's portrayal in it is amazing to me. As a matter of fact, my wife is a huge fan of yours, it was around 20 minutes-in before she realized it was you; you had so emerged yourself in the uh, the character. I was wondering, as I watched that man, was he an intolerant man when you went to put him together, or was he just uh, brilliant as far as in a Machiavellian sense, as far as tactics went, and do you think people in high politics who pretend to be so intolerant (i.e., Bob Barr), these people we see who seem so strident, is it just the position they've taken? GO: Yea. I think that um, uh; I would certainly like to see um, uh, more honesty. I think that uh, the most, sort of, valued human commodity is truth and uh, without it you, you can't have um, real love; you can't have respect and you can't have real caring and understanding and um- DM: Can a man in a position of power, even vaguely, afford to be honest uh, do you think? GO: Well, he's being-, there's the push and pull; he's being tugged from, I guess, from so many sides and there's the-, the-, the you know-; and there's the sort of, the public persona. Um, I-, it-, it-, uh, you're contaminated. It's very easy to be, I think, corrupted. I mean the guy-; I think the guy in the contender, Shelly Runyun, um, I-, I thought that he was a-, a real patriot. That's how I played him. I-, I-, I think that he, uh; unfortunately, his Achilles' heel was the thing that-; he got the sex scandal, the alleged sex scandal, and he went for the cheap shot, and who wouldn't, if that came across your desk. I mean with-, with you know; we see it all the time but um, I really do believe that he-, he felt that, that woman, Lane Hanson, was not up for the job, and it wasn't about her being a woman or anything like that. He thought that she wasn't good for the country. DM: And this was the cudgel he used to uh, eliminate her from the scenario; attempt to eliminate her. GO: And she led him to believe that it was true, so she never denied it. DM: Well we don't want to tip-; I mean it's really a brilliant movie. You've got to go see it. There's a lot of twists and turns. It's directed by a guy, who for years I used to read his dir-, his crit-, criticism in LA magazine and think, God this guy is such a mean guy to actors I can't believe it. When I saw his name on that, I'll be quite fr ank, I-, I was stunned that Rod Lurie was cap-, capable to direct like that because he always seems so ma-, malicious to me. GO: Yea. I was stunned when I read his name on the script. Um- DM: What's your take on Bush at this point? Now, early on in this thing, do you sense any honesty from him? In a weird way, I sense that he's, kind of, shooting straight. GO: Yea. I do. I do. I think, thus far, I think he's done a pretty good job. I think he's doing a-, he's doing a-; he's doing what he was elected to do you know, and um; I mean the spin is always; you know, they talk about conservatives and it's neo conservative or it's the hard right or the extreme right um, and uh, he's just a conservative, you know. It's all coming from the other side, I think. It's the intolerance rule. DM: Well, yea. It seems like the only reason for the loyal opposition anymore is to literally beat the shit out of the other guy. I just think you have to give him a chance for a while. I-, I; listen, I don't look at Bush and I'm not summoned to the parapets; I-, I don't think he's the mahatma but, for God sakes at this point I at least look at him and say, You know what? He seems less full of shit than some of these guys I see. He at least seems to be-; you know, when you have Ted Kennedy over to a cash bar to watch a movie at the White House; well, that's a big step. GO: Well you gotta-, well you gotta think that Ted Kennedy has not only found a new friend, he's found a sponsor. That's how I saw it. I thought, This could only be good. DM: When you say sponsor, are there any events in your life that have, uh, increa-; you seem like a tolerant person; you seem like, live and let live. What-, what has lead you to that point in your life? Were you always like that or were you- GO: No. No. I think that alcoholism really brought me to my knees, and I mean, literally crawling across the floor and um, and I needed something that uh-; I put many things in-, in; I put the drink in front of everything else, and I just completely, emotionally and spiritually uh, lost my way, and I found um, you know a God; a God of my understanding. I had to put something before me. You know, it was-; I was the piece of shit that the world revolved around, and uh, its-, it-, and-, and I was, you know-; I'd-, I'd find, you know, a hate Gary club and I would join it and I'd be, Yea- DM: Oh, you must have been insidious on yourself because, when I watch your work, I always think, Boy this guy must have a stranglehold on the human condition to convey these emotions so accurately. When you turned against yourself (GO: Yea.) that must have been (GO: Yea.) an unholy war, my friend. GO: Yes. Yes, it was. And they say, you know; I would never do to another human being what I would do to myself. I would never treat anyone like that, um, so I had to kind of really learn some humility and I went; I did the thing; I went through rehab. I washed up and waited tables and my counselor would come by and he would go, 'How's it feel movie star?' And uh' DM: That's what you need, somebody supportive in your corner. GO: And uh, you know, and I learned, I think, just to be uh, more tolerant, and you know uh; bad-, bad driving that's my pet peeve but I'm not-; I want to get out the car and just strangle people. It's something about the car, and it's here in- DM: Well stay in the car because if you get out of the car they, they might shoot you. GO: But-, but uh, I've driven all over the world. In LA, it's like, no one signals, they just stop, ch at with their friends, and then-. DM: And that, that's the one area you're intolerant, correct. (GO: Yea, I've just become-) You've tidied up the rest of it. You've been clean, since Tuesday (GO: Yea.) of last week. No. No. Now, now what traits do you find that intolerant people have in common? What do you think the root cause of it is? GO: Well, it would appear at the moment, most of them are democrats. Uh- DM: Listen, you watch now. This will be an abject lesson, and I'm not saying I'm a democrat; I'm not saying I'm republican but, if you fuck up as a democrat they'll beat the shit out of you, you know Gore's never gonna get back in. Man he, he might you know, he might juggle at one of their parties somewhere along the line (GO: No.) trust me he's not getting in the game again. GO: Yea. No he won't. DM: It gets pretty mean. GO: Yea. Yea, uh- DM: Do you think pol-, do you think politicians are more intolerable of one another or religious people are more intolerant of one another. GO: We're in such a ridiculous age it's, it's, it's; political correctitude has taken over. It's has taken the place of common sense and that's uh, you know that's why I think it's uh; we're so fractionalized and, and uh- DM: When you say 'we,' do you talk about the community of man, or are you, do live in Brit-, England now or do you live here? GO: I live in Los Angeles. I mean, I, I-; where are we going as a culture? DM: Splitsville. Were gonna like (GO: Yea.) have 200 million (GO: Yea.) separate states. You're in Dennisville now. GO: But, but I read somewhere that uh, someone saying something about, should there be a gay history class; should that be taught in schools. And so that's another little group that kind of like, breaks off. Well, what about a tolerance class. Wouldn't then that just-; that would pretty much cover it, I would think DM: Yea, but I find a lot of these fractionalized groups now draw their strength and indeed draw their forward impedes from and it's like sports teams now, don't you notice that every sports team you see talks about us versus them I mean it almost seems like nobody can dwell on their on legitimacy (GO: Yea.) nobody can instill their own sense self esteem and just move forward and shirk off all the fucking idiots and the nay Sayers. Everybody has to sort of cocoon and say these guys are all out to get me (GO: Yea.) and that's what I'm gonna use to fuel my own engine. That's, it seem s like bad motivation to me. GO: Yea. Well I think, I think that a, I mean now of course time will tell, but I mean in uh, Bush's speech, uh inauguration speech he, he talked about we must become um, uh citizens, we must become resp-, citizens not spectators and I take that as um, we gotta take a bit more responsibility. DM: Well, for anybody who can knock off, 'Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country' in a speech, uh, (GO: Yea.) done by a famous democrat; I mean, in essence Bush is saying the same thing there. (GO: Yea.) shows that I think he's going to at least try some hands across the water GO: Yea. He really is. DM: Now let me tell you this in closing. I have to say this, and I'm not saying this to be deliberately naive; I've never seen you interviewed. I've always found you a bit enigmatic. It's part of your charm, to me. You want to know how brilliant an actor you; I never knew you were British. I'm serious. I' m thinking, 'What's with the fuckin' accent? What is that? Huh?' GO: Well uh, of course Rob Lurie would call that the Stockholm syndrome. That's what I'm suffering from. DM: You're a great artist. I admire your work a lot.

Tuesday, 16 December 2008 | 3677 hits | Print |  Write e-mail

GARY MTV LIVE 1998 ^Featured

GARY MTV LIVE         Article MTV LIVE: transcript from 4 February 1998 Carson Daly: Let's bring out our first guest. He's an incredible actor; we're thrilled to have him here, and a damn cool guy--'cause we just met a few minutes ago, actor Gary Oldman. Gary, come on out. [GO comes out smiling] Come on out. What is going on sir? [GO: "How are you?"] Pleasure. [GO: "Good."] Welcome! Gary Oldman: Thank you. CD: Welcome to our home in New York City. [GO: "Yeah."] This is our...well this is MTV's new little living room here. GO: Yeah, I know. I've seen it. CD: What do you think? GO: Well it beats the backdrop of Letterman, don't it? CD: You're damn right it does. GO: Has to be said. CD: Absolutely. Have a seat. How are you doing? GO: Good. CD: I appreciate you coming on the show. GO: Sure. CD: You know we were just talking about your five-month-old son. GO: Oh yeah, he's probably, um...he's probably at home with my wife watching this, right now. [CD: "Really?"] Yeah. (waves at the camera) Hello Gulliver. CD: What's his name? GO: Gulliver. CD: Galliver? GO: Gulliver--[CD: "Gulliver."]...as in, as in travels. CD: Oh, ok. Where'd you come up with that name? GO: It's just a name that I liked and uh...and uh...when we were deciding on names, I just happened to throw it in, you know, one day, to the conversation. I said "I like Gulliver" and she's just went "Oh, I love that name." So...it stuck. CD: Oh, very good. So, [do] you travel often with your son? You bring him...you're quite busy. GO: He does travel in fact. He lives up to his name; so, he's in the hotel, here, five months, a linebacker of a baby, he's I think, what, nearly twenty pounds, huge, huge kid. CD: Oh very good. Cool. Twenty pounds! GO: So huge, huge, huge boy. CD: That means he's at the hotel here in New York eating steak right now, the kid. (GO smiles and laughs) Congratulations on Nil By Mouth. [GO: "Thank you."] I saw this movie and um...this has to be some of the best acting I think I've ever seen. Not that I'm a critic, but amazing job. GO: No, they're amazing uh...they're amazing performers and uh...and I mixed and matched it so there's non-actors in there. I mean, the woman Laila Morse who plays uh...who plays uh...Janet in the film, plays Billy's sort of raised mother-in-law, Billy's mum, has never acted before. Uh...she's...she's in fact my sister, um... [CD: "Incredible."] Yeah, she's a truck driver. CD: I mean, you almost get the sense that when you're watching this movie that uh...you're sort of uh...peeking...I don't mean to talk about the plot before people get confused. It's almost like you're peeking in on somebody's real life. You kind of feel weird at points, watching this family. GO: Yeah, you know when uh...well Eric Clapton, who did the music, um...when he came to a screening, and um...uh...he came...I think he came with Sheryl Crow in fact, and he said that uh...she was...she was talking about the writing or something, and he said "Oh, my God," he said, "I had completely forgotten, that this had been written, and that this was acting." He said that it was like you had gone into a family, [CD: "Right."] with a camera, and just photographed a couple of months in the life of this family, so, it was... CD: It was a documentary in a way. GO: Almost, yeah. It has that...it has that feeling that you're a fly on the wa ll. A voyeur that's, you know, watching it. CD: Right. How did you get Clapton? The music in the movie is great, too. It plays a great part of the movie, too, at times. But how did Clapton get involved? GO: Well we were, uh...screening this movie in um...in Los Angeles, and I was just trying to get a sense of how it was playing. And, um...I wanted to wrangle as many Brits as I could because, after all, that's the...that's the audience really, I made it for. It's quintessentially an English film. And...so we were wrangling as many Brits as we could, and he's not in town that often, but he happened to be there over this weekend, and he came along and saw the movie, and I approached him...uh...I was a little shy about it. But I...I caught him and I said "Look, do you think, you know, you...how do you feel about doing the music?" And he said, "Oh I would love to do this." And, um...and it...and it really came from there. I had a...I had a temped- uh...a sort of temped-up track in there, and uh...so it...it always had that kind of um...a kind of uh...dirty Mississippi delta...feel to it... CD: Were you a big fan of Clapton's? Prior to the movie or were you just... GO: Yeah, well he's God isn't he? [CD laughs] CD: I think that's actually up somewhere at MTV, on someone's door. [GO: "Yeah."] GO: No, I was a...a huge fan. He's an amazing...musician. CD: And...and the music is...is excellent. Is there going to be a CD, actually, about the...[GO: "No, there's not going to be a CD."] that would have been a great soundtrack. GO: Yeah, it would've been, but he...he did this for nothing. [CD: "Right."] And all I did was um...uh...cover the studio costs, because my...financially, my back was just...I was against the wall. I mean I didn't have a penny...left...[CD: "Right."] ...for, for music. So he said he would do it for nothing. CD: Wow, that's something. GO: But that kind of ties in with some very complicated thing with his record people and...[CD: "Right."] or whatever. So... CD: That's cool because I want to get into some of the music with you. Because I know that you've done some interesting things that your fans may not know about...[GO: "Yeah."] ...and uh...you're an Alice in Chains fan, which is interesting, so... GO: Well, yeah, um...I'm discovering them. My wife Donya is a big, uh...big, big fan of them, so I've been listening...listening to them in the car, and... CD: Definitely. And you live in LA now, so there's plenty of time to listen...so we'll talk about some music with Gary Oldman and we'll be right back on MTV Live. Stick around. ***show returns with a clip of NBM*** CD: It's amazing. And we were just saying that was your sister. GO: Yeah, the short-haired blonde one... CD: Nil By Mouth is the movie and it's out on Friday...it's in New York and LA this Friday, um...and I should mention the accent might get people, because the first, like, ten minutes of the movie, I was like "What?" GO: Yeah, it's uh...it's very much...the film is very much set in a particular area of South London, so it's very...very, very colloquial and very in the vernacular. And it takes you...you know, it really takes you a while...a while to...to tune in, but...you know, we get it...we get it coming the other way, um...I can think of a film, like uh...Spike Lee's "Clockers"... [CD: "Right."] ...where the first ten, fifteen minutes of that movie, I was...I...I didn't... CD: You know what's funny, though, there's a rhythm that you get into, 'cause after about ten minutes, the speech patterns and the way they're talking, I completely understood it by the end. GO: Yeah...yeah, you kind of have to...you have to work a little bit. CD: How do you do so many accents? Do you like have a coach that you work with? In some of your movies...? GO: Well sometimes I have a coach, um...a guy called Tim Monarch, you know, he's sort of the, uh...I guess, the Henry Higgins of Hollywood. [CD: "Right."] You know, he's an...an amazing guy. But I have a good...I've always had a good ear, for stuff... CD: Is there one that's particularly hard; that you've had trouble with? GO: Uh...a hard one...Oswald was a bit of a challenge, in JFK, that...that was a...a difficult one to get. But, uh...but I have a good ear and as a kid I used to mimic, and, uh...do impersonations, and that was my...you know I'd do the party piece, and you know, do the Beatles, [and] what have ya... CD: Yeah, and then Dr. Smith...you're in Lost in Space... GO: Dr. Smith, yeah, that's uh...Lost in Space, comes out in uh...I think, April. CD: Right, and so you're playing Dr. Smith. GO: I play Dr. Smith... CD: And you have a mean Dr. Smith, I understand. GO: I do a mean, meanish Dr. Smith, but uh...unlike some of the villains that I've played, it's uh...it's slightly tongue-in-cheek. CD: Could we hear a little bit of it, or... GO: Um...we'll it's...it's a...actu...I don't know if I can do it. Um...Dr. Smith, he's a bit of...[getting into Dr. Smith voice] "Oh, William"...he's a little bit like that, a little bit like from the series. [CD laughs] Actually, I sounded a bit like...like Tony Hopkins, eh? But um...[changes voice again] "Yes, a bit like that, you know... CD: [Clapping] Very good. GO: [Standing & taking a bow, and speaking in a theatrical voice] Thank you! CD: Performing weekly! Uh...you know, you mentioned you live in Los Angeles now, where I just moved from, and LA, if you've never lived there, is a great place to drive and listen to music; it's probably something you're not necessarily used to..[GO: "Yeah."] ...the long stretches of driving down the four-o-five, so we asked you to bring some CD's that were loaded on your car. What did you bring for us? GO: Yeah...well there's "Diamon D" (DIAMOND?), this one here. Um...I like rap...um...this one's called "Hatred, Passions, and Infidelity", but I've been listening to one...an old one, which is "Diamon D" and the...the...I think the Neurot...the Psychotic Neurotics, and uh...I just love the way the word play...he's...he's a poet, and um...the celebration of just rhythms and percussion and...he uses...he uses cellos, and flutes, and piccolos. I mean, it's...it's uh...and he's one of the first kind of real pioneers of hip-hop, and he's like... CD: And you have a collective taste here as we see... [GO: "Oh yeah, yeah."] Rap...Now were into the...[GO: "Moving along."] ...Alice in Chains... GO: Alice in Chains, uh...my uh...my wife is uh...into these guys. And uh...I've been...been uh...I'm not familiar with this one. [CD: "SAP."] This is the latest one that I've been listening to, the uh...Jar of Flies?... [CD: "Right."] ...and a track on that, "No Excuses" [CD: "Right."] So that's...[CD: "Very cool."] ...that one's been giving the speakers... [CD: "You're hip on your music."]...some uh... CD: And you've got the uh...the Beatles here. GO: And then of course you've got the Beatles, here, you know. Life wouldn't be complete without them. CD: This is the first movie you saw, right? The Beatles? GO: Yeah...yeah...the first movie I saw at the cinema, yeah. A Hard Day's Night. My sister took me. Yeah. CD: Were you a big fan of the movie? Did you like them? GO: Yeah, oh yeah. I mean, these uh...these um...these guys just...they're not, obviously as good as Oasis. But uh...[Carson laughs.] .....you know... CD: Oh, we don't want to open up that can of worms here. [GO: "Nope!"] We've done that before. GO: "Yeah, and uh...Tin Machine... CD: Yeah, Bowie was in this band. GO: Yeah, Bowie, and uh... CD: You played, now, with the guitar player... [GO: "Reeves...Reeves Gabrels...yeah"] ...yeah...and you actually sing on a track, with Bowie that Bowie dedicated, or, you know, donated to Reeves' album. GO: Yeah...it was a track, I think, that was going to be on one of these, uh...they did two Tin Machine albums and uh...I think it was going to be one of these. Anyway, I didn't make it on the albums, and...Reeves...uh... CD: We've got it, actually. ["The King of Stamford Hill" starts playing] Is that it right there? Jim, [are] you playing it? GO: Oh, yeah--that's me rapping underneath. [a beep is heard to bleep out some swearing] CD: We had to beep out a little something there. GO: Yeah...and I sing, uh... CD: That's cool--like a spoken word deal then? GO: Yeah, and there's another one in here, uh...I do a duet with him, on another track. So I...I actually sing on that track, here. CD: Why don't you just cut them out of it and make your own album? GO: Well, you know...you know, I 'm not that confident. [they laugh] CD: Tell us about your...I know you're a big Bowie fan. [GO: "Yeah, you know..."] Tell us about, you know, working with Bowie, and what's his vibe to you? GO: Well, uh...well he's just been, um...I mean, he's a real seminal in rock-n-roll...you know... CD: Yeah, we've got "Little Wonder" here. [show a clip of David Bowie's "Little Wonder" video] GO: This is a...this is a great, uh...a great video, this one. CD: Yeah, and Tin Machine, boy that's going back, too. GO: And I just...I just think the imagery here and the...just the, uh...all the sort of step-framing and flash-framing...uh...I like this video a lot. CD: You know it's funny because someone like yourself who's, you know, a great actor and especially with um...the new movie out which you directed and wrote, and you obviously know your music and have a passion for stuff from hip-hop to the Beatles, and appreciation for, you know, video directing--have you ever thought about that at all? Would you like to do something like that? GO: Yeah. I could...I could, you know, try my hand at it. I mean it...it...it is unusual, that uh...that there is no, uh...video or short film--that I just came sort of, you know, straight in and there it is. It's a...a feature film...uh...but I wouldn't...I wouldn't mind having a go at a... CD: What do you think about Marilyn Manson? You know he's here on our show, he'll be sitting right there eight days from now. Any words of advice? What would you ask him? GO: Oh, I don't know. [ CD laughs] Let's not open up that one. CD: [laughing] All right. All right, we're gonna show you another Bowie. In fact, this is Bowie's latest working with Trent Reznor, "I'm Afraid of Americans", right here on MTV Live. [show complete video of "I'm Afraid of Americans"] CD: What do you think? GO: I think it's beautiful, yeah. I liked it, I mean I liked the song. [CD: "Yeah."] I'm not familiar...I wasn't familiar with the video, but I've heard the song, and um...can I dedicate that to someone? CD: Absolutely. GO: That's uh...that's for uh...Felix Imogin, who's um...watching right now. [CD: "Very cool."] With her mum. See you later. CD: What's um...what was the last concert you were at? Live show, live music. GO: Oh, God...I don't know. 1976 Elton John... [CD: "'76!"] Elton John at the Hammersmith Palais. CD: Get this man some Prodigy tickets! Quick! [GO laughs] This is MTV for crying out loud. GO: No, I was uh...the last uh...U2 at Madison Square...Garden. CD: Yeah. What did you think? GO: And it was the...the sh...the tour before... CD: The tour before PopMart. GO: Yeah, and I was, uh...hanging out at the t ime with um...a director, Phil Joanou, who's done a couple of their...their videos, and he did the uh...he did that film on them, the what's it called? [CD: "The uh...'] Rattle & Hum, that's it. So I was uh...so I kind of bopped around with him for a bit, did a couple of cities, and kind of hung out, and uh...and you know, so that's the...really I think the last show I saw. CD: I think it would be great if you got into that--I'd love to see a video that you directed. GO: Yeah, I'd like to...yeah, if there's a... CD: If there's a band watching. [GO: "If there's a band watching."] I guarantee... [GO: "Crazy enough..."] ...you the phones are going nuts right now. Um...so let's see--the movie's coming out now...is Lost in Space done? "In the can" so to speak? GO: Yeah, most of it. Most of it is...is done, but my work on it is not finished because they're doing this funky computer thing with my face, and uh...uh...and it's uh...sort of pioneering, a new technology...[CD: "Right."] so they're... CD: You know, I read something that you were uh...interested in doing more comedic roles. GO: Yeah, well I'm trying to phase the villains out, I think that one can...I've got a little type-cast... [CD: "Yeah."] A bit pigeon-holed in that one. [CD: "Sure."] And um...but they don't...they certainly don't bang on my door, for uh...ro...romantic comedies. [CD: "Right, right."] So I'm trying to phase out the villain, and move into a new...move into a new area. CD: Well, the new one's great. It's awesome. Nil By Mouth, it opens Friday, this Friday in LA and New York. Thank you so much for being here. It was a pleasure. [GO: "Terrific."] Say hello to your son and wife back at the hotel eating steak. [GO: "Yeah." & he laughs] Gary Oldman. Thank you for being here. GO: I'm glad I could come on.

Tuesday, 16 December 2008 | 2529 hits | Print |  Write e-mail

Rolling stone:october 1990 ^Featured

Rolling stone:october 1990         Article I typed it and I wanted to thank specially Latte to have scanned me the original article You've been cited along with Daniel day lewis and others as part of a new group of actors termed the britpack. GO:"i'm not a brit pack, i'm not a brat pack, i do what i do.That's why i believe in slightly dangerous stretching-if you waver or compromise or pander to what people want, you'll never achieve anything.You want to be able to just stand there and think"what about them apples,Jack?"not in an arrogant way.The thing is to have an instinct towards something-go for the essence, the spirit whatever connects you.If you can make audiences gasp, that's the best you get.It's better than sex, it's such a turn on.You can't achieve that kind of excitement if you work in an office..somewhere way down inside, i must think i'm a good actor"cause if i thought i was terrible i couldn't get up there and do it.I mean no matter how frightened or insecure, there's got to be a little voice inside of me that says"yes you are good gary try it", it's a funny way of existing, i suppose,nice one though. For all the raves for "sid and nancy", you ended up alienated from its director,Alex Cox and fencing in the press. GO:With Sid and Nancy, i'd never really liked the script.It put me off cause i think it was a rather inarticulate,monosyllabic, banal kind of generation of people.I liked that particular idea alex had developped, to do a love story about sid vicious and nancy spungen.But that was about all it had going for it.In terms of dialogue,it was quite terrible.And i think we did a good job of lifting some of that off the page and making it work. You're dealing with nancy's death under mysterious circumstances-with only Sid testimony before he died. GO:well she died from a half-inch knife wound in the lower abdomen.Originally the ending had a suicide pact in the bathroom of the Chelsea Hotel and i stab her but she doesn't stab me and she dies in my arms.And i said to Alex ver near the end of the film that we might change it.I just got this scenario together where they have this argument and he stabs her accidentally,they go to bed and she doesn't realize that she's bleeding.The image of her pulling back the sheets, and all the blood was mine.She basically bleeds to death through hemophilia,because of her system was so abused by drugs. Acting is a passion,i'm obsessed.It drives my girlfriend(and soon to be wife,actress Lesley Manville]mad cause i'm so self obsessed.I don't want any stone left unturned.I wanted to be sid vicious, i didn't want to play him.But there are two scenes;i'm happy with a couple of scenes that maybe worked, i never enjoyed the film. For Prick up your ears, i put on twelve,maybe fourteen pounds.I ate curries.There may be one scene in that that i thought was well acted.I liked the scene where i'm sitting (in morocco),cuddling the two boys and i stand up and my stomach;i look like this big sort of thirty year old queen and i thought" that's the image that's what i was looking for visually" The next piece i'm doing if i can pull it off will be quite a coup- i play an american lawyer in criminal Law.I made the decision not to always play the token englishman.I think the real juicy roles in my generation are going to go to the american actors.So to play a clean-cut american boy from Saint Louis will be interesting. In the spring of 1989,Oldman and wife were living near Hammersmith Bridge,up river from London, the proud new parents of their son,Alfie.With the belated release of Criminal law,Oldman was in new york for promotion and to meet with director phil Joanou on state of grace.Oldman joined Joanou for a location reconnaissance disguised as an old time pub crawl.Actress Uma thurman's entrance caused a minor stir even among the unflappable denizens of P.J.Carney's.Later she did a gymnastic move on a scaffolding at construction site outside.The party then headed for the eagle Tavern.As the evening wore on,Oldman and Thurman stood for a long time alone,leaning on the bar,deep in conversation;This was their first meeting,the start of a romantic sea change that would usher in Oldman's eventual divorce.But for now,Oldman was in virtually his last hour as a uxurious Englishman. So now you've become a full-edged househusband? GO:Yeah,i'm the only one to quiet him when he's crying,i have a knack.alfie his name is.Just my wife likes it.I was gunning for Albert-that's the royal name now but in the fifties it was quite working class. Criminal law has finally emerged GO:I made it two years ago and now doing the publicity,i'm only just remembering being in it. Does it bother you that business factors control the release patterns and even the content of your films? GO:Recently i met David bowie and i've since of become a mate.It was interesting to be privy to some of the process of the way he goes about putting an album together.He shapes the mood of the album and then he cuts it and mixes it and decides on what kind of album cover.I wish i could work in the same way.I have to surrender up my work to people who will edit it and marked it.It sounds like i don't like the job very much.It's just that no one listens to an actor.It's a bit like you've trodden in dog shit-you are a gypsy, a roving vagabond. Maybe if you did a few more interviews,they'd see you are a reasonnable fellow. GO:I don't talk at all in England Because the press is..? GO:Scumbags.the press.i don't talk to a living soul in england How do you find doing televised interviews? GO:It's quite nerve-racking, the camera stuff.i'm not happy with it.I did "good morning america" today-five minutes but she didn't find out very much. yet you're used to movie cameras? GO:Yeah but i'm a character.I have words to say,a script,someone to hide behind;I don't have to sit there as me with people looking.I must have looked like an old wino,anyway.I didn't have makeup on wouldn't let them put it on me.They were upset about that. You said some months ago that Sean Penn was a young actor with great potential-now you are about to start "state of grace"together. GO:I said he was very good and technically just a bit rough around the edges-there was a jewel there.I think he's matured and developed,I'd go so far as to say he's probably the best young actor of any generation. Did you have any qualms about taking on the legendary Dennis Hopper as your acting partner in "Chattahoochee"? GO:Dennis was very sweet.He phoned me up when he arrived to do his four weeks on it.He said"i'm thrilled we are doing it" then he said" i just want to tell you, i am not crazy, no matter what you heard" and i said"well, it wouldn't particularly bother me if you were" Someday you'll maybe work with Malcolm McDowell,your original inspiration. GO:I remember as clear as yesterday what time of the evening it was when "long ago tomorrow"came on.I remember lines from it and i haven't seen it since.I was just touched by what he was doing as an actor-having no understanding of it but thinking:"i'd like to do that" Was the sailor from the tough neighborhood in "we think the world of you" the closest to your own roots? GO:yet, it wasn"t a very enormous stretch but Jackie in "state of grace" has a close lineage GO:there 's a lot of similarities.I was a working-class kid in the streets of new cross-a shithole.My mother's family is irish.My dad left when i was six or seven-he was an alcoholic and died. Where had he m et your mother? GO:In cardiff, the evacuation during the war.My mum was working in Cardiff,my father was a sailor.Those two little badges i wear on my uniform in "we think",that's what my father had-he worked in an engine room.I'm not bitter and twisted about him.He died while i was doing sid and nancy.It's just that there's always things you want to say because you think they're going to be there forever.And i never got the chance to say"look you did what you did but it's ok i love you whatever"But it never worked out.I don't want people to come out with violins and starts[he saws the air]i was lonely.I've got two sisters,but they were married and gone.I was quite happy to play with my toys and invent characters.Funny isn't it?Here i'm sitting at the Carlyle with my limo parked outside just waiting for me to raise a finger and say"take me to Hell's kitchen" How do things stand with your wife in the wake of what's become a slightly public relationship with Uma thurman? GO:It's reasonnably amicable...i'm officially divorced.My personal life is very good. Amid your turmoil,you've posted another memorable performance as the craziest among crazies in "state of grace" GO:i was a little wary of the role- thought it was verbose.We worked that out.Of course you find the character_it's that buzzy,speedy kind of guy with terrible insecurity.He just needs to be loved doesn't he?the only research i did was drinking in Irish bars. Phil Joanou described to me a long,wet evening-the first night you and sean met in preproduction_which reached a sort of climax when you began singing"Like a virgin"and dancing your hands around his head.And he cracked up. GO:I was chancing my arms,i suppose.I had flown in and meet him, and we just got on from the first afternoon.We went through the day and met up with Phil,De niro and Baryshnikov at one point.The wild bunch.All for art's sake.Sacrificing a small section of my liver.We had fun. There 's a suicidal edge to Jackie's behavior.I heard from certain quarters that you got in a couple dust-ups in Times Square while you were getting into the part. GO:Oh they're just being romantic(playing jackie)was a very visceral experience.I liked him a lot-loved him really.It's very touching when Sean's character says to Robin Wright's"well we might meet up again but it will be up to the angels, i guess" and Jackie says"them fucks"that's the key into his psyche.I think he realizes the significance of actually dying.When you live that kind of life, a bullet in the head is just around the corner.You know going for a long run is not an option. I don't mean this in a derogatory sensen but he's the real irishman of the piece, you know? the real Gaetic emotional,volatile guy.I have known a bit of naughtiness in my life.My mum would say i fell with the wrong crowd.I could have had a career, i suppose in crime. Your new film' Rosencranft and Guilderstern are dead" is another small picture with a potentially low box-office take.Do you worry this might reduce your work options? GO:At the moment,the climate isn't good for that kind of serious movie-it doesn't make money.One is four years onto the rocky road of Hollywood.I'm that much older and hopefully wiser.I feel i've got a fairly good performance in State of Grace and it might be the right performance and the right movie.You gamble on that. Rolling stones:oct 1990  

Tuesday, 16 December 2008 | 2630 hits | Print |  Write e-mail

:.Shawn met Gary.. FAN REPORT ^Featured

:.Shawn met Gary.. report         Article "Well I met him here in Dallas at the USA Film Festival during the premiere of "Nobody's Baby" and from what I remember.... he did the chicken clucking at our Q&A. So, unless he travels with someone that is paid to ask him that at every Q&A, I don't generally believe it happened at Sundance. Ok, I am no movie reviewer by profession or an entertainment editor. So bear with me, my thoughts may seem scattered. This particular night was such a mesmerizing experience, so I may forget something and then remember it at he end. So there may be a lot of.. "OH and then"... May 2, 2001 Dallas Texas Cinemark Webb Chapel Theater. Well I started getting ready at around 3:45 pm (the shindig didnt start until 7 but my friend Alicia is notoriously late, so I wanted to get a heads up). My hands were shaking as I was putting on my makeup cuz I just kept thinking it's GARY *beep* OLDMAN!!! Then I was telling myself, ahh he's gonna cancel. I went to the festival last year and everyone I went to see, cancelled. But when Alicia was finally ready and we got to the theater it was 6:50, plus 635 had major traffic, I saw several people standing out front sharpies in hand, I knew he hadn't cancelled. So I grabbed my pictures and sharpies, camera and dictaphone (in case I sat close enough to record his interview, Which came out sounding really muffled). Thank God my purse is huge. I know Im babbling, but you have to understand I wanna give you all the info :) So we got inside went straight to the end of the hall and walked inside. The theater was PACKED, the only seats left were in the 3rd row. I didn't care, Alicia did but I saw the chairs for the interview over to the side feet away from us so I planted my butt. Then I got antsy. Told Alicia to stay put that I was going to stand out front and see Gary arriving. So I stood outside until around 7:25, nothing. Then went around back and missed him by about a split second. Damn the luck. Got back inside and got bombarded by security telling me to go around, I didn�t listen and kept walking plus my eyes hadn't focused to the dark theater that was already showing the montage of his work. I sat down and Alicia told me she watched him walk in about 5 minutes ago. Damn the luck. But got back just in time for Gary Cogill (doesn�t know a THING about movies) to announce him and present him with his Master Film Artist award. And oh my god. When Gary ran down the aisle to accept the award, I was but 4 feet away. When he got to the front and looked at the standing ovation he received, he seemed very taken aback. I don't suspect he knew the theater would sell out, not him get a standing ovation. He seemed very genuine and very thankful for the award, he then snuck out of the theater with Doug Urbanski (his manager) possibly to view another movie or just to get outside in the beautiful Dallas air (it was very nice outside that night). "Nobody's Baby", I thought, was very quirky which is good because those are my favorite kind of movies. Plus I like Raising Arizona, which it somewhat resembled with the outlaw and infants tie. Gary was great, but I can't help wishing he had Skeet Ulrich's role (the lead). When the film was over they brought the chairs up front and in came Gary to a sea of applause. Out came my camera once again, and snapped away. Now is the part where I get fuzzy about what happened afterwards... I don't remember much of his interview because he talked a lot about "The Contender" and the conflicts with Dreamworks/Spielberg. But I do remember that he said h e loved working with Stephen Frears, Coppola and Oliver Stone. His favorite characters to play were Oswald, Rosencrantz and Jackie Flannery. I was just about to raise my hand to ask him a question about aspiring actors (which I am) another person asked that question. To which his response was basically "wait until they start making better films"... he is disappointed in the roles and the portrayal of most roles that are out there. Says he likes the way they made films in the 60's and 70's. (But I talked with him more on this subject later)... then I got the nerve to ask another question then AGAIN someone stole it but asked it in another form.. how do you prepare for your roles? My form was "you always seem to literally BECOME the characters you portray. I have difficulty believing it is an actor in a lot of your movies, how do you accomplish this?". To which his response was "I don't research many of my roles, I just do it" (or something like that). When Gary Cogill signaled it was the end of the interview, I started clapping while everyone else ran to him. I was like "Oh *beep*, where my camera? Where's my sharpie?" I was shocked that this happened. Gathered up my stuff and joined the crowd which grew immensely. Felt like I was at a concert and I was caught in the middle of rushing the stage. I was thrust up against this poor man for about 20 minutes. I could not believe the patience of this man. The kindness. The want to please. And how genuinely hilarious this guy was. Could it be? No, it can't. He is NORMAL. Not like what we hear about snooty actors who refuse to sign. Or if they sign, won't personalize. He asked every single person their name and some how to spell it so he would not get it wrong (unlike my friend, who has a true misspell and cover up on hers). I then heard him proclaim something about "no need to get your knickers in a bind. Im staying until everyone is satisfied" then something about a plenty of sausage for everyone. Ok, almost my turn. Getting weirded out. Im gonna choke when I get there. His eyes meet mine. "And your name, love?" (Gary) "uhhh.... Shawn" (me) "for you?"(Gary) "yes"(me) "Shawn, what a beautiful name for a girl"(Gary). AAAAAHHHHH Not only did he say my name, he called me love AND used the word beautiful to describe something about me. "I was curious about your answer to a question earlier, I am an aspiring actress who can't afford to give up her dayjob yet. What are your thoughts?"(me) "Well, if your heart cannot be completely engulfed in the business and you do not sleep, eat or drink acting. Hold off until you can 100% commit to it. You cannot just dabble in the industry, it will kill you. How's that for thought, love"(Gary) "thank you very much"(me) Signed it "Shawn with good luck Gary Oldman". Right before he signed he said "all I see is flashes. (beat) From the cameras of course, not that I am on acid trip or anything of the kind". I asked for a picture with him. He smiled and said "sure, love... where is your camera at?". Then began the melting as that arm of his slid around my waist and I tried not to hold on to him for dear life. Flash. It was over. He was on to the next person. I melted on to the floor and slithered out of the circle. Sat down and ran the conversation back in my head 100 times. The crowd began to thin and I was like ok here�s my chance again. I walked back up to him and asked if he could sign a picture for my friend Jeremy who is an aspiring film maker/director. "sure, love" Quit saying that I thought, Im only going to fall in love with you. Then the big question. "Could I trouble you for a hug?" this time he just replied "sure". Ok I went too far I thought, then lips planted on my cheek. Ok now is the best time to make my exit without seeming like a crazy psycho superfan. SO I thanked him for being so patient and kind with us and for showing us his new movie. Then off I went. OH MY GOD. That's what I have said everyday since then when I think about this experience. SO, I hope you enjoyed my story. Big thank you to Shawn to share with us this incredible experience.

Tuesday, 16 December 2008 | 2953 hits | Print |  Write e-mail

Pavement Interview(2004) ^Featured

Pavement Interview(2004)         Article Big thanks To vicky to have sent me the article, then I transcripted it. you can see the french translation of the article here Pavement:Hello? Gary Oldman:Is that barney? P:yes it is G:this is Gary Oldman calling. P:Hi,thanks for calling.How are you? G:Not bad thanks. P:So which part of LA are you in? Go:I'm in the studio city area. P:Do you own a house there? G:No I rent.I did own something but now I rent. P:Do you find that suits your temperament better,not bering tied down to one place? G:Yeah,it's a little easier till I find somewhere.I think I could be here for a long time.I'm quite happy being in rental. P:So you've lived in LA now for,what,15 years? G:Oh,no,no I was in New York.I've lived in LA for six years.Iwas on and off in New york for about 10 years. P:Why New York?Close enough away to also step out of it? G:Probably that.I went through New York for the first time in a stopover in 1967. P:The year I was born. G:[laughts]right P:Mind you, you would have only been nine years old at the time. G:Yeah.The thing I remember most about it was they had those kind of lounge chairs in the waiting area with individual miniature Tv's on the arms.I remember that image and I remember walking through the siding glass doors to the cab and it was excitement on the other side of the glass.I didn't know what it was but it was something special. P:What took you to New york at that young age? G:We were coming through from Jamaica. P:You'd been on holiday in Jamaica? G:Yeah,my dad used to work there.I live there for six months so we were coming home. P:New york is a city that feels so familiar from countless scenes in films and on TV. G:Yeah, my image of it was from movies,long before I ever got there.But it doesn't disappoint .My whole career in american film wasn't engineered it was by accident,really,i just ended up making a movie in new york. P:What that your first time? G:That wasn't my first,it was my second.I worked on State Of Grace.That took me to New York.It was just a magical time.Wonderful and painful at the same time.So I ended up moving there.I have a son who's now 15... P:is that Alfie? G:Yes I'd commute between New York and London.I'd go to see him every third weekend.I've made some decent money making movies but I've never bought,you know,expensive sports cars or anything.The kind of change I had in those days.I'd spend on airfares,i've flown Concorde many times because that shaved a few hours off the trip. P:And off your pocket too,no doubt!! G:And off my pocket,it was less expensive in those days. P:So you were commuting to London? G:I was living in New York and travelling back and fort about every three weeks which sounds very tiring but it becomes routine. P:Concorde would have taken some of the pain out of it. G:I'm proud to say I was on the fatest trans-atlandtic crossing ever.We had a tailwind and the captain proudly announced we'd made the trip in two hours and 53 minutes. P:Christ!on a normal flight,it takes five or six hours! G:Yeah!three-hours-fifteen is normal on Concorde. P:But now you call LA home. G:I wouldn't say it's my favourite town P:what you don't like about it? G:I resent driving everywhere. P:That's the beauty of London or New York.You just jump on the subway or the underground to get around. G:or a c ab or you can walk. P:What's sort of car do you drive in LA? G:It's an X5 it's a small SUV BMW,courtesy of BMW because I did a commercial for them. P:So they gave you a car in lieu of paymen?or was it just the icing on the cake? G:Yes they pay you and then you get a car. P:What was the commercial? G:it was one of those BMW short films. P:who directed it? G:Tony Scott.It was with James Brown too.so I got the chance to work with Tony again and James Brown!! P:Does he sing in the commercial? G:no!i'm the devil and he comes back to me and wants to renew his contract and it all comes down to a car race. P:There's a race in all of those films,isn't there? G:Well you have to get the cars somehow.I'm a slightly Keith Richards/Mick Jagger/Rock'n roll kind of devil.And he comes back and says he wants to renew his contract because he didn't calculate for the aging.So it was six days work and at home too.It's not everyday you get to work with james brown. P:What are some of you other career highlights? G:Well state of grace was a special time.I like my work on it.I think Jfk would have to be high on the list because of the movie and working with Oliver Stone and some of those actors.It was a very special project for many reasons.Then Coppola in my opinion is arguably the greatest american director.I would have to put him at the top, even if you are measuring him against people who have gone before.He holds his own as a master filmmaker. P:It must have been a lot of fun playing Dracula G:That was a good period there.It was an amazing opportunity to work with him.And his daughter's just made a wonderful movie.I think it has to be my favourite film of the year and perhaps even a favourite of many years. P:That's high praise G:It's a major piece of filmaking P:What do you like about Lost In Translation? G:It's just got an atmosphere.It's quality,it's personal,it's beautifully framed,it's masterfully shot.You're comfortable sitting there with it because you know Sofia had a point of view and knew exactly what film she wanted to make.It's touching and funny and it's a movie you can watch again and again.It's indescribable,there's something she's captured that really touches you. P:Did you ever feel intimidated working with Francis Ford Coppola? G:I think the only apprehension you ave when you work with someone with that body of work and that reputation is you just don't want to disappoint them.I'm there to play the role for him,i'm not making the movie,i'm the only part of it,you think'well,all the other stuff is in place and the only person who can fuck up is me'.You hope your contribution will be weighed and measured and come up to expectations because the director cast you for many reasons.But you want to make them happy.Apart from that,no,i was excited, i wasn't nervous. P:That apprehension would be quite different from the anxiety of stepping onto a stage to do a play. G:I'm lucky in that I've never been a nervous performer.I spent 10 years working on stage and there were people who were vomiting before they went on.And I thought"my god if I did that every night I would have to give up"People get completely beside themselves and I'm quite blessed I never had that,i actually feel quite at home. P:Do you miss your theatre days? G:Yeah,that was a magic time.I worked with some great young director,i miss it sometimes I get very romantic and nostalgic about it.Sometimes I flirt with the idea of doing it again. P:When was the last time you did a theatre piece? G:Well professionally,would have been about 16 years ago.It's been a while but I still have a connection. P:Any thoughts of writing or directing a play yourself? G:Yeah I've thought about directing a play even writing one. P:What stops you? G:Well money.You've got to pay the bills.Another highlight for me was nil by m outh,i've written a couple of things since and tried to get them made but I wanted to make them in a certain way but was not very compatible with the money people.I wanted to do something without stars and it's very hard to get money without the marquee names. P:Yet you managed achieve that with your film nil by mouth which was made critically acclaimed G:But that was '95,'96 the business has changed.A huge seismic shift in the industry has occured.I don't think you could get nil by mouth made today the way I made it with relatively unknown people,complete creative control...i had 45 days to shoot. P:Didn't Luc Besson produce it? G:Yes he did. P:That was before the fifth element,wasn't it? G:Well in a sense I then had to sing for my supper. P:Thanks god you did! I love your performance in that movie. G:I always knew that call was coming. P:And you's already done the professionnal G:Yeah,i'd already worked with him.God Bless him,though.I tried to get money for nil by mouth and I couldn't get a penny for it.People would read it and turn it down.They'd say'gary's crazy" it's a career suicide why does he want to direct?this movie is just"fuck fuck fuck ,cunt cunt cunt" who want to go to see this?.And Luc stepped it and said"i'll do it" it was then received well.We won the british BAFTA for best film then best screenplay and best actress at Cannes and best director at Edinburgh.And it started to really get some legs,just this tiny little movie i made with six friends that i was going to put on the shelf and dust off once in a while to show a couple of mates. P:Have you seen "Once were warriors" which seems like it's New Zealand equivalent? G:Yeah I've seen it it was very powerful I was in the middle of production on nil by mouth when it opened in theatres in England so I remember it very vividly there's a visceral,frenetic to both of them. P:And neither of them pull punches do they,though in some ways you wish they did G:The guy in "Once were warriors" makes Ray in my movie looks positively fucking charming P:Yeah.Jake the Muss,Temuera morrison,the actor who played him,hasn't done a lot since. G:The roles aren't always there.People say to me"why don't you do another prick up your ears?why aren't you making those movies?and my response is:"because they're not writing them'prick up your ears was written by Alan Bennett,Rosencrantz and guildenstein was written,by Tom Stoppard.They're great writers.Roles like that don't come along everyday.Look at him marvelous Cate Blanchett was in "Elizabeth" completely robbed at the academy awards.I think everybody agrees with that.I don't mean this in a snobbish way but she has given very good performances in some not very good movies;She wants to work in the movie industry but roles like Elizabeth don't come along everyday. P:I guess you count yourself lucky if you get offered a good role every two or three years G:i really only caught the end of what I would call that golden period:the 60'70's and 80's I caught the end of it with Sid and nancy and Prick up your ears,when they were making films like that. P:You've been in several quality films since then though giving number of very memorable performances. G:Some of the work I'm proud of hasn't been seen.I did a film a couple of years ago called Nobody's Baby it was a comic film and of course I did it specially for that,changing the direction of the career a bit.But it went straight to Dvd,i'm sad not enough people saw it. P:What about more recently?you've had a quiet patch lately.Is that by choice or a lack of good projects? G:Not to go into too much detail,but I had what you might call a domestic accident.And um now I've got two sons and one is six and one is four and a half.I'm a single dad and I have custody of the boys.After my divorce, they became my project, so I took tow years off,which financially became a bit of a struggle.But I too k time off to be with them,i did a few things.I did that commercial that kept the wolf from the door and kept things ticking over.And then Harry potter film came along. P:that's right, you're in the third Harry potter film. G:It comes out in June,i believe,so that was the first thing I did that was a big commitment for maybe two and a half years. P:How did it feel getting back into it? G:I was a bit rusty but it was a lot of fun,it's directed by Alphonso Cuaron I play a character called Sirius Black.what's interesting about it is that for most of the movie until I appear you think I'm a bad guy and I actually turn out to be a good guy. P:You also got to work with another of my favourite british actor,Michael Gambon G:Oh Michael! he plays Dumbledore and replaced the late Richard Harris[drops voice to a whisper] but I think Michael's better he's stranger,quirkier and well to be very blunt about it he just has more presence because he's not dying as Richard was..so there's an energy to him that is very alive. P:It's interesting you mention Richard Harrus because I can see similarities between the two of you.You're also a talented british actor with a reputaion for being a bit of a hell-raiser.Do you see these similarities? G:Yes now I look back and laugh and I have some stories I can tell from some of the movies I've worked on,because I stopped drinking,you see[laughs]that was seven years ago,i had the smarts to wake up one day and do'i'm not going to do this anymore" P:Did you find it difficult to quit? G:[slowly] yeahhh I think the hard thing is doing the work looking at why you want to do it in the first place,getting absolutely honest,that's the hard bit.But I'm very lucky and blessed that the obsession of it for want a better work lifted for me.Now I never ever think about it it seems like someone else. P:Are you encountering less problems in your life because of it? G:Absolutely,first of all,you face every day with a clear head and problems that were on a scale of one to 10;a nine,sober are a three the drama goes,it just evaporates. P:Now that you are a single father you must feel even better about sobriety G:Yeah it's a lot of responsibility these two guys never saw me drunk and I'm very grateful for that and am I an alcoholic?i don't know but I'm certainly not going to have a drink to find out!(laughs) P:What about other substances? G:No,no I was never really interested in any of that I'm not even good with antibiotics.They upset my system,i've always been a bit delicate so pills and all that never interested me I think you single out your poison. P:And for you it was alcohol while for other people it's drugs G:Or food,or sex or whatever.I always felt somewhat safe with alcohol because I drank a glass of wine,i knew exaclty how I would feel.If I took a pill I couldn't control that.You take something hallucinogenic and get a bad trip and you say"'okay I want this stop but you cant that always scares me I'm a bit of a wimp when it comes to all of that.but yeah I loved a drink.. P:Have you been following Russell Crowe's career at all? G:well,as much as anyone would P:Is he an actor who interests you? G:yeah I think he's a remarkable actor I love big actors.that's why I cast Ray Winstone in my film.he's a sort of actor who fills the frame like George.c Scott and marlon brando.they're men and they have a presence I think Russell has that no question,i look at people like Russel and go"good fucking luck to you,mate" P:He's a bit of a hell-raiser in his own right G:I think it's the tall poppy syndrome;They put you up there and then they want you a punch in the fucking balls,he has the talent but he's a bloke and they get shocked just because he's wearing a tuxedo and at a function doesn't mean he's not a bloke when he has a few and gets a bit raunchy people are so surprised and you go"why would you be?he can ups et a few people that's all right P:What's about your old mate Tim Roth? G:I don't really see Tim.People think we know each other or that we are close but I only run him once in a while we both live here but we don't see each other but I keep abreast of what's going on what people are doing P:your careers in Britain followed quite similar paths didn't they? G:in a way I sort of pushed the boat out for a lot of those people in LA for Tim and Ralph Fiennes I opened the door there. P:What about your art collection?you probably haven't been able to collect much over the last couple of years G:Well you start selling it rather than buying it[laughs]as I get older I realise it's all just stuff it comes and goes and I've been lucky enough to have enjoyed it.I've been through ups and downs in my career and I've started to realise it's not that important I owned a house a lovely house and I don't any more.But i'ts just bricks and mortar I'll own again or maybe I won't P:It's refreshing to hear a star of your stature talking about money in that way G:I'm a dad first and an actor second now.We all want to live comfortably and like money but there's only so much you can spend. P:What' movie were you paid the most for? G:Lost in Space,Airforce one and lost in space helped me realise Nil by mouth because I put in a considerable amount of my own money,lost in space paid for the post-production on nil by mouth.And if I've been indulgent anywhere it was there I sort of bought myself a big piece of moving art.(laughs) P:Do you have a copy of your own movie on DVD at home? G:[still laughing]no I don't! P:Really?.so you couldn't play it at home? G:No I couldn't put it on!i don't have posters or a photograph on the wall, I should probably be keeping this stuff for the kids. P:They'll appreciate it one day G:I could put it all away for the kids and just say"look this was what the old man was up to" P:No picture of you shaking hands with Francis Ford Coppola on set? G:No nothing like that,actually I do have a wonderful photograph of francis which is signed it's in a folder somewhere in a box in the garage.It's a special photo I mean I keep things but I don't put them out.I've picked up a few prizes over the years for acting and directing and they are all in the cupboard I don't know why I don't put them out.God forbid I should ever display my achievements!i've still got that thing in me,as a kid,of I don't show off P:That's quite an English characteristic G:A south London characteristic definitely it's obviously connected with some kind of survival instinct,i mean I'm lucky to have done what I've done and do and I'm proud of it.There's a some good work there and some not not so good work.That's really just a career I had a big hopes when I first started out.I wanted to be a good classical actor and I pursued that for a while and it was fun.But I never really wanted to make a big noise in the theatre I started to get into the movies instead. P:you've never really gone out of your way to court Hollywood though have you? G:well no I haven't I've burned a few bridges and hurt myself a bit I suppose.But I've never coveted that kind of stuff,it's a big ship to turn around.You can't do it on a dime,you must really want an oscar you must really want that stuff.I had a publicist for two weeks once,id ben working for 20 years and the spotlight was brievly on me with the contender,it was a political piece and a good movie that I produced,there was a moment where there was talk of me being nominated for best supporting actor.So my arm was betn against my better judgement and i said"okay i'll get a publicist" but i soon thought"i can't do this" i'ts not me i'm not enjoying this so "i may have sabotaged my chances" P:It's incredible you've never even been nominated for an oscar! G:I've had some good parts but I've never chased it. And you do have to be hungry for it,there are exceptions to the rule but more often than not,it's something you have to engineed and work.You're not just good in a film and you get a nomination and that's just not me hey maybe I could have won an oscar or been nominated or have a lot more money now;I don't know but you have to be true to who you are..  

Tuesday, 16 December 2008 | 2708 hits | Print |  Write e-mail

VANITY FAIR(may 1987) ^Featured

VANITY FAIR(may 1987)         Article   On a gloomy afternoon in West London in 1985.Gary Oldman realized he had gone too far.He had spent the day as he had spent so many recent days,pondering the blasted soul of Sid Vicious,the dead bass player of the Sex Pistols_listening to tapes of Sid talking;stomping around in the sort of squat,unyielding boots Sid sed to wear,Oldman was intent on becoming Sid Vicious,whom he's been hired to play in Alex Cox's movie Sid and Nancy;filming was to start in two days.But now he had to leave Sid behinf for two hours,to drive into town for his performance that evening in the Royal Shakespeare Company production of Edward Bond's the "war plays".And suddenly just getting into the car seemed unreasonably taxing.He barely had the energy to slip the key into the ignition.When he tried to turn the car around,to point it in the right direction-reverse,forward,reverse,forward again_somehow it was all too much.Gripping the steering wheel,Gary Oldman began to weep.When his girlfriend,the actress Lesley Manville,found him there,he was still weeping.He couldn't stop. "He was going mad really"Lesley recalls"i had been telling he couldn't go on like this".To prepare for Sid and Nancy,gary has starved himself,he had dwindled from 150 pounds to 115"i became anorexic"he admits,his eye-brows leaping,his voice earnest,melodic,and burred"i was obsessed with being really,really,really skinny?I thought,this is the visual image I want to present,i want this before I do anything else"Oldman is what theater directors call a "metamorphosic actor" unlike a John Wayne or a Clint Eastwood,he doesn't play variations on himself over and over again.He is in the more contemporary mold of Robert De Niro and Dustin Hoffman(two of his heroes) actors who change their hair,their walk,even the very structure of their body to create new characters.To play Sid Vicious,Oldman took bass-guitar lessons(not to learn to play_vicious was notorious for his musical ineptitude_ so much as to learn how to hold the thing),wore Vicious-style leathers,interviewed drug users"you have to see what the eyes do, and where it hits first,how it hits the back of the neck and then the back of the legs"and he starved"i didn't drink.I didn't have dressing on my salad,i just ate raw vegetables-just steamed fish and a bit of lettuce.And at the same time,i was doing this play every night.The chemicals in my head were rearranging;i had no sugar in my body whatsoever"after the incident in the car,Lesley called a doctor, and Oldman was hospitalized;the starting date for Sid and Nancy was pushed back a week"the doctor said"eat a mars bar"Gary remembers,"so i had a bar of chocolate and i went speeding,it was like taking some kind of drug.And my body started to react again.The irony is that to play Sid i finally had to gain weight.." Oldman's Sid Vicious proved to be among the most remarkable screen portraits of recent years.Here was the compleat modern misfit:the very air appeared to poison him;his every step looked treacherous and hard won;merely balancing his head atop his neck seemed beyond his meager skills.Yes beneath an anarchy as much physiological as psychological.Oldman unearthed something touching and vulnerable;more astonishing still,he conveyed Sid's eerie magnetism-the unmistakable luminescence of a star. As splendid as it was,however,nothing in Oldman's portrayal of sid vicious could prepare us for his marvelous recreation of the murdered playwright Joe Orton(who wrote Loot and what the butler saw)in the new stephen frears movie,prick up your ears.With this performance_a heady mixture of charm,cruelty and self-love_oldman confirms wha t those who have been watching him in British television and theater have long suspected:that is the most brilliant actor of his generation.Moreover,his emergence coincides with a new breakthrough in british film and theater,a vigorous efflorescence that we in american are only beginning to detect[...] To play Orton,Oldman has adopted the "lazy upper lip".Lahr describes in his biography and he's concocted a strutting,heavy-lidded come on_head lolling back,chest puffed out-that reminds one of a batman Mae West;it's half promise,half effrontery,he also traces the most minute variations_in the way Orton tells a joke,for instance.[...] Oldman is a born mimic;when he wants to dazzle you,he'll riff you through a gallery of perfectly tuned American accents_New York,Texas,Deep south,California_all in a way that rips past the cliched bray or drawl to the characterization underneath"it's both easy and very challenging to work with him"says Alfred Molina,the british tv and theater actor who plays Halliwell in prick up your ears,"because you find yourself so into what's he's doing that you forget about what you're doing.Seeing him is like having a really close friend and then suddenly discovering that this friend has the most amazing secrets,and he's saying,come this way,i'll show you what i'm really like.That's what he does for audience;he opens where you didn't know there were doors.." Born and Raised in New Cross,in dismal South London,Oldman might easily have had a rougher upbringing than he did,his father,a hard-drinking welder,left his mother and two considerably older sisters for another woman when Oldman was seven.truen his sisters both married (and divorced)small-time gangsters;true as Gary says"it wasn't a broken home,it was a shattered home".But it seems Oldman was the spitting image of his father,for whom his mother carried a torch until the day,two years ago,when he died.And so says Lesley"Gary was spoiled,you can tell he's been looked after"Oldman's career may have been inevitable:coddled by three devoted women(the younger of his two sisters was twelve years older than he)he grew up in a warm bath of applause.One suspects he harbored the baroque fantasy life of a young sultan on the loose in the palace gardens.He took up painting,boxing and classical piano,"but in a way i was only playacting at these things,i was researching ,the way i'd research a part"And then he saw Malcom Mcdowell in the "raging moon" and in "if..." and he knew what he wanted" i wanted to be Malcolm,the antihero,iwas so angry about how bad my education was i wanted to turn a machine gun on the headmaster and sit on the roof like Malcolm and just kill them,and that's why i still like to play these outsiders these people who are always very fucked up" Oldman isnt at all,nor is he one of the english glamour boys,swanning from soir�e to soir�e in the grand Rupert Everett manner.Oldman is a workhorse and one gathers a bit of a homebody.Soft-spoken and mannerly,he might easily mistaken for any other middle class,Saab-driving yup if it weren't for something arresting in the way he looks,something rebellious in the energy he emits.When I meet him in his brand-new house in well-off MOrtlake,in west London,he's sporting a muzzy scruff of beard, and his hair is lank and floppy.The house which he shares with Lesly is a modest two-story affair,with a little lawn in front and a scrap of yard in back, and at the moment it's a chaos of unpacked boxes.A shiny new bidet sits incongruously in the middle of the dining room;four canaries warble in a cage;the whole place smells like last night's beer"would you like coffee,tea,champagne?"he asks;champagne is a sunday tradition with him.Later,around four,breakfast is served,lesley carts in eggs,fish,ham,potatoes,fat rashers of bacon. She is a slender and blonde,with crisp features,a peaches-and-cream complexion and an air of roseate,indelible britishness.They met in 1984 when they were both about to star in edward's Bond's "the pope's wedding" at the royal court theatre"talent is an aphrodisiac" lesley says"and if you spot it in somebody else,you are attracted.We both work the same way;we're both interested in not playing how we are or what we look like"they also share two powerful formative influences:Max Stafford-clark the director of the royal court theatre and the mercurial Mike Leigh,who makes films for britain's channel four television;both use the sort of method-based approaches on which Gary and Lesley thrive"max stafford-clark and mike leigh will say something to you like,what wallpaper does your character remember having in the bedroom as a child?what was your character doing christmas eve 1962?everything is worked out but nothing is written out.It should be in your memory in your head,like your life is in your head"Lesley leaves the room,and gary suddenly pounces from his chair,crouching on his haunches in front of me.The grooves in his forehead lurching,he whispers"to play Joe Orton,you just think about cock a lot.Honestly i went off sex;lesly and i didn't make love and Fred(molina) went through the same thing with his wife,and we both become very camp,it's fun for eight weeks to be a gay man,we were like these two screaming queens by the end.And that's all the method,it's all Stanislavsky"[.......] Even so,no matter what the part,Gary oldman is always certain that he can't do it"he gets panicked about every role he plays" Lesley confirms,"and that means that there has to be somebody,either the director or me who says"Gary that's stupid you must do this part"i mean he was like that when sid came along and Joe he just think he's not clever enough" "He's like a racehorse that's never lost a race."adds Stafford-Clark"he knows that he has this gift for impersonation,and his excitement and pleasure in doing it are something the audience can feel,but he's also getting more insecure every week"All of which Oldman admits"the whole springboard for the work I do is fear"he says."once I get over that I'm fine but I can't just pick anything up and say"ah that's easy I can really do that" What"s scares him so much? as he answers,one suddenly hears the tiny voice of the cloistered New Cross laddie,caught at the piano pretending he's Horowitz"i'm a phony"squeaks Gary"one day someone's gonna come along and say"Gary' you're not any good at all,you are sussed" To which one can only reply:not bloody likely.. Vanity Fair:may 1987  

Tuesday, 16 December 2008 | 3518 hits | Print |  Write e-mail

Details Magazine article (January 1992) ^Featured

Details Magazine article (January 1992)         Article  Killer instincts; Punks.Psychos.Outcasts.Gary Oldman has played them all.Now the british actor gets under the skin of Lee Harvey Oswals and Count Dracula...Chris Heath investigates... [...] Gary Leonard Oldman was born on March 21,1958 in New Cross,London.New Cross is a poor,shabby,inner-city neighborhood.For most people,it's just somewhere you sometimes go through to get someplace else.The Oldmans lived in a house half below street level.Until Gary was twelve he had to use an outside toilet."Kids here can't imagine" he says,waving his hand through the Los Angeles ozone"they drive to fuckin' school". His father was a welder.He'd been in the navy.He called Gary"treacle".He left when Gary was seven.Gary had always been a sensitive boy,but he wasn't expecting that.And he didn't understand why"you don't, do you?" he asks?"you just think that your dad doesn't love you anymore that it's all your fault."So Gary wouldn't take his friends home after school.Or he's sayd his dad has died.You do don't you? He's still working that stuff out.He says it's going to be difficult.His dad died a while back:drink.Gary saw him once as a grown-up.After that they wrote for a while"wonderful letters" he sighs.Gary says he would have liked to go out and get shit-faced drunk with him. I say to Gary;it is a classic clich�,isn't it?Someone from an unhappy childhood became an actor because..... he still want to be loved. "Is that why I did it?"Gary Oldman ponders "i always see it as running away from something.Escape."To be someone else"He says it's like after a death or a divorce,when people don't want to live in the house where it is happened because there are too much memory and grief;if all that memory and grief and pain is inside you,you move away.You become someone else. Gary can still remember his mother reading the letter"Dear Kay,this is a letter I never thought I'd have to write....."He is miles away,telling me this,his voice barely louder than a whisper"i've never fogotten it". "Here it is"says Gary as we pass a squat rectangular building"my home away from home"it's the west Hollywood Sheriff"s Station.Oldman plans to do a film version of Martin Amis's Money.He will play the main character,John Self,a pumped-up English man living, and being torn apart by,the american high life.John Self has this to say about Los Angeles;"in LA,you can't do anything unless you drive.Now I can't do anything unless I drink.And the drink drive combination it really isn't possible out there.If you so much as loosen your seat belt or drop your ash or pick your nose,then it's an Alcatraz autopsy with the questions asked after" Prophetic words.The night Gary Oldman went to jail he had been out drinking with Kiefer Sutherland.It was the first time they'd met.What did they have in common?Gary with an eye for a funny line,deadpans:"Bourbon" Later,when they were installed in the chic bar One,Oldman asked Kiefer when he had come off the wagon"The moment I shook your hand"he replied. Earlier Kiefer had showed off the new sound system in his car.Oldman was impressed.What did Kiefer play?i ask "Crying in the chapel"he says.We roar.Actually it was something by Rod."Maggie may" maybe When Gary Oldman tried to drive away,the police arrested him for drunk driving.They handcuffed him in front of the paparazzi.He spent the night behind bars,trying to sleep on the cell's rubbercoated floor.Real jail wasn't nice at all. Young Gary wanted to be an astronaut.Or a postman.Or a sailor like his dad.Then he wanted to be a c ameraman,until he discovered you needed math. Sometimes young Gary would pretend he was Batman.Sometimes he'd pretend he was one of the giants from Land of the Giants and walk around in his pointy-toed Hush Puppies(James Bond wore them so he did too),picking up the little people.But most often he'd be his favorite,long-forgotten tv hero Adam Adamant.After each episode ,Gary carried on,acting out new situations to the each other characters he imagined were in the empty room. A lonely child? "I felt very loved,but strangely alone".His two sisters were much older"effectively I was an only child"Then he says as though it were the most natural sentence to follow his last one"i feel a certain peace when I act.It"s the only time when I feel really complete" Gary Oldman was Sid Vicious.Before he got the part,all he knew about the Sex Pistols was that they were a bunch of scruffy punks.He had to play a heroin addict,but taking drugs was never how you got your kicks in New Cross.Stealing cars,shoplifting-that was the kind of thing's friends did.Gary too,sometimes.Most drugs were too expensive anyway. So for Sid and Nancy he tried a few substances to get the idea.But he didn't want to take heroin,so he asked questions.The best advice came from a friend who had lingered on those back roads.He told Gary to imagine his spine was wrapped in cotton wool.That was useful. He also starved himself yo get that wasted look.If he ate,it's be a piece of lettuce and some steamed fish.Mostly he didn't.One day he was trying to turn his car and didn't have the strength to twist the wheel.He broke down.The doctor told him he could have had a heart attack.Ironically to even able to play Sid Vicious he had to fatten up. When he saw the final cut of Sid and Nancy he thought he was awful.Truly awful.He had no idea it was his big break.He hasn't seen it since. It's a hired car,a maroon BMW.He has been trying a different car each week to figure out what he wants to buy.Everything is hired at the moment.His house in the Hollywood Hills is rented.Only the books are his.Lots of them:essays on Brecht,Roger Mcgough poems,a Montgomery clift biography,a book on jokes,the Elizabethan world picture,shakespeare,Jane Austen.... And in the car it's his music.Frank Sinatra.The other weekend he drove to San Francisco and back in a Jag"Just me and Frank"he loves Franck. The punks who made him a hero in Sid's memory will be upset,i say. "they can fuck off" It's sing-along with Franck:"we are drinking my friend...to the end... of a brief episode... make it one for my baby... and one more for the road" It's your out-with-Kiefer song I say "Yeah,"he murmurs, and drives on. One weekend evening,when he was about fifteen,Gary Oldman's life changed.He saw a trailer on tv for a film,The raging moon.Malcolm Mcdowell was trying to get the rail off his wheelchair so he could get closer to the woman in the wheelchair next to his and he says_gary has never forgotten the line-"Excuse the familiarity,but how's it done?" It seemed so bizarre,two people in wheelchairs doing a love scene.He said to his mum"Look at this!God we've got to watch this"and they did.And something about it completely arrested him.On tv,shortly afterward was If......,a troubling fable of armed pupil rebellion at an english public school,also starring Macdowell.Gary would look in the mirror and try to practice Mcdowell's smile.He saw Mcdowell again in O lucky man! it all clicked"i'd like to do this" When he first went to Drama school he had to lose his pronounced southeast-London accent;at home people accused him of "talking all posh".They said he'd"gone arty-farty".It took a little while to become an actor.He'd hated school_his teachers told him he was dense_and he had to leave at sixteen to earn money for the family.He got a job at DJM,Elton John's record company,first as a tea boy,then in the art department.He helped do the sleeve for Elton's single "Island Girl" r Meanwhile,he took youth-theater roles,went to drama college and got a B.A in theaters arts.His career progressed steadily and soon he was one of the british theater's bright young talents.Between his first few film roles he clung to the idea that he was really a theater actor.He now says that's something they breed into you:don't show off,this is your real home,dahlingit's such a good leveler.His response:"OH,fuck off" n his theater days he lived with,then married,a british stage actress named Lesley Manville.They had a son,Alfie now threenbut split up soon afterward.Gary sees Alfie when he can.It's difficult.He tells me a story about how he knows Alfie's a sensitive child,because he cried during a sesame street sketch where Bert removed Ernie's nose from his face.Is he disturbed at the symmetry between his childhood and Alfie's? "Sometimes.Oh yeah.yes" [...] Just he had for Sid vicious,to be come Lee Hrvey Oswald,Oldman lost a lot of weight very quickly before shooting.The final scenes where Oswald was to look clean and haggard and paranoid,where shot first,and Oliver Stone wanted a haunted look.Oldman thinks he has a haunted look for freenbut he slimmed down anyway.When I ask how,he says,"i find that not eating helps" Lee Harvey Oswald."a very dark,lonely figure"says Oldman."Who was innocent........he was the patsy,the fall guy.Exactly what he said he was" Gary Oldman can talk forever about why Oswald is innocent:about guns sights and bullet trajectories and firing times,about faked autopsies and substitued bodies,about planes brought down over Russia.He has spent time with Oswald's wife,Marina, and with his daughters.He has been in the same places"where he died,i died.Right on the spot.The corridor was the real corridor.the elevator was the real elevator.The landlady's house was the real landlady's house.We even found his furniture.His bed and his wardrobe. But I don't think it's really any of this that convinces him Oswald is innocent.Oldman is convinced of Oswald's innocence because Oldman has been Oswald.He knows what he was thinking .he knows .Not through any intellectual deduction,but because those thoughts were just there inside Gary's head.This is what acting is for Gary.It takes time and requires solitude.There is a certain process he can do only in private.Things work themselves out just as he is falling asleep.Or in his car.He talks to himself as he drives along,going over stuff. What he is waiting for is what he calls the Cloak:the cloak of inspiration.It's when the process kicks in.One moment you are looking for the character,the next you are the character.You know what they're thinking because you know what you're thinking.The Cloak.Sometimes it can fall late.You always wonder wether next time it'll fall at all. "It didn't take much imagination to see Gary as Oswald" says Oliver Stone."he became totally immersed.The big problem was that it was such a long production that he had to come back to New Orleans several times.He had to carry Oswald around for months,which I must say was not very easy for him" In those days,off-camera,Stone remembers him as "pretty wild".He was a prowler on the edge of the set,in his t-shirt with a bruise over his eye,unwanted,unloved.He got into a few fights" I mention this to Gary and he refers to scenes where he is manhandled by cops.I tell him I mean off the set.Maybe it's my imagination but if I had to pluck a sentence out of the air to add words to the look he gives me,it would be somewhere between"please,i don't really want to pursue this" and " how much do you know?" What he actually says after a while is "i can't remember.Which probably means I did" he says that during filming he stayed in his hotel room at night,sitting,watching tv,drinking,thinking.He wanted to be alone because he says pointing at his chest"i was alone in here". I ask Stone how he thinks Gary finds access to those dark,troubled character.He answers as though it's something he's already thought about"i think Gary's had a tough life.Acting is his deepest urge.he has an inbuilt desire to be loved and watched and act out some sort of epiphany." It may be the curse of the tired,distracted filmmaker,or something more significant but as we walk,Oliver Stone keeps getting Gary's name wrong and with a wry chuckle he has to correct himself.He keeps calling him Gary Oswald. Today we go out for lunch.Gary produces a tape of early-80's english gothrockers Bauhaus.he wants to play their vampire classic,"bela lugosi's dead". You bought that in Tower records,shopping with Wynona,i tell him. He looks at me,dumbstruck,quite horrified,as though reality is slipping away.How could I know that? I tell him, I read it in the Star It takes him a moment to compose himself"im very frightened by that" he mutters.Later we go record shopping ourselves.Gary clowns around with a cardboard cutout of Rod Stewart('he looks like he's had an encounter with Edward Scissorhands!") and buys Ennio Morricone's soundtrack to State of Grace.Maybe that'll be in the Star next weel I say.He doesn't think it's funny. Gary Oldman seems apprehensive about the fame that seems to be coming his way.I ask about fan mail and he says he doesn't get much,though he did get a letter from a man after Prick up your ears.There was line after line of sweet compliments"then I got to the end of it,and he basically wanted me to send him a pair of my soiled underwear" And? "that was a couple of years ago and I'm still wearing them.I'm going to give him something really special"[..] Whenever Gary Oldman dreams,the landscape is always the same.It's always a run-down area slightly on the edge of a futuristic city.In his dreams he is always being pursued.He's guilty of something, and he doesn't know what. Except that last dream,when he shot the seven year old boy the boy who looks like his son Alfie and also looks like Gary himself.In the dream the whole community was in shock and Gary tried to blend in with them and hide his guilt.He knew he was the last person they would suspect.When he tells me about this dream there is another of those sudden disjunctions in the conversation that he appears not to notice and he suddenly says" I know I'm still incredibly affected by my parents's divorce" he says" seven is a very seminal age". Gary Oldman is married to Uma thurman.But there are rumors that all is not well.And it's strange I have been talking to him for hours and though he has mentioned practically everyone else-his mother,father,sisters,first wife,son,friends,co-stars,idols,pop favorites,agents- he has never once mentioned his wife.Odd, in a moment I'd better ask him.Not yet. Why do actors marry actresses? "Because we are fucking stupid" said with a laugh.Of sorts,"it's like an occupationnal hazard.You know you have to spend twelve weeks together,sort of falling in love.Sometimes it's like a holiday romance,because the person that you actually fell in love with was the character they were playing and you realize after the gig is finished that you didn't have that much in common.I'm not saying that that applies to me" And so I finally ask about Uma.he looks............. pained. "Why do you ask? he inquires" it's not something I want to go into.You hear things... like someone said to me they heard I was having an affair with Wynona.I'm working with her!" a long sigh."My relationship is ongoing.But you don't ever see anyone.That's the thing about marrying actress.If they are sucessful they're off doing their thing".Right now Uma's in Chicago filming Mad dog and glory with Robert de Niro. It's funny but after this conversation it's like a dam has been broken.When he talks about his life,Uma's name drops into the conversation quite naturally,as though it had always been there.Wether or not the marriage is working there is no doubt that he desperately wants it to be. A few days later he says to me"i've been thinking about that question:why do actors marry actresses. he has a new answer:"its so we don't have to talk to one another in the evening" You just coexist in restful silence? He shakes his head."i can't sit for very long.i pace the house or so I'm told.Stalking the house.Gary Oldman:intense actor" The next morning he telephones me. "did you see the LA TIMES?" no I say. "Well" he says" don't believe what you read in the paper about me" We arrange to meet later and naturally the first thing I do is to buy the La times,Liz smith's lead story says that his" wild and crazy carrying on" has finished his marriage.At rehearsals he is being consoled by Anthony Hopkins who tells him about press mistreatment he's endured in the past. Over lunch he brings up the' why do actors marry actresses" question again.He's wondering how his answer will sound."Sometimes journalists don't capture the humor'he reasons"so something can sound incredibly cruel or insensitive" Then he offers the correct stage directions to what he'd said:"because they're fuckin's idiots.he laughs hysterically;then his face like Fu Manchu creases into a frown" Gary oldman has therapy.Ongoing. "it's very helpful,you get to understand what's going on and it's relatively cheap.And it's great way to avoid boring your friends,it's like a perfect relationship". Maybe I say it's like the perfect relationship(you get total,enrapt attention),but it's also like prostitution(you pay and you know you get the attention only cause you pay) He muses on this;for some reason it reminds him of something:"when I was reseaching Jkf ;Uma said to me,jokingly:"you love your books more than me" I told this to a friend and he said"well that's absolutely right:the Kennedy assassination is better than a relationship" Oldman and Thurman have appeared on screen together.Once,watch Henry and June again.The scene where June is seen through the window with her bearded sugar daddy,Pop,who accosts her with a cane as Henry Miller looks on from outside in the snow.A familiar face,perhaps? the credits say the part is played by one Maurice Escargot.Come now. "I've not been spotted up till now"he grins."i wanted to call myself Franck rich,but they wouldn't let me" What's the point of acting? "let me turn that over the table"gary laughs.Off he wanders to solicit answers from the lunchtime gathering."it's better than working for a living" says Anthony Hopkins? "To enliven people's lives" says Elwes. Richard Grant delivers his reply in a thundering,hammy english accent"there is no more noble thing.I do it for the people for the people of Scunthorpe" And Oldman? "i don't know I don't need to know that" and as an afterthought,"fuck the people of Scunthorpe" We talk about how Oldman manages emotions on screen"i don't make it up.I have a whole bag:the pain bag.Experiences as a kid..stuff about my dad" Could he cry in the next thirty seconds if he wanted to? "yes" he laughs"i could probably do it quicker than that" Gary's coffin has arrived and he wants to show it to me.He gets into it,taking my tape recorder with him and asks me to close the lid.Later on the tape I find his voice:"what.....is...it.....like?to...........be.............undead!!" "when we have our three-week break they're going to deliver this to my home"are you going to sleep in it? he doesn't answer just looks amused you are aren't you? he laughs"you think I'm sick?when it arrived the first assistant director said" I wonder what's like to fuck in a coffin"maybe I'll find out ans tell him" A week or so later,he phones me.he tells me the coffin's safely in the garage but won't confess to even napping in it.e is dyning to talk about something else."you know who my new favorite director is?Sean Penn.he saw the Indian Runner at its Los angeles premiere the previous night.He told Penn he could put on the posters,"color me impressed!_Gary Oldman" The first night he met Sean Penn they were about to film State of Grace and they were driving around Manhattan,"living it up a bit...research.It was the bizarrest evening." Driving the car was Baryshnikov.Then there were Gary,Sean,director Phil Joanou and Robert de Niro"it was" it suddenly strikes Gary,"the method mobile" He and Sean were slipping into character,and gary had been drinking and it suddenly seemed right to sing a little"like a virgin! touched for the very first time!" he doesn't know what he was thinking.It just overtook him.It was possibly a very risky thing to do but Sean just laughed. Someone once asked Gary about Sean's demons."i said if he didn't have them demons he could have never directed that film.Like,people go to me,"oh Gary oldman.woww mann,intense actor" and then they get on my fuckin' case for getting arrested for drunk driving and being a bit of a bad boy every now and then.Yet they like the performances.What do they want me to be?" Gary Oldman is the kind of man you meet and realize would be nice as a friend:not because he is sharp and intelligent or even because he is interestingly fucked up, but because he approaches the muddle of the world with an enviable compassion and a vulnerable romanticism.But there are also ways in which he is unsettling.One of his great natural skills is his accents.It's some things he plays with(rarely does an hour pass without a snatch of Hannibal Lecter or sean connery or Laurence olivier) and jokes about.Talking about a spurious rumor that he was to co star in a film about british's 60's killers the Moors murderers with Meryl Streep he titters," we could water our accents together" One day at rehearsals he greets me with a sinister"howwwwwwwwwwwww are youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu?" I assume the cloak has fallen and ask if this is Dracula voice. he looks somewhat taken aback. "not that 's a silly voice" Eventually the Cloak does fall.He calls a couple of weeks after our interviews and tells me it descended a week before.He sounds thrilled"i'm getting weirder and weirder I'm on fire.I stalk the house.I go for a cup of tea,go for a drive.It's hard to switch it off"Just occasionnally he's been feeling low and blue.When that hits,he puts on the credits sequence from being There and peter sellers cheers him up. That dream,gary thought about it some more.About that boy he shot"it's me isn't it? I've developped as a man,but frozen in time inside of me has been that very scared,hurt little boy" There's more.It's the first time he has been the agressor in his dreams.He is taking control.So it's a good thing.It's cathartic.He feels relieved.lighter.He's worked it out.Maybe tomorrow or the next time he looks in the pain bag,it will be a little less full.Don't worry,though;there plenty left..  

Tuesday, 16 December 2008 | 3878 hits | Print |  Write e-mail

Book LA(2004) ^Featured

Book LA(2004)         Article Q: So where have you been? A: I've got two young boys, so they became my project, and I didn't really want to travel. I wanted to get them up and in school, just be there, be very present. When I was younger, it was great living out of a suitcase, but I've tried to do less and less of that for the last couple of years. Before Harry Potter, which is the first big thing I've done in a long time, I've been basically been at home, and have worked on two things that were L.A. based, or close to home.... And that's me, I've been really low-key." Q: You must have had to be in England for a while for Harry Potter. A: I was there for three months, for a part that is really 15 to 20 minutes on screen. Q: Aren't you the title character? A: Yes, I am the title character, but in the book, as in film, one awaits the arrival of Sirius Black... There's a big buildup. It was anywhere between 12 and 15 days of shooting, spread out. Harry Potter is a 4 to 6 hour shooting day, but that is spread out over 12, because the children have to be tutored and fed and rested, and the animals of course - Scabbers the rat gets a break every 15 minutes. Just the trauma of being on the set, and being manhandled, means he can only work for 15 minutes at a time, and then he has to have a rest for half an hour. It was a whole new world to me. Q: Does that make it hard or easier to act? A: It makes it a little harder to keep a focus, a continuity, or a level of emotion and energy. But when you take on a movie that involves children and animals and special effects, it's a process that you jut have to surrender to. It's time consuming, and it 's slow, and it can be bone-crushingly boring, until those moments when you're actually in the moment doing it. But the three main kids, Rupert (Grint), Emma (Watson) and Daniel (Radcliffe), are focused and professional and unspoiled, not remotely precocious or pretentious. They are just down to earth, really nice kids. And I adore Dan, who plays Harry. He is the coolest coolest kid. Q: And are your kids excited about you being in this film? A: Oh, they're thrilled. I'm a hero at school. Q: Is that part of what attracted you to the role? A: There are several things. Just practically, I have not worked for a while, and you've got to make money. I have to pay the bills. Then of course, the director, Alfonso Cuaron (Y tu Mama Tambien, Great Expectations), makes it doubly intriguing, because he's a real filmmaker. There's a difference. There are people who make movies, and there are filmmakers. And although, yes, it's Harry Potter and you're either going to like Harry Potter or you're not going to like it, Alfonso comes to it with his own style and vision, which makes it very exciting. It doesn't look like the other two. It has a whole different energy and heart and vision behind it. It's got great feel to it. It's much darker. The book is darker. The kids are growing up. And these actors and actresses I was in the theatre with, years ago, that also made it. A dear friend of mine, David Thewliss [sic], who's playing Professor Lupin, an old friend of mine, Timothy Spall, who plays Peter Pettigrew, and Alan Rickman who I've known for twenty years, we're all in a scene together. Fantastic. Waving our wands around, doing a lot shouting. A lot of shouting acting. Q: Does that take less getting into character? A: All that has to be there. All that groundwork has to be done, but in the application of it, it takes a certain style, for want of a better word. John Gielgud once said, "style is k nowing what play you're in." There's a challenge in something like Harry. There's no time for subtext. It's what I call "lickety split." Tits and teeth, and there you are! Up front, and get through it. It's not naturalism, it's not Mike Leigh, it's almost Vaudeville. Might something that you feel is too big elsewhere, in the world of Harry Potter, it works, or hopefully it does. All my parts are big. I'm not the subtlest actor. Once in awhile I get the chance to do a little bit of subtlety, but, yes, this is out there, in your face.  

Tuesday, 16 December 2008 | 2772 hits | Print |  Write e-mail

100 greatest Movie stars Interview:Channel four ^Featured

100 greatest Movie stars Interview:Channel four         Article View the Video Special thanks to my friends Charlotte and Susan Transcript: How personal was the making of Nil By Mouth? I was born, erm, about, you know, if you walked here it would probably be about fifteen seconds. From that pub. And it was a pub that my Dad used to drink in and my Mum has sung in that pub, has sung that song, in that pub. And I knew that, from the very beginning, that Edna was gonna mime, lip-synch to it. So I, I always had the idea, you know, the idea of my Mum singing was there from the very beginning. Erm, I wanted to use my Mum, but erm, you know, that didn't, that didn't happen. Nothing against her, nothing personal against Edna, erm, but I wanted to. I had an instinct to use her and I was talked out of it and I kind of 'if there's any one thing I regret, I regret being sort of talked out of it. But erm, you know, now its there and it is what it is. It, it seemed, it's all very personal. I mean, all the locations, it was a dream for a location manager because I went to all the locations, and many of them I'd been to, you know, obviously before. Then I just had the location manager and I took them round all the different locations and said, 'Get me permission to shoot here. Get me'' You know, a great deal of the work was sort of already done by the time she came on board. But it never felt, erm, the fact that it was so personal, and the fact that, you say, you know, is it exposing. But the fact that it was emotionally exposing and very personal was incredibly freeing. There is, sort of, something to be said for sort of, creatively sort of taking all your clothes off and saying 'Here I am, you know, warts and all. It was, it was a fanta' it was a great experience. And not just because I was surrounded by some wonderful people, and I, you know, 'Hey look at me, I got the toy set, you know, I was playing with the big train set, kind of thing. I mean, not just because of that. Emotionally it was just such a very freeing experience. And I think, I think, I would like to think that my openness and my honesty contaminated the people that I was working for with who were there: the crew, the actors. Tell us about the role of Janet? Well the role of Janet was played by, erm, my sister, Maureen, who"s better known as Layla Morse, erm, better known as Mo Harris on EastEnders. So, erm, that's extraordinary, isn't it? Now, you talk about, at the beginning you were saying, you know, walking down the street and not being recognised and, I mean she can't go anywhere. She's more, you should be talking to her, she's more famous than I am. (Laughs) I mean when people talk about working on that film, and that experience and I think, I think, that's probably got a lot to do with it. I was just so raw and honest, and there was no bullshit. I think that's probably what they're responding to.

Tuesday, 16 December 2008 | 3447 hits | Print |  Write e-mail

Studio Magazine( Novembre 1997) ^Featured

Studio Magazine( Novembre 1997)         Article English translation from the original french one by my friend Charlotte. For 'Nil By Mouth, his first film as a director, this bad guy who knows no boundaries comes back to his English roots. And he manages to give a ruthless picture of a family ruled over by drugs, alcohol and violence. It's quite a shock. Interview : Patrick Fabre The night of the projection of 'The Fifth Element,' Gary Oldman was both present, next to its director Luc Besson, and totally absent. For him, everything would be decided the day after, when 'Nil By Mouth, his first film as a director (produced, by the way, by Luc Besson as well) would be presented for competition. More than just surprised, the festival-goers have been shaken by this dark and yet warm film, which talks about the conflicts of a young man under the influence of drugs, with an alcoholic and violent father, and a loving mother nevertheless. Gary Oldman reveals there a true gift for directing and casts a lucid eye on what was his everyday life when he was growing up in London, with those workers who go to the pubs after work. When he talks about the movie that took him five years to make, Oldman is honest, touching and humble. Because he doesn't forget those who never got out of that Hell. Only a sparkle in his deep blue eyes betrays his pride. That of a man who's standing tall. And a great director-to-be. You don't hide the fact that 'Nil By Mouth' is inspired from autobiographical facts. GO: You know, whether you're a painter, a sculptor, a dancer or composer, there's always a bit of you in everything you do. Yes it's true, 'Nil By Mouth' is partly autobiographical; I lived in that area, there's a bit of my father, and my brother-in-law too, and I put a lot of myself in all those characters. The one I'm most proud about, is the child, the little girl. Just like her, I was a kind of spectator of what was happening in my family. Did your family see the movie? GO: They've been really moved by its honesty. As for my wife, on the night of the premiere in Cannes, at the end of the screening, she turned towards me and said, 'This fucking film is so hard!' I answered I know, yes, thank you! (Laughs) When did you feel the need to write 'Nil By Mouth'? GO: I started talking about it five years ago. I wanted to make a movie about my origins, where I grew up But I was always working on other people's movies. I always postponed it. Every time I had some spare time, when I wanted to sit down in front of a piece of paper, the phone would ring and I'd be offered new roles. And I'm just like anybody else; I have to put food on the table! Finally, two years ago, I said to my agent, Look, I'm going to write that fucking film that's killing me. And if Martin Scorsese calls and wants me to be in his next masterpiece, don't tell me. I have to act. Why? GO: Because I wanted to make the movie I wanted to see about a subject that affected me, me and many people I love, and which even killed some of them I have seen many movies dealing with alcoholism, but they embellished it too often. Personally, I prefer filming Raymond (his main character, portrayed by Ray Winstone), close-up, drinking in a bar, and then move the camera away to show that the pub is empty. That's where alcoholism takes you; at 10 in the morning, in an empty pub! When you should be at home, playing with your fucking kids! Was sh ooting the movie a way for you to exorcise the demons from your past? Some kind of therapy? GO: Nowadays, I don't know anymore whether I really believe that directing movies, or even acting in them, can be a catharsis. I used to think so, a few years ago. I had the feeling that acting was therapeutic, that it was an outlet that allowed me to free myself from my demons. I used to use the following metaphor: The actor is like those glass balls with snow in them. He spends his time shaking his emotions. However, he can't break the glass. He can't escape. On the other hand, writing 'Nil By Mouth' was like a sort of liberation for me. Filming it, too. What was harder to stand was the editing; everything hit me in the face! Some things showed in that movie are very personal, I've lived them. And seeing them again, it was live taking a cold shower. In 'Nil By Mouth', you show a junkie thinking he's Dennis Hooper in 'Apocalypse Now'. As if to show that this kind of work is related to addiction. Has that happened to you? GO: I think it's got a lot to do with it. Acting is like an escape. It's also being as far away from yourself as possible. That's the reason why you take speed, sleeping pills, Valium, grass, alcohol You want to be somewhere else. At one time, I wanted to call the movie Anywhere But Here, because I was drinking, and I wanted to be anywhere but in my own shoes. What was it like for you with the media coverage of your problems with alcoholism? GO: When I chose to undergo treatment, I wasn't allowed to do it anonymously. I'm a public figure. It was too good for the papers! Can you imagine the headlines? Gary sobers up, Gary in rehab. So I decided to come clean publicly. In a way, it was a challenge. Like deciding to direct a movie? GO: It's not exactly the same thing! (Laughs) The hardest thing when you take up directing for the first time, is to share your vision when you've never filmed anything else beforehand. I was always lost in the abstract. When I talked about using a zoom, I was asked, To have effects like in Columbo? when I simply wanted the spectator to have the feeling that he was in the room with the characters. To make him feel claustrophobic. Your production displays a real master of the video camera. Where did you learn that? GO: I think there's a sort of grammar, a filmed language, which you acquire by osmosis. And I've been in enough movies to know about framings, wide, medium and close shots, close-ups, reverse angles, trailers My editor said that it couldn't have been my first film because I have a real sense of editing. But I don't know what he means by that! (Laughs) I think that everything was in the balance; from the very beginning of the writing, if the movie was too structuralised, too formal, I was destroying what I was aiming to direct What I wanted to do was an honest movie in which night time would look like night time. I didn't want to cheat with American night times, with blue filters or anything like that. I've even said to the director of photography, The hand of your light meter has to indicate Are you joking?! In order to obtain this feeling of authenticity, you don't back away from hard scenes, like the one in which Raymond calls his flat deserted by his family. GO: In that scene, I wanted to show what goes through the mind of an alcoholic. Raymond has the brain of an alcoholic. So it doesn't matter whether the phone's plugged in or not! In any ways, there will be communication in his mind. So that we can really feel the character's schizophrenia, I filmed him on the phone, in the bathroom, in his son's deserted bedroom, going through the house like a madman while still having the conversation throughout it all. It allows me to show the fact that you can't escape from your problems. You can take drugs, but it doesn't ch ange anything. When you wake up, you're still there, you're still yourself. How do you explain alcoholism to an actor who's not an alcoholic? GO: For that particular scene, all that was written in the script was, Raymond fights with his demons. I first made Ray drink a few glasses, to make him relax, and when he was on the phone or in the bathroom, I gave him directions: Look in the mirror, think about your father, roll your eyes. Just like for a mute film, by the way, we had trouble reinserting dialogs! There are so many things that Ray understood instinctively Great directors who spend a lot of time choosing their actors are so right: the casting is half of the work done. And the other half? About directing them and a whole team, how did you deal with that? GO: Somebody once told me, Being a director is like being eaten by birds, just like in Hitchcock's movie. It's true that there are so many things to think about. If only you could simply concentrate on what you have to do, on the movie! But no, throughout the entire day, people from the team keep interrupting you: Are those shoes OK? And what about this picture? We lost our set for next week, what do we do about that?... It's a slow death, like being tortured by a thousand and one questions! At Cannes, Matthieu Kassovitz asked me if being a director had brought me pleasure. I told him, I thought it was great, even though I had the feeling I was trying to double up in order to shove my head in my own ass! (Laughs) Did you think it was so great that you might not want to be an actor anymore? GO: There will always be movies in which I will want to act. Just like the new one by Terence Malick ('The Thin Red Line') for which I'm only shooting for four days. Terence comes out of his retiring after twenty years (He hasn't directed anything since his second movie, 'Days Of Heaven, in 1976). When such a director calls you up to offer you a role, you can't refuse it. That gave me goose bumps. I remembered why I wanted to be an actor. Other than that, I admit that most of the time, it's only a job. But it's true that when I was filming 'Nil By Mouth, I was full of vitality. It's very exciting to arrive on a set in the morning and everybody jumps on you to ask: Where do you want the video camera to be? Confidently, you reply, I want it there. And they put it just there! And they won't move it until you tell them, No, finally, put it over there. The first time I said Action and Cut, it was fantastic. I felt just like a child. (Laughs) Do you plan to show the movie to your children? GO: When they�ve reached the right age to see it. I have a 9-year old son, from a first marriage. Just like all divorced fathers, I only see him at the weekends and during holidays� A friend of mine told me to keep some kind of diary and then show it to him, as if to make up for wasted years. After seeing the movie, she said, �Do you remember me telling you about a diary� It�s done, you�ve written it.�

Tuesday, 16 December 2008 | 3010 hits | Print |  Write e-mail

Studio Magazine( June 2004) ^Featured

Studio Magazine( June 2004)         Article English translation from the original french "Studio" interview:Big thanks to Charlotte! Gary Oldman Up close and too personal As the third Harry Potter movie comes out (in which he portrays the prisoner of Azkaban), he starts shooting the new Batman. Two opportunities to catch up with this singular actor and sensitive director. Interviews and photos by Jack English. IS IT BECAUSE HE STARTED by portraying Sid Vicious, leader of the Sex Pistols, that he seems to have perfected the role of bad guys? Nevertheless, Gary Oldman manages to avoid the caricature and give depth to his crazy characters. He transforms them into tormented souls; human beings who carry le complexity, pain  and sometimes darkness of the whole of mankind. Now part pf the cast of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, he has just started shooting Batman Begins. Two blockbuster movies made by young, singular and gifted directors: Alfonso Cuaron and Christopher Nolan. The actor, who himself directed the angry and sensitive Nil By Mouth, in 1997, has a particular fondness for real directors, who have a large visual sense and a certain vision of cinema  from Stephen Frears to Luc Besson to Coppola. He willingly stays away from the media, but has nevertheless agreed to answer the questions that one of his friends, photographer Jack English, asked him for us. Tell me about your encounter with Alfonso Cuaron, who directed Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Gary Oldman  I really enjoyed his movie, Y Tu Mama Tambien. He is an outstanding director, who's got his very own style and vision. Even if it was the third instalment of Harry Potter, it had to remain an Alfonso Cuaron movie. It was not just a sequel. That's, of course, what I liked about it. My first encounter with him was similar to that with Francis Ford Coppola, back when he offered me Dracula. Dracula was a character who had never thrilled me, until I met Francis. In a way, the same thing happened when Alfonso asked me to play Sirius Black, this wizard escaped from prison and wanted for murder, whom Harry saves with a wave of his wand. I have seen the movie once it was finished, I really like it, and I loved working with Alfonso  which is very important when you work with a director for four of five months! Do you think that the same thing will happen with Batman Begins, which you have just started shooting?  Yes, I think so. First of all, because I'm in great company: Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine. Secondly, because the director, Christopher Nolan, who worked on Memento and Insomnia, is, just like Alfonso, a director who's got a very personal vision of things. Directors like them make those big projects seem very exciting. In Batman Begins [in which Christian Bale plays Batman], I play lieutenant  and future police chief  James Gordon. I have three sons: Alfie, Gulliver and Charlie. How many fathers do you know that can take their children see them in a movie with Batman? Let's take a big step back in time Which play, in which you performed, has brought you pleasure as well as remained a good performance?  I remember a play, called The Country Wife, at the Manchester's Royal Exchange, a very long time ago [1987]. It's a play that dates back the Restoration, from which Warren Beatty vaguely inspired himself for Shampoo. I was playing the lead character, Horner, and Nick Hytner was directing. Not everybody enjoyed my performance. Most of the time, he is portrayed as a good, impertinent and cheerful guy, who makes eyes at the public. I portrayed him as someone a lot darker, and even addicted to sex! Reactions were not unanimous, but that's what got me excellent reviews. I still remember the one in the Times: No other actor before has imposed this role the ay Gary Oldman has! Irving Warden [famous critic of the time, feared and respected] said that. That was so huge for me. Albert Finney and Laurence Harvey had played that role, and Warden was saying that I had imposed it! Did you have the feeling, at that time, that all the work done at university [he studied at Rose Bruford College] was finally bearing fruit?  I don't know. Maybe I did. I had worked very hard: I didn't go out, I didn't hang about with my friends in bars, I didn't fuck around; I did my homework, my essays Do you think the fact that you were not accepted at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art stimulated you, in a way?  Definitely. I had sent hundreds of admission forms to various schools. To get an audition for the Royal Academy and not be accepted, was, at the time, a huge disappointment for me. What kind of memories do you have from the time you spent at the Royal Court Theatre?  Some nights, I had the feeling that I was holding the audience in my hand. You could have heard a pin drop. I did some great work there. I also enjoyed a few successes. Saved, Rat in the Skull, Serious Money I did stay there for a while. I was at home. And I was directed by Max Strafford-Clark, who's a wonderful actor. After so many successes to do with theatre, was it hard to move on to cinema?  It was actually an accident! I had gone for an audition, but I knew I wasn't their first choice maybe the fourth of fifth. Anyway, I got the part. And the first one led to the second one. I did Sid and Nancy [by Alex Cox, in which he plays Sid Vicious, leader of the Sex Pistols] and then Prick Up You Ears [by Stephen Frears, in which he plays the playwright Joe Orton]. Those two movies did quite well in the US; Americans liked them. After that, I was in State of Grace [by Phil Joanou, with Sean Penn], which was certainly one of my best performances. And then I carried on: Henry & June by Philip Kaufman, JFK by Oliver Stone [in which he played Lee Harvey Oswald]. In the US, people used to think I was American. It was a great thing for a British actor to make himself known over there. It hadn't happened since Vivien Leigh. That's when you moved to New York  Yes. The cinema industry was in America, not in England. Moreover, my marriage was broken, I had met Uma [Thurman  whom he would marry in 1990 and divorce two years later]. I loved the energy in New York. You get out of your building to walk on the street and it's as if the curtain was going up! You were far away from New Cross [the London area where he was born on Marc h 21st, 1958] You can say that! (He laughs) What was the last performance in cinema that brought you pleasure?  Manipulations [by Rod Lurie, with Joan Allen, Jeff Bridges and Christian Slater, never been released in France]. It was a good role, in a good thriller, very well written. One of the last times we talked, it seems as though you weren't really excited about being an actor anymore That may be because I'm getting older! Being an actor is a good way to earn a living. And to meet fabulous people. It's great to live very comfortably. I've been lucky, I've had a lot of fun with great roles, but it is true that if I were extremely rich, I would stop and I would go to play football on a beach in the Caribbean with my children You used to be a good football player, right?  Yes. There's nothing better than running with a ball and scoring a goal. It's the most exhilarating feeling in the world! When I was at school, I was a good player. So good in fact that many people told my mother that I should become a professional. I was born near the Millwall stadium [a London team], but I've always been a Manchester United fan. I love George Best [star of the club in the 70s]. I've even recently bought one of his shirts on the internet! Has the excitment you had when you were a young actor gone?  The prospect of learning is so much bigger when you're young Of course, energy and enthusiasm are not the same anymore. Back then, there was no reason to turn anything down. Everything I had to discover was before me. When you've done this for twenty years, it's not the same anymore. When I thought about moving on to directing, I thought, I don't know how to write, I don't know how to direct, so I'm going to do it! It was difficult, but it was a real challenge. It was very exciting. I should have done it earlier! Would you say that Coppola is the best director with whom you have worked? For my income, sure! (He laughs) Coppola is the best living American director. But, we all remember that shooting Dracula was difficult  That's because we were both so involved, and that we didn't always have the same point of view. By the way, his daughter, Sofia, has done a great movie; it's my favourite one of the year, and even all the years! Lost in Translation is a masterpiece. Her father can be proud. And what did you retain from your performance as Mason Verger in Hannibal, by Ridley Scott?  I loved working with Ridley, and I loved the character. People used to say to me, You disappear behind the make-up, you're in a wheelchair and you can't move at all; it must have been so frustrating. No, it wasn't. It was even certainly the most liberating thing I've ever done. I've never been freer and more relaxed on a set. How do you explain that?  Because I was completely hidden! It was like being dressed up for Halloween. You feel a lot less inhibited behind a mask. For me, it's the ultimate experience for an actor. When you're hidden, you don't have to look like Gary Oldman. In the book by Thomas Harris, Mason Verger is a really crazy man. You seem to like this kind of characters.  Yes. Because I'm interested in the people and their imperfections. So what did you bring to Drexl, in True Romance?  The character already existed in the script, which was very well written. Tarantino [who wrote the script, directed by Tony Scott in 1993, see Studio no.80] is unequalled when it comes to bringing dialogs and action together. I just had my say about what the character looked like, that's all. You have just found yourself with Tony Scott again, to shoot a BMW advert. Did you like it? A lot! First of all, because it brought me a lot of money and a X5! (He laughs) Also, because Tony filmed that advert down my street in Los Angeles. I play this man in a wheelchair with a gun a kind of mix between Mason Verger and Nosferatu! And James Brown was involved too, and I had always dreamed of meeting him. And how did you meet Luc Besson? I was going out, at the time, with a former fiancee of his, and she organised a dinner with him one night. After that, I read the script for Leon and I loved it. What are those pills that Stanfield, your character in Leon, keeps swallowing? They're whatever you want them to be! That was my idea. What is, according to you, the best Luc Besson film?  Le dernier combat. He did that when he was 19 [he was actually 24], with no money. It's a masterpiece. According to the legend, he signed the contract to produce and distribute Nil By Mouth (1) [written and directed by Gary Oldman in 1997] on a serviette. Is that true?  Yes. So how did you tackle this new project of writing a movie? In a way, it took me a long time to write Nil By Mouth. I first wrote it down in notebooks, and it became a script when I typed it on my computer. Nowadays, I write once the children are in bed. But I've reached a point where I tell myself that I've got to see this activity like real work, almost like a job. I've got to isolate myself and fully concentrate on it. I have the feeling that you have fought with writing, since Nil By Mouth. Actually, for that movie there were thirty years of gestation and six weeks of writing. Since then, my life has changed, I have to take my children into account, I have to look after them. It's hard to find the energy to write, to put it down in black and white, to draw things from within and recreate them. Since Nil By Mouth, I've written a shirt film, called Day Room, which is a prolongation of the hospital scene from my feature-length one. One of my friends is trying to shoot it, with my mother. And I finished the script for Joe Buck Which you started shooting and gave up. Yes What else have you written, recently?  I've started a story that takes place in Glasgow, of a guy who's in love with his older brother's girlfriend. It started off well, and then I lost faith. I thought, I'm once again writing something very dark, with no star. How am I going to find the money to do it? What the fuck am I doing once again? And I gave up. You didn't have that feeling when you wrote Nil By Mouth?  No, because I was innocent; I didn't know what would happen then. And the world has changed a lot since 1997. And that's not talking about the market! I shot a few scenes of Joe Buck, which I've shown to people. It's good, sexy. I've showed it to people in Los Angeles but I'll never make that movie. Why not?  Because I don't want to be in it, and it's the stars that allow the movies to exist. I don't think I'd be able to make Nil By Mouth nowadays; Ray Winstone was not what we call bankable back then. There has been a seismic shock in the industry, when Nil By Mouth was made, about financing movies. Two years ago, had I had Russell Crowe to be in Joe Buck, I would have been told, Great! It would have been perfect. Nowadays, I'd be told, Wonderful, but who will play the girl? When, precisely I think it should be someone unknown, or at least not very famous. New faces; new people. And that's why I've had so much trouble even doing the casting for Joe Buck. You have even tried, at one time, to be in it Yes. I had found a team of people who had agreed to work for almost nothing for ten days. I shot it in my house, and I was even sometimes working the camera. In order to find enough money to continue, I agreed to take the leading part, and then I understood I didn't want to be in front of the camera. I couldn't see myself at all in that character. I had the feeling I was wasting the time of all the people who had been working with me. And I lost my enthusiasm Do you think it will ever come back? No. Tell us more about it. It was a movie about a man addicted to sex It's too easy to say that about him, even if it partly is the subject. Part of the tragedy, in that story, comes from the fact that this man, who's just turned 50, is obsessed with a young girl. He makes her promises that he cannot keep, because he knows that their relationship can't lead them anywhere. At the same time, he's married to a remarkable woman. In a way, everything he wishes for, he has it under his very nose. But when he's with the girl, he thinks about his wife, and when he's with his wife, he thinks about the girl. His wife catches him cheating, she forgives him, he swears that he won't do it again, but he does it all over again and again How does it end?  Lies and dishonesty destroy everything. It becomes unbearable for him. But he can't help going deeper and deeper One final time, he tries to go back to his wife, but she doesn't want him anymore. Cut. We see him again in a therapy group for people addicted o sex. He speaks and replies to someone who's just been talking, With all due respect for your story, I don't jerk off ten times a day, I don't watch hardcore videos on the internet, I don't feel excited by pornography. I honestly don't think I should be here. I listen to all your stories, and I think that I'm just a fucking normal guy. And maybe I am indeed normal. Did you want to disturb the audience, with such an ending?  I dont want to give the audience a way out. If I'd made him an alcoholic or a junkie, they would have accepted him more easily. What do you think about pornography? In a way, porno movies are some of the biggest works in the world. You watch one, and it's just like a masterpiece, exactly like a John Ford, Hitcock or Kubrick movie. It's a masterpiece until you come. After that, you only wish for one thing: to find the remote and watch a football match. I used to read porno books on planes, because I was scared, but nowadays, I'm not interested anymore. What do you find sexy? Talent. Talent is the sexiest thing in the world. The way Eric Clapton plays guitar, that's sexy. The way my fiancee walks through the room  the way she holds her head, the way her ponytail swings that's sexy. In 1994, you said that Nil By Mouth corresponded to the vision you had of the world. Do you still see it in the same way today? No. I used to see the world that way at the time when I was writing the movie. But, as I get older, this tendency is getting easier to forget. I don't have to live there anymore [in London, where the action of that feature-length movie takes place], I can just go there. What really happens to people, you can't render it in cinema. There are some people who live in far worst conditions than the ones I've described in Nil By Mouth. You have recently organised a screening in Los Angeles Yes, I rented some material from Panovision, in L.A. The guy who runs the company is English, and he hadn't seen the movie. I had it screened in a very small room, for him and five or six of his mates. I hadn't seen Nil By Mouth for years, and it was, in fact, the first time that I really watched it and it brought me pleasure. That was exactly what I wanted, when I made that movie; a movie for mates. The awards, success, reviews, distribution in the US, it w as all a bonus Do you still like Cassavetes? � I've always been a big fan. I remember that, when I saw Faces, I couldn't believe it. That movie grabs you and doesn't let you go, and Cassavetes breaks all the rules There are things you're supposed to do when you make a movie, and he doesn't! As if he didn't care. He goes straight to what he's looking for. I love it, but not everyone can do that. I've interviewed Gena Rowlands [who was married to Cassavetes for thirty five years] for Venice Magazine, and I asked her, If he had had the money, do you think that his movies would have been different? And she said, Oh no, it was what it was. You have to, sort of, cut the clothes to what you can afford. It was all in his head. Something dictated by circumstances. It's crazy what you can do in your living room, if you're a great scriptwriter, a great director and your wife is a great actress! You told me that you would like to write the adaptation of Places to Look for a Mother, by Nicole Stansbury, which you have just read.  It's a very beautiful book. No one took the option, so I tried. It's the story of a family in which the mother is dysfunctional; and everything is seen through the eyes of a seven year-old girl. There are, in that story, many things that move me. I think it would make a wonderful movie. I hope it will be my next step as a director. You dedicated Nil By Mouth to your father. Do you think he would have been offended by the movie?  I don't think so. I think that, if he were still alive, he'd be living with me, in California, and he'd swim in my swimming pool. I made him go onboard the Concorde, I bought him travels in first class. I think he would have been, on the contrary, proud of me. Dedicating the movie to him was a sign of affection. Just a salute to my old man! (1) First  and only one so far feature-length film directed by Gary Oldman, it tells the everyday life of a family living in London's suburbs, between unemployment, alcohol and psychodrama Gary Oldman comes face to face with Harry Potter Escaped from Azkaban prison, wizard Sirius Black is he the biggest danger that Harry Potter ever had to face? This question is the foundation of the third instalments of the adventures imagined by J.K. Rowling. Directed by Alfonso Cuaron (Y Tu Mama Tambien), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (released in France on June 2nd, June 4th in the US) should, just like the previous two, climb right at the top of the box office, which would allow Gary Oldman to enjoy his biggest success yet.  

Tuesday, 16 December 2008 | 3766 hits | Print |  Write e-mail

Conférence de presse Nil by Mouth - Gary Oldman - 8 Mai 97 ^Featured

Luc Besson rentre en dernier, avec ses lunettes noires. Il tentera de se remettre de sa gueule de bois pendant cette heure de conversation pas très secrète. La veille, l'équipe fêtait en toute intimité (c'est à dire 3000 personnes) la première du 5ème élément, avec Gary Oldman. AUTOBIO L'acteur passe donc à la réalisation avec Nil by Mouth (Ne pas avaler). Et c'est fortement autobiographique car " composer, jouer, écrire provient toujours d'une partie de soi. Cest une histoire très personnelle ". Même si là il a été très loin: " Oui, il s'agit de mon père, de mon environnement familial. C'est relié à mon père, à mon beau-frère, à mes neuveux, à moi. C'est beaucoup de moi. Chez moi, j'étais comme la mouche sur un mur, durant les conversations. Je ne faisais que regarder ce qui se passait. " Tellement autobio que ce film noir sur la misère londonnienne, la drogue et le désespoir reflète des moments vécus par la star. " La voix de la mamie qui chante est celle de ma mère. Il y a de nombreux éléments personnels dans ce film : Le pub du speech " Nil By Mouth " est celui où mon père avait l'habitude d'aller. je pense que l apersonne qui s'occupait des lieux de tournage a eu un boulot très facile. On devait aller là et là là. " REALISATEUR Le film a été tourné à Londres : " si je devenais réalisateur, je devais retourner à Londres, en Angleterre. Je devais être honnête. Beaucoup de ma vie s'est déroulée en Amérique. 10 ans à New York, puis Los Angeles, le soleil... " Et justement il voulait être réaliste. " Je ne voulais pas de soleil dans mon film. Je ne cherchais aucun effet brillant, rien de joli. Je préférais les gros plans sur les visages que les plans larges. " Son premier travail fut avant-tout d'écrire son film: " Je le voyais en même temps. C'était dans ma tête. J'avais une idée très spécifique de ce que je voulais tourner. C'est totalement abstrait, tout était là haut (il montre sa tête), comme une vidéo branchée sur votre cerveau. " Sur ce nouveau métier, il semble très passioné, même si l'on sent la fatigue et les contraintes qu'il a subit. " Ce que j'aime dans la réalisation c'est que je peux porter mes propres vêtements. Sinon, c'est comme un tunnel, un long coma. On dort et on vit avec son film. C'est très stimulant. " Il n'avait pas forcément envie de faire la publicité autour de la dope, notamment. Oui il s'est drogué (" extasy ") , oui il fait une cure de " re-hab ", oui il est devenu " clean ". Le film devait avant tout montrer une réalité (comme au temps de Dickens) : " je crois qu'il y a beaucoup de politic dans le film. Mais je voulais éviter qu'il soit didactique. Je voulais un film axé sur les gens, les sentiments. " L'une des vedettes du film, Ray Winston exprime sa vision de la politique àa cette occasion : " La politique ne peut pas aider des gens comme ça. Ils s'aident entre eux. Ils deviennent une famille. " ACTEURS Les acteurs ont interprété avec justesse cette famille de rôles marquants, violents : Ray est un homme marié, alcoolique, drogué, loubard, qui bat sa femme. Et qui cache un manque terrible de calins. Le comédien Ray Winston - le premier à avoir lu le script - a d'ailleurs trouvé " génial " ce personnage. " Il l'aimait et il le voulait ". Même si lui sur un plan personnel n'a jamais connu une telle " violence. J'ai grandit dans une famille avec une bonne mère et un bon père. Bien sûr cela rend les choses plus faciles de connaître Cathie Burke (celle  qui joue Valérie, sa femme) pour ces scènes où je la bats ". Gary Oldman explique d'ailleurs qu'il a recruté chaque rôle au cas par cas. Pour le rôle du jeune fils, Billy (Charlie Creed-Miles), il a été dans une école de théatre, où il faisait un numéro d'improvisition. Cathie (Val) était une connaissance de Oldman : " j'avais travaillé avec elle ". Apparemment une des expériences les plus enrichissantes de leurs vies pour ces acteurs. BESSON-PRODUCTEUR Là où le jeu devient amusant c'est lorsque le producteur Luc Besson avoue avoir récupéré Charlie Creed-Miles dans le 5ème élément (il y est David). Besson justifie son entrée dans la production de ce film par sa relation avec Gary Oldman (qui était acteur dans deux de ses films : Léon et Le 5ème élément) : " Moi Gary, je l'aime énormément. Les acteurs se soucient avant tout de leur image. Lui il est généreux, il était prédestiné à la mise en scène. Il regardait toujours les mises en place des caméras. En plus, les acteurs sont merveilleux. " Quant au sujet, il se justifie : " Vous savez les gens fuient par divers moyens : certains prennet un verre, ou deux bouteilles, ou une bouteille de plongée.... " CLAP DE FIN : ORIGINES La violence qu'on y voit, ce déclin social, tous ces thèmes que l'on retrouve chez d'autres de ses collègues compatriotes, " ce n'est pas nouveau : il y certainement une tendance mais elle n'est pas qu'actuelle. Tony Richardson a traité ces thèmes. Et Roman Polanski a été un artiste qui a su très bien saisir la violence. " Mais Gary Oldman n'a montré la violence que parce qu'elle appartenait à son enfance, et même au-delà. Les origines de ce film ont pour source " les pêchés du père. Et ce que j'essaie de faire, durant toute ma vie, c'est : casser ce cycle héréditaire ." V.C. Thomas

Tuesday, 16 December 2008 | 5541 hits | Print |  Write e-mail

Gary Oldman Le zinzin d'hollywood ^Featured

Interwiew par Robert Strauss En quelques films qui sont autant de choix judicieux (Sid and Nancy, Prick up your ears, les anges de la nuit...), il s'est imposé comme un acteur indispensable. Avec Dacula, de F.F. Coppola, il trouve un rôle à la mesure de sa folie intérieure. Il est tout bonnement prodigieux. De plus, si besoin était, il prouve dans ce qui suit qu'il est loin de n'avoir rien à dire. En quoi, selon vous, le Dracula de Coppola diffère-t-il des précédents? J'ai retrouvé dans le scénario (je n'oserais affirmer que cela existait dans le roman) le theme de la belle & la bête. Le personnage de Dracula tel que je l'interprete, en suivant les lignes tracées par le scénario de Jim Hart, est plein de tendresse et de passion. Il est méchant, mais il est bon aussi. Je crois d'ailleurs que Coppola avait toujours rêvé de porter au cinéma La Belle & la Bête, et qu'il a vu dans ce Dracula l'occasion de réaliser ce rêve. Cette conception du personnage vous at-elle surpris au départ ? Surpris ? Non, pas du tout. Je dirais plutôt que j'ai été soulagé de voir que Dracula était envisagé comme un héro tragique. Lorsque l'on m'a approché pour le rôle, la première fois, j'ai été tres sceptique. Allons bon, me suis-je dit. Qui va aller aujourd'hui voir un Dracula (encore un Dracula ?) Et j'ai été à deux doigts de dire non... Et puis, j'ai appris que que le réalisateur serait Coppola, et j'ai tout de suite pensé qu'il y aurait dans ce film des idées, une vision. J'ai toujours eu une admiration sans bornes pour Francis. Je n'ai pas été déçu en lisant le scénario. Il était merveilleusement écrit, et il était clair que le Dracula qui s'y dessinait, était autre chose qu'un simple méchant. N'importe quel acteur peut interpreter un personnage intégralement méchant. Il n'y a rien de plus facile, rien de plus reposant. Mais le Dracula qu'on me proposait avait quelque chose d'un ange déchu, et restait ce personnage d'un bout à l'autre de l'histoire. Son conflit intérieur entre le bien et le mal offre à l'acteur une vériable dynamique. Vous voulez dire que c'est tout simplement un homme ? Oui, et même un homme amoureux. C'est là que réside toute la tragédie. La malédiction qui pèse sur lui ne l'entraîne pas jusqu'au tombeau, comme toute malédiction normale: elle l'entraîne au tombreau chaque nuit, pour l'éternité. Et face à cela, il vit son amour comme un être humain. Il a pratiquement une double personnalité. Je suis entré dans le rôle tout remué en me disant qu'il avait une âme. Et j'ai eu trois semaines de répétition pour affiner ce principe. Vous avez fait des recherches sur Dracula ? Le merveilleux avantage du métier d'acteur, est qu'il vous amène à rencontrer des gens passionnants, à lire des livres que vous n'auriez jamais songé à lire. Je n'aurais jamais acheté spontanément un livre du l'assassinat de Kennedy en rentrant dans une librairie, mais JFK m'a obligé à le faire. Avec Coppola, c'est la même chose, nous sommes tous retournés à l'école. Nous avons appris des choses extraordinaires. Et même si nous ne les avons pas toutes gardées pour le film, nous avons vécu une espèce d'initiation. Je n'ai pas lu des pages et des pages su Vlad Tepes. En revanche, nous avons tous été obligés de lire le roman de Stoker. On nous a attachés sur nos fauteuils trois jours durant, pour nous forcer à le faire. Je ne l'avais jamais lu, et ça a été pour moi une découverte. Il est écrit dans une langue extraordinaire et construit de manière déconcer tante. Comme il se présent sous la forme d'un journal intime, on finit par se demander, au bout d'un certain temps, si on n'a pas déjà lu ce qu'on est en train de lire. Trouvez vous que Dracula soit un roman érotique ? Oui, mis à part que l'érotisme y est partout dissimulé. C'est ce ceractère qui fait l'étrangeté de l'oeuvre. A l'époque, découvrir un mollet, c'était trés osé. Il ne fallait pas placer sur les étagères les ouvrages décrivains mâles et d'écrivains femelle. La chose était jugée obscène. Arriver dans une époque pareille à glisser ne serait-ce que des suggestions relevait du coup de maître. D'une certaine manière, stoker a fait ce qu'a fait plus tard Joe Orton (le héro ayant déellement existé du film Prick up your ears). Nous avons bien quel sens il fallait donner chez Orton à des expressions du genre "avoir bon dos", mais il s'est toujours arrangé pour les faire passer à travers les filets de la censure. Eh bien, Stocker, c'est sans doute ce qu'on pouvait faire de plus chaud à la fin du siècle dernier. De quelle manière le film associe-t-il le thème de la sexualité et celui du vampirisme ? Encore une fois, ils ont toujours été là. Mais le relachemennt de la censure nous a permis d'aller un peu plus loin. Dans le roman, un loup ravage le bateau. Dans lefilm, un homme-loup poursuit Lucy... Comment avez-vous supporté tous les maquillages necessité par vos différentes métamorphoses ? C'était la première fois que je portais des prothèses dans un film, et je crois qu'on ne m'y reprendra pas avant longtemps ! Les simples scéances de maquillage me rendaient fou. Au départ, elles duraient 6 haurs. Pendant tout ce temps, on ne peut pas bouger, on ne peut pas lire, on ne peut ps regarder la télévision, on ne peut rien faire, si ce n'est écouter de la musique, vaguement. Après quoi, il fallait poireauter trois heures sur le plateau en attendant que quelqu'un crie "moteur!". Il faudrait aussi parler du poids des costumes. Le plus éprouvant a été celui de la chauve souris. La scène a été tournée en une journée; si je me souviens bien, mais j'ai vécu l'enfer. Je ne pouvais pas boire, je ne pouvais pas manger, alors qu'il fallait manger, étant donné les efforts qu'imposait la scène. A la dixième prise, je ne tenais plus sur mes jambes. Dieu merci, grâce au répétitions, je m'étais fait une idée assez précise des différentes incarnations du personnage, et les maquilleurs ont la bonté (sauf dans le cas de la chauve-souris) de vous laisser toujours votre propre regard. Aucun plaisir dans ces expériences ? Dans celle du maquillage, franchement aucun. Mais je me suis bien amusé à marcher dans la neige sans avoir froid. Vous avez dit qu'à travers Dracula, vous aviez pansé une plaie plus profonde.... J'ai perdu contact avec mon père lorsque j'avais sept ans. A l'exception de quelques moments et de quelques visites. Pendant plus de quinze ans, je ne l'ai pas vu et puis il est mort. Ce fut une perte de propotions monumentales. Et c'est une source incroyables d'enseignements. Coppola est très talentueux, et le talent est le plus puissant de aphrodisiaques. Et quand celui ci prend la forme d'un Papa, avec tout ce que ça a de chaleureux, de tendre, de provoquant.... Que pensez vous de la décision de Coppola de réaliser tout le film en studio ? On maîtrise mieux la situation en studio, parce qu'on travaille dans un espace très nettement défini. Le caméraman arrive, allume ses projecteurs, et il fiat tout de suite jour, avec avec exactement la même intensité lumineuse que la veille. Il existe, c'est évident, de merveilleux décors naturels, mais en tournant sur un plateau, on est moins tenu par la réalité. Mon château pouvait ne ressemble à aucun château. Mes costumes ne correspondaient pas exactement à des costumes de l'époque. Le plateau permet plus de licences poétiques. Cela dit, avec le bruit des ven tilateurs, et de tout ce qui tombe, avec Coppola en train de hurler, pendant le tournage même des scènes, des instructions que personna n'entend à cause du bruit des ventilateurs, il n'est pas question de tourner en son direct. L'essentiel du dialogue a du être réenregistré. Il y avait tellement de boucan sur le plateau que souvent, n'ayant pas entendu "cut" , nous nous croyions obligés de continuer la scène en improvisant de nouvelles répliques ! Comment faites-vous pour rester Dracula quand vous devez attendre pendant trois heures au milieu d'un tel maelstrom ? Au début de ma carrière, je n'arrivais plus à me concentrer quand j'étais pris dans une telle tourmente. Je me sentais balloté, frustré. C'est Nick Roeg (sur Track 29 NDLR) qui m'a libéré de toutes ces difficultés. Un jour, il est venu vers moi sur le plateau pour me dire : "Il faut que tu apprennes à ne pas voir tout ça, à garder ta mise au point intérieure et à te moquer de tout le reste." . aujopurd'hui, je dispose d'une espèce d'interrupteur personnel dans mes rapports avec le monde extérieur: j'allume et j'éteins à volonté. Tant et si bien qu'il m'arrive de rentrer chez moi le soir sans trop savoir si la caméra a tourné ou non. Coppola crie-til tant qu'on le dit ? Franchement, non. Il crie quand il essaie de couvrir le vrombissement des ventilateurs ou les explosions des éclairs, mais c'est pas une grande gueule. Il a pu en être ainsi à l'époque d'Apocapypse Now, si l'on en croit le documentaire qu'on a pu voir sur le tournage de ce film, mais s'il l'à été, il s'est considérablement adouci. Ce qu'il se permet de faire constamment, oui, c'est de parler aux acteurs alors même qu'ils prononcent leurs répliques, comme on pouvait le faire à l'époque du cinéma muet. On entend beaucoup sa voix dans les rushes. Personnellement, j'aime bien ce système. Pacino m'a dit un jour : " On dirait que Coppola peut lire dans les pensées". Et j'en ai eu la confirmation. Il vient vous murmurer un petit mot à l'oreille, et vous vous dites immédiatement : "Mais comment sait-il celà ? " Je crois qu'il ne tenait pas spécialement à tourner une superproduction. Son idée était de dépenser beaucoup d'argent uniquement pour les costumes, parce que les costumes font corps avec les acteurs. Mais il est difficile d'arrêter la machine Hollywoodienne une fois qu'elle est lancée. L'affaire a vite dépassé les proportions qu'il avait prévues. C'est pour cela qu'il nous a offert avant le tournage les trois semaines de répétition. Il a semé avec nous les graines de nos personnages. Il les a laissés mûrir en nous (comme ses vignes) une quinzaine de jours, pendant qu'il planchait, lui, sur les effets pyrotechniques de l'entreprise. Et nous sommes arrivés sur le plateau, nous les acteurs, comme des plantes qu'on aurait régulièremet arrosées. Vous voyez, je commence lundi prochain un nouveau film pour lequel je n'ai pas eu de répétitions, et je me vois contraint de répéter mon rôle tout seul quand je suis dans ma voiture si je ne veux pas avoir l'air d'un idiot quand on criera "moteur !" pour la première scène. Vous les avez vues, les vignes de Coppola ? Oui, il nous a invité chez lui, à Napa, pendant une semaine. Il y a une douzaine de chambres dans sa maison victorienne, et c'est un hôte très attentionné. A l'intérieur, se trouvent tous les équipements audiovisuels possibles et imaginables, une salle de montage, et une bibliothèque de dix-mille volumes. Coppola est aussi un excellent cuisinier. Est-ce que, en tant qu'acteur, vous avez senti un grand changement quand vous êtes passé du cinéma britannique aux grosses productions hollywoodiennes comme JFK ou Dracula ? L'argent, l'argent, l'argent. L'argent permet d'essayer des choses nouvelles. Mais ça ne veut pas dire que mes premiers films étaient mauvais. Souvent, j'ai fait de l'excellent travail grâce aux limites du budget et de temps. On se sent pa rfois pousser des ailes quand on a le couteau sous la gorge. Vous avez aujourd'hui la possibilité de choisir vos films... Oui, mais c'est pas forcément un cadeau. Quand, en Angleterre, on me disait :" Nous ne tournons qu'un film cette année --prick up your ears-- ça vous intéresse ? " Je n'avais pas à réfléchir longtemps pour répondre :" Oui, ça m'intéresse".  

Tuesday, 16 December 2008 | 2857 hits | Print |  Write e-mail

Cannes : un voyage au bout de l'alcool ^Featured

Cannes : un voyage au bout de l'alcool -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- De notre envoyé spécial - Gary Oldman avait monté les marches du Palais des Festivals comme acteur du « Cinquième élément » où il était le « méchant » de l'histoire. Hier, le comédien anglais a renouvelé l'exercice. En qualité de réalisateur, cette fois. Pour ses premiers pas derrière la caméra, Oldman s'est livré à une plongée impressionnante dans l'univers sombre à souhait de « loosers » londoniens. Un éprouvant voyage au bout de la nuit, de l'alcool et de la drogue. Avant de devenir un acteur abonné aux rôles d'inquiétants allumés (Lee Harvey Oswald dans « JFK » d'Oliver Stone, « Dracula » de Coppola, ou tueur sadique dans « Léon » de Luc Besson), Gary Oldman a vécu une enfance banlieusarde traumatisante marquée par les absences d'un père alcoolique profond. Il s'est souvenu de ses années de galère pour porter à l'écran ce « Nil by mouth » (« Rien par la bouche »), description largement autobiographique d'une famille de paumés dont les membres ne survivent que par des combines douteuses, la boisson ou la dope. Seules les femmes, silencieuses mais dignes face aux débordements multiples de leurs compagnons, parviennent à force de générosité et d'amour à cimenter cet édifice lézardé de toutes parts et à maintenir un semblant d'espoir. Jusqu'au fond de la bouteille Tourné caméra à l'épaule dans un style quasi documentaire dans une abondance de plans trés resserrés rythmés par la musique d'Eric Clapton, ce cauchemar où le soleil n'apparait jamais, baigne dans la brume et la pluie. Les scénes de « pub » n'ont rien à voir ici avec celles plutôt joyeuses des films irlandais de Stephen Frears. « Moi, j'ai commencé à aller au pub quand j'avais 14 ans, raconte Gary Oldman. C'était un signe de virilité. J'ai un copain alcoolique qui a eu un accident de voiture. Le type qui était à côté de lui a été tué sur le coup. Mon ami était fracturé de tous les côtés. Je suis allé le voir à l'hôpital. Il m'a dit : « Tu sais, j'ai réfléchi. Maintenant je vais prendre des taxis ». La capacité qu'ont les alcooliques à ne pas voir la réalité en face est sans limite. Pour eux, la bouteille, c'est Dieu. Aujourd'hui aux Etats-Unis, l'ennemi c'est le tabac. Si vous demandez une table fumeur on vous regarde comme un repris de justice. Mais le tabac n'a jamais poussé personne à battre sa femme enceinte comme je le montre dans le film ».                                              

Tuesday, 16 December 2008 | 2594 hits | Print |  Write e-mail

Studio Magazine( June 2004) ^Featured

Transcript of the interview by my french friend Romain      comme un métier. M’isoler dans un coin tranquille et concentrer toute mon attention dessus. J’ai le sentiment que tu as bataillé dur avec l’écriture, depuis Ne pas avaler. GO:En fait, pour ce film, il y a eu trente ans de gestation et six semaines d’écriture. Depuis, ma vie a changé, il faut que je tienne compte de mes enfants, que je m’occupe d’eux. C’est dur de trouver l’énergie d’écrire, de mettre les choses noir sur blanc, d’aller puiser à l’intérieur et de les restituer. Depuis Ne Pas avaler, j’ai écrit un court métrage, qui s’appelle Day Room, et qui constitue un prolongement de la scène de l’hôpital de mon long. L’un de mes amis est en train d’essayer de le tourner, avec ma mère. Et puis, j’ai achevé le script de Joe Buck… Que tu as commencé à tourner et que tu as abandonné. GO:Oui. Qu’as-tu écrit récemment ? GO:J’ai commencé une histoire, qui se déroule à Glasgow, d’un mec qui est amoureux de la petite amie de son frère aîné. Ca partait bien, et puis j’ai perdu la foi. Je me suis dit : « Je suis à nouveau en train d’écrire un truc très sombre, sans star. Comment est-ce que je vais trouver l’argent pour réussir à le faire ? Quel est encore ce putain de truc que je suis en train de faire ? » Et j’ai laissé tomber. Tu n’avais pas ce sentiment, lorsque tu écrivais Ne pas avaler ? GO:Non, parce que j’étais…innocent : je ne savais pas comment ça allait se passer par la suite. En plus, le monde a beaucoup changé depuis 1997. Sans parler du marché ! J’ai tourné quelques scènes de Joe Buck, que j’ai montées. C’est bien, sexy. Je les ai montrées à des gens, à Los Angeles, mais je n’arriverai jamais à le faire. Pourquoi ? GO:Parce que je ne veux pas jouer dedans, et que ce sont les stars qui permettent aux films d’exister. Je ne crois pas que je pourrais faire Ne pas avaler, aujourd’hui : Ray Winstone n’était pas ce qu’on appelle bankable (qui compte, aux yeux des financiers). Il y a vraiment eu un choc sismique dans l’industrie, à l’époque de Ne pas avaler, en ce qui concerne le financement des films. Il y a deux ans, si j’avais eu Russell Crowe pour jouer Joe Buck, on m’aurait dit : « Génial ! » Cela aurait été parfait. Aujourd’hui, on me dirait : « Formidable, mais qui va jouer la fille ? » Alors que, justement, je pense qu’il faudrait quelqu’un d’inconnu, ou, en tout cas, de peu connu. De nouveaux visages, de nouvelles personnes. Et c’est pour cette raison même que j’ai eu tant de difficulté à réaliser le casting de Joe Buck. Tu as même essayé, à un moment, de jouer dedans… GO:Oui. J’avais trouvé une équipe qui avait accepté de travailler pratiquement pour rien, pendant dix jours. J’ai tourné dans ma maison, j’étais moi-même parfois à la caméra. Afin de trouver l’argent pour continuer, j’ai accepté de tenir le rôle principal, et puis j’ai compris que je ne voulais pas figurer devant la caméra. Je ne me voyais pas du tout dans le personnage. J’ai eu le sentiment de faire perdre leur temps à tous ces gens qui m’avaient accompagné. Et j’ai perdu mon enthousiasme… Penses-tu que ça reviendra un jour ?   GO:Non. Dis-nous-en un peu plus. C’était un film qui parlait d’un obsédé du sexe…  GO:C’est trop facile de la qualifier comme ça, même si c’est un peu le sujet. Une partie de la tragédie, dans cette histoire, vient du fait que cet homme, qui vient d’avoir 50 ans, est obsédé par une jeune fille. Il lui fait des promesses qu’il ne peut pas tenir, puisqu’il sait que cette relation ne peut déboucher sur rien. En même temps, il est marié à une femme remarquable. D’une certaine manière, tout ce dont il rêve, il l’a sous les yeux. Mais quand il est avec la fille, il pense à sa femme, et quand il est avec sa femme, il pense à la fille. Sa femme le prend en flagrant délit d’adultère, elle lui pardonne, il jure qu’il ne recommencera plus, et il recommence, encore et encore… Comment cela se termine-t-il ? GO:Le mensonge et la malhonnêteté pourrissent tout. Cela lui devient insupportable. Mais il ne peut s’empêcher de s’enfoncer davantage encore… Une ultime fois, il essaie de revenir Alors que sort le troisième Harry Potter (où il joue le prisonnier d’Azkaban), il démarre le tournage du nouveau Batman. Deux occasions de faire le point avec cet acteur singulier et ce réalisateur sensible. Interview : Jack English Est-ce parce qu’il a commencé en interprétant Sid Vicious, le leader des Sex Pistols, qu’il semble s’être spécialisé dans les rôles de Bad guys ? Pourtant, Gary Oldman sait échapper à la caricature et donner de la profondeur à ses personnages déjantés. Il en fait des « grands brûlés », des êtres qui charrient la complexité, la douleur- et, parfois, aussi, la noirceur- de l’humanité tout entière. A l’affiche de « Harry Potter et le prisonnier d’Azkaban », il vient de commencer le tournage de « Batman Begins ». Deux Blockbusters mis en scène par de jeunes cinéastes, singuliers et talentueux : Alfonso Cuaron et Christopher Nolan. C’est que l’acteur, lui-même réalisateur d’un film rageur et sensible, « Ne Pas avaler », en 1997, a une affection particulière pour les vrais metteurs en scène, ceux qui ont un grand sens visuel et une certaine idée du cinéma- de Stephen Frears à Luc Besson, en passant par Coppola. Se tenant volontiers à l’écart de la presse, il a cependant accepté de répondre aux questions que lui a posées, pour nous, l’un de ses complices, le photographe Jack English. Parle-moi de ta rencontre avec Alfonso Cuaron, le réalisateur d’Harry Potter et le prisonnier d’Azkaban. GO:J’avais beaucoup aimé son film, « Y tu mama tambien ». C’est un cinéaste hors pair, qui a du style et une vision bien à lui. Et même si c’était le troisième épisode de Harry Potter, cela devait rester un film d’Alfonso Cuaron. Ce n’est pas juste une suite. C’est, bien sûr, cela qui m’a plu. Ma rencontre avec lui ressemble à celle que j’ai vécue avec Francis Ford Coppola, quand celui-ci m’a proposé Dracula. Dracula était un personnage qui ne m’excitait pas du tout, jusqu’à ce que je rencontre Francis. Dans un sens, ce fut la même chose lorsque Alfonso m’a demandé de jouer Sirius Black, ce sorcier évadé de prison et recherché pour meurtre, que Harry va sauver d’un coup de baguette magique. J’ai vu le film terminé, il me plaît beaucoup, et j’ai adoré travailler avec Alfonso- ce qui est important, quand ont tourne quatre ou cinq mois avec un metteur en scène ! Penses-tu que Batman Begins, dont tu viens de démarrer le tournage, sera une expérience similaire ? GO:Oui, je crois. D’abord, parce que je suis en très bonne compagnie : Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman et Michael Caine. Ensuite, parce que le réalisateur, Christopher Nolan, qui a fait Memento et Insomnia, est, comme Alfonso, un cinéaste qui a une vision des choses très personnelle. Des metteurs en scène comme eux rendent ces gros projets très excitants. Dans Batman Begins (où Batman est interprété par Christian Bale), je joue le lieutenant- et futur commissaire- James Gordon. J’ai trois fils : Alfie, Gulliver et Charlie. Quel père peut emmener ses enfants le voir au cinéma en compagnie de Batman ? Faisons un grand saut en arrière…Quelle est la pièce, dans laquelle tu as joué, qui, à la fois, t’as procuré du plaisir et reste une bonne performance ? GO:Je me souviens d’une pièce, qui s’appelait The Country Wife, au Manchester’s Royal Exchange, il y a très longtemps (1987). Une pièce qui date de la restauration, et dont Warren Beatty s’est, d’ailleurs, vaguement inspiré pour Shampoo. Je jouais le personnage principal, Horner, sous la direction de Nick Hytner. Mon interprétation n’étais pas du goût de tout le monde. D’habitude, il est joué comme un bon gars, impertinent et gai, qui fait de l’œil au public. Moi, j’en ai fait quelqu’un de beaucoup plus sombre, et même un drogué du sexe ! Les réactions n’ont pas été unanimes, mais cela m’a, cependant, valu d’excellentes critiques. Je me souviens encore de celle du Times : « Aucun acteur n’a imposé ce rôle comme Gary Oldman ! » C’était Irving Warden (célèbre critique, craint et respecté, de l’époque) qui avait écrit ça. C’était un truc énorme, pour moi. Albert Finney et Laurence Harvey avaient joué ce rôle, et Warden soulignait que c’était moi qui l’avait imposé ! As-tu eu, à ce moment là, le sentiment que tout le travail fourni à l’université (il a étudié au Rose Bruford College), portait ses fruits ? GO:Je ne sais pas. Peut-être. J’avais travaillé dur. J’étais très discipliné : je ne sortais pas, je ne trainais pas avec des potes dans les bars, je ne baisais pas à tire-larigot ; je faisais mes devoirs, mes dissertations… Penses-tu que le fait d’avoir été refusé par la Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (sorte de conservatoire national) t’a, en un sens, stimulé ? Certainement. J’avais envoyé des centaines de demandes d’inscription, dans des écoles diverses. Obtenir une audition à la Royal Academy, et ne pas être pris, a été, à l’époque, une énorme déception pour moi. Quels souvenirs gardes-tu de ton passage au Royal Court Theatre ? GO:Certaines nuits, j’avais l’impressions de tenir le public au creux de ma main. On aurait pu entendre une mouche voler ! J’ai fait du bon travail là-bas. J’y ai connu des succès, aussi. Saved, Rat in The Skull, Serious Money…Je suis resté là longtemps, quand même. J’y étais chez moi. Et sous la direction de Max Strafford-Clark, un merveilleux acteur. Après tous ces succès au théâtre, était-il facile de passer au cinéma ? GO:En fait, ça a été un accident ! J’avais passé une audition, mais je savais que je n’étais pas le premier choix- peut être le quatrième ou le cinquième. Qu’importe, c’est moi qui ai décroché le rôle. Et le premier a entraîné le deuxième. J’ai fait Sid and Nancy (d’Alex Cox, où il joue Sid Vicious, le leader des Sex Pistols), puis Prick up Your Ears (de Stephen Frears, où il incarne le dramaturge Joe Orton). Ces deux films ont bien marché aux Etats-Unis, les Américains les ont bien aimés. Par la suite, j’ai participé aux Anges de La Nuit (de Phil Joanou, avec Sean Penn), qui est certainem ent l’une de mes meilleures performances. Et puis j’ai enchaîné : Henry et June de Philip Kaufman, JFK d’ Oliver Stone (où il interprète Lee Harvey Oswald). Aux Etats-Unis, on pensais que j’étais américain. Pour un acteur anglais, s’imposer là-bas, c’était vraiment quelque chose ! Ca ne s’était pas produit depuis Vivien Leigh. C’est à cette période que tu t’es installé à New York… GO:Oui. Le cinéma se faisait en Amérique, pas en Angleterre. En plus, mon mariage était brisé, et j’avais rencontré Uma (Thurman- qu’il épousera en 1990, pour en divorcer deux ans plus tard). J’ai adoré l’énergie de New York. Tu sors de ton immeuble pour marcher sur le trottoir, et c’est comme si le rideau se levait ! Tu étais loin de New Cross (le quartier de Londres où il est né le 21 mars 1958)… GO:Tu peux le dire, oui ! (rires.) Quelle est la dernière performance au cinéma qui t’ait donné du plaisir ? GO:Manipulations (de Rod Laurie, avec Joan Allen, Jeff Bridges et Christian Slater, inédit en France). Un bon rôle, dans un bon thriller, très bien écrit. L’une des dernières fois où l’ont s’est parlé, tu ne semblais plus n' être très excité par ton métier d’acteur… C’est peut être simplement le fait de vieillir ! Etre acteur est un bon moyen de gagner sa vie. Et de rencontrer des gens fabuleux. C’est agréable de vivre confortablement. J’ai été chanceux, j’ai pris beaucoup de plaisir avec de très beaux rôles, mais c’est vrai que si j’étais extrêmement riche, j’arrêterais, et j’irais jouer au foot sur une plage aux Caraïbes avec mes enfants… Tu étais bon joueur de foot, non ? GO:Oui. Rien n’est plus fort que de courir, le ballon au pied, et de marquer un but ! C’est la sensation la plus exaltante au monde ! Lorsque j’étais à l’école, j’étais un bon joueur. Si bien que pas mal de gens disaient à ma mère que je devrais devenir professionnel. Je suis né dans la rumeur du stade de Millwall (équipe de Londres), mais j’ai toujours été un supporter de Manchester United. J’adore George Best (la star du club dans les années 70). Dernièrement, j’ai même acheté l’un de ses maillots sur Internet ! Est-ce que l’excitation que tu avais quand tu étais jeune acteur a disparu ? GO:La perspective d’apprendre est tellement plus grande, quand on est jeune… C’est sûr, l’énergie et l’enthousiasme ne sont plus les mêmes aujourd’hui. A l’époque, tout était bon à prendre. Tout ce que j’avais à découvrir était devant moi. Après avoir fait ça pendant vingt ans, forcément, ce n’est plus pareil. Lorsque j’ai envisagé de passer à la mise en scène, je pensais : « Je ne sais pas écrire, je ne sais pas réaliser, je vais donc le faire ! » C’était difficile, mais c’était un vrai défi. Quelque chose de très excitant. J’aurais dû m’y confronter plus tôt ! Dirais-tu que Coppola est le meilleur réalisateur avec lequel tu aies travaillé ? GO:Pour mes revenus, c’est sûr ! (rires.) Coppola est le plus grand cinéaste américain vivant. Pourtant, on se souvient que le tournage de Dracula a été difficile… GO:Parce qu’on était autant impliqué l’un que l’autre, et que l’on ne partageait pas toujours le même point de vue. Par ailleurs, sa fille, Sofia, a fait un film fantastique ; c’est mon préféré de l’année, et même de toutes les années ! Lost In Translation est un chef d’œuvre. Son père peut être fier d’elle. Et que retiens-tu de ton interprétation de Mason Verger dans Hannibal, sous la direction de Ridley Scott ? GO:J’ai adoré travailler avec Ridley et j’ai adoré le personnage. Les gens me disaient : « Tu disparais derrière le maquillage, tu es dans une chaise roulante sans même pouvoir bouge r un œil ; ce devait être sacrément frustrant. » Non. C’est même certainement la chose la plus libératrice que j’aie faite. Je n’ai jamais été aussi libre et aussi détendu sur un plateau. Comment l’expliques-tu ? GO:Parce que j’étais complètement caché ! C’était comme porter un déguisement de Halloween. Tu te sens beaucoup moins inhibé derrière un masque. Pour moi, c’est l’expérience ultime de l’acteur. Caché, tu n’as pas à ressembler à Gary Oldman. Dans le livre de Thomas Harris, Verger est quelqu’un de vraiment déjanté. Tu as l’air d’aimer ce type de personnages… GO:Oui. Parce que ce sont les gens, et leurs imperfections, qui m’intéressent. Et qu’as-tu apporté à Drexl, dans True Romance ? GO:Le personnage existait dans le script, qui était très bien écrit. Tarantino (l’auteur du scénario, mis en scène par Tony Scott en 1993 ; voir Studio n°80) n’a pas son pareil pour marier le dialogue et l’action. Je suis juste intervenu sur le look du personnage, c’est tout. Tu viens, d’ailleurs, de retrouver Tony Scott, le temps de tourner un spot de pub pour BMW. Ca t’a plu ? GO:Enormément ! D’abord, parce que ça m’a rapporté beaucoup d’argent et une X5 ! (rires.) Ensuite, parce que Tony a réalisé cette pub en bas de ma rue, à Los Angeles. Je joue un mec dans une chaise roulante avec un fusil- une sorte de croisement entre Mason Verger et Nosferatu ! En plus, James Brown a participé au tournage, et j’avais toujours rêvé de le rencontrer. Et Luc Besson, comment as-tu fait sa connaissance ? GO:Je fréquentais, à l’époque, l’une de ses anciennes fiancées, et c’est elle qui a organisé un dîner avec lui, un soir. Après, j’ai lu le script de Léon et je l’ai beaucoup aimé. C’est quoi, ces pilules que Stansfield, ton personnage dans Léon, ne cesse d’avaler ? GO:Elles sont ce que l’on veut qu’elles soient ! C’est moi qui en ai eu l’idée. Quel est, à ton avis, le meilleur film de Luc Besson ? GO:Le Dernier Combat. Il l’a fait quand il avait 19 ans (en fait, il en avait 24), sans argent. C’est un chef d’œuvre. La légende veut qu’il ait signé le contrat de production et de distribution de Ne Pas avaler sur une serviette de table. C’est vrai ? GO:Oui. Comment as-tu, alors, abordé ce nouveau travail qu’était l’écriture d’un film ? GO:D’une certaine manière, j’ai écrit Ne Pas avaler sur la durée. J’ai d’abord rédigé dans des cahiers, et puis, c’est devenu un script quand je l’ai tapé sur un ordinateur. En ce moment, j’écris une fois que les enfants sont couchés. Mais j’ai atteint un point où je me dis qu’il faut que j’aborde cette activité comme un vrai travail, presquevers sa femme, mais elle ne veut plus de lui. Cut. On le retrouve dans un groupe de thérapie pour obsédé du sexe. Il a la parole, et répond à quelqu’un qui vient de parler : « Avec tout le respect que j’ai pour votre histoire, je ne me branle pas dix fois par jour, je ne regarde pas des scènes hardcore sur Internet, je ne suis pas exalté par la pornographie. Je ne pense pas, honnêtement, que j’ai quelque chose à faire ici. J’écoute toutes vos histoires et je pense que moi, je suis un putain de mec normal. Et d’ailleurs peut-être que je suis normal. » Tu voulais déranger le public, en choisissa nt cette fin ? GO:Je ne veux pas donner de porte de sortie aux spectateurs. Si j’en avait fait quelqu’un d’alcoolique ou de drogué, ils l’auraient accepté ) plus facilement. Quels sont tes sentiments par rapport à la pornographie ? GO:D’une certaine manière, les films porno font partie des plus grandes œuvres du monde. Tu en regardes un, et c’est un chef d’œuvre, exactement comme les films de John Ford, Hitchcock ou Kubrick. C’est un chef d’œuvre, jusqu’à ce que tu jouisses. Après quoi, tu ne souhaites plus q’une chose : trouver la télécommande, changer de chaîne, et tomber sur un match de foot. J’avais pour habitude de lire des livres porno en avion, parce que j’avais peur, mais aujourd’hui, ça ne m’intéresse plus. Qu’est-ce que tu trouves sexy ? GO:Le talent. Le talent est la chose la plus sexy au monde. La manière dont Eric Clapton joue de la guitare, c’est sexy. Ou la manière dont ma fiancée traverse la pièce- son port de la tête, la façon dont elle balance sa queue de cheval-, ça c’est sexy. Elle n’a pas besoin de porter un déshabillé ! En 1994, tu disais que Ne pas avaler correspondait à ta vision du monde. Le vois-tu toujours de la même façon aujourd’hui ? GO:Non. Je voyais le monde de cette manière au moment où j’écrivais le film. Mais, en vieillissant, ce penchant est un peu plus facile à oublier. Je n’ai plus à vivre là-bas (à Londres, où se déroule l’action de ce long métrage), je peux juste y passer. Ce qui arrive réellement aux gens, on ne peut pas vraiment le rendre au cinéma. Il y a des personnes qui vivent dans des conditions bien plus terribles encore que celles que j’ai décrites dans Ne pas avaler. Tu as organisé, récemment, une projection à Los Angeles… GO:Oui, j’avais loué du matériel à Panovision, à Los Angeles. Le mec qui dirige la compagnie est anglais, et n’avais pas vu le film. Je l’ai fait projeter dans une toute petite salle, pour lui et cinq ou six de ses potes. Je n’avais pas visionner Ne pas avaler depuis de sannées, et c’était en fait, la première fois que je le regardais vraiment et y prenais du plaisir. C’était exactement ce que je voulais, lorsque je l’ai fait : un film pour quelques copains. Les prix, le succès critique, la distribution aux Etats-Unis, tout ça, c’est du bonus… Aimes-tu toujours Cassavetes ? Go:J’ai toujours été un grand fan. Je me souviens que, quand j’ai vu Faces, je n’en suis pas revenu. Ce film te chope et ne te lâche plus, et Cassavetes brise toutes les règles…Il y a des choses qu’on est censé faire, quand on réalise un film, et lui, il ne les fait pas ! Comme s’il s’en foutait. Il va directement vers ce qu’il recherche . J’adore ça, mais ce n’est pas donné à tout le monde. J’ai interviewé Gean Rowlands (qui fut la femme de Cassavetes pendant trente-cinq ans) pour Venice Magazine, et je lui ai demandé : « S’il avait eu de l’argent, pensez-vous que ses films auraient été différents ? » Et elle m’a répondu : « Oh non, c’était ce que c’était. You have to ,sort of, cut the clothes to what you can affor. » (Tu dois, en quelque sorte, te tailler les vêtements à ta taille). C’était dans sa tête. Un truc dicté par les circonstances. Hallucinant, ce que tu peux faire dans ton salon, si tu est un grand scénariste, un grand réalisateur et que ta femme est une grande actrice ! Tu m’as dit que tu aimerais bien écrire l’adaptation de Places to look for a Mother, de Nicole Stansbury, que tu viens de lire. GO:C’est un très beau livre. Personne n’a pris l’option, alors j’ai essayé. C’est l’histoire d’une famille dont la mère est dysfonctionnelle ; et tout est vu à travers les yeux d’une petite fille de 7 ans . Il y a, dans cette histoire, bea ucoup de choses qui me touchent. Je pense que ça donnerait un film formidable. J’espère que ça sera mon prochain pas de réalisateur. Tu as dédicacé Ne pas avaler à ton père. Crois-tu qu’il aurait été offensé par le film ? GO:Je ne crois pas. Je pense que, s’il était toujours là, il vivrait avec moi, en Californie, et nagerait dans ma piscine. Il adorait voyager, prendre l’avion. Je l’ai fait monter dans le concorde, je lui ai offert des voyages en première classe. Je pense qu’il aurait été, au contraire, fier de moi. Lui dédier mon film était un geste d’affection. Juste un salut au vieux !

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Studio Magazine( Novembre 1997) ^Featured

Transcript of the interview by my french friend Romain Pour « Ne pas avaler », son premier film de cinéaste, ce bad guy sans frontière renoue avec ses racines anglaises. Et réussit un portrait sans concession d’une famille où règnent drogue, alcool et violence. Un choc. Interview : Patrick Fabre Le soir de la projection du « Cinquième élément », Gary Oldman était à la fois présent aux côtés de son réalisateur Luc Besson et…parfaitement absent. Pour lui, tout se jouait le lendemain, avec la présentation en compétition de « Ne Pas Avaler », son premier film de réalisateur (produit d’ailleurs par le même Luc Besson). Plus que surpris, les festivaliers ont été secoués par ce film noir, et pourtant chaleureux, qui raconte les conflits d’un jeune homme sous l’emprise de la drogue, avec son père, alcoolique et violent, et sa mère, aimante malgré tout. Gary Oldman y révèle un vrai talent de cinéaste et porte un regard lucide sur ce qui a été son quotidien pendant sa jeunesse à Londres, « avec ces ouvriers qui vont au pub après le travail ». Quand il parle de ce film qu’il a mis cinq ans à faire, Oldman est franc, touchant et humble. Parce qu’il n’oublie pas ceux qui ne sont pas sortis de cet enfer. Seule une étincelle dans le bleu de ses yeux trahit sa fierté. Celle d’un homme debout. Et d’un grand réalisateur en devenir. Vous ne le cachez pas, « Ne pas avaler » est inspiré de faits autobiographiques… GO:Vous savez, que vous soyez peintre, sculpteur, danseur ou compositeur, il y a toujours un peu de vous dans ce que vous faites. Effectivement, « Ne pas avaler » est en partie autobiographique : j’ai vécu dans ce quartier, il y a un peu de mon père dans le film, un peu de mon beau-frère aussi, et j’ai mis beaucoup de moi dans tous les personnages. Celui dont je suis le plus proche, c’est l’enfant, la petite fille. Comme elle, j’étais un peu spectateur de ce qui se passait dans ma famille. Votre famille a vu le film ? GO:Ils ont été très émus par son honnêteté. Quant à ma femme, le soir de la première à Cannes, à la fin de la projection, elle s’est tournée vers moi et m’a dit : « Que ce putain de film est dur ! » j’ai répondu : « Je sais, oui, merci ! » (rires.) Quand avez-vous ressenti le besoin d’écrire « Ne Pas avaler » ? GO:J’ai commencé à en parler il y a cinq ans. Je voulais réaliser un film sur mes origines, là où j’ai grandi…Seulement, j’étais constamment en train de bosser sur les films des autres. Je repoussais éternellement l’échéance. Chaque fois que j’avais un peu de temps libre, au moment de me mettre devant ma feuille blanche, le téléphone sonnait et on me proposait un nouveau rôle. Et je suis comme tout le monde : il faut bien que je mette à manger sur la table ! Finalement, il y a deux ans, j’ai dit à mon agent : « Bon, je vais ? ?crire ce putain de film qui me tue. Et si Martin Scorsese appelle et veut que je tourne dans son prochain chef-d’œuvre, ne m’en dit rien ! Il faut que je passe à l’acte. » Pourquoi ? GO:Parce que je voulais faire le film que j’avais envie de voir sur un sujet qui m’a affecté, moi et beaucoup de ceux que j’aime, et qui en a même tué quelques-uns… J’en ai vu des films qui traitaient de l’alcoolisme mais le plus souvent, ils enjolivaient la situation. Moi, je préfère filmer Raymond (son personnage principal, joué par Ray Winstone) en plan serré, en train de boire à un bar, puis passer en plan large pour montrer que le bar est vide. Voilà où l’alcoolisme vous entraîne : à 10 heures du matin, dans un pub vide ! Alors que vous devriez être chez vous à jouer avec vos putains de gosses ! Tourner ce film, c’était un moyen, pour vous, d’exorciser les démons de votre passé ? Une forme de thérapie ? GO:Je ne sais plus aujourd’hui si je crois vraiment que réaliser des films, ou même jouer dedans, peut agir comme une catharsis. Je le pensais pourtant, il y a quelques années. J’avais le sentiment que jouer était thérapeutique, que c’était un exutoire permettant de se libérer de ses démons. J’utilisais même cette image : « L’acteur est comme ces boules de verre avec de la neige à l’intérieur : il passe son temps à secouer ses émotions. » Seulement voilà, il ne peut pas briser le verre. Il ne peut pas s’échapper…En revanche, l’écriture de « Ne Pas avaler »a été pour moi comme une libération. Le tournage aussi. Ce que j’ai le plus mal supporté, c’est le montage : je recevais tout en pleine gueule ! Certaines choses montrées dans ce film sont très personnelles, je les ai vécues. Et les revoir, c’était comme prendre une douche froide. Dans « Ne pas avaler », vous montrez un drogué se prenant pour Dennis Hopper dans Apocalypse Now. Comme pour souligner que ce métier est lié à la dépendance. Ca a été votre cas ? GO:Je crois que ça a beaucoup à voir. Jouer, c’est s’évader. C’est être aussi loin que possible de soi. C’est pour cette raison que vous prenez du speed, des somnifères, du Valium, de l’herbe, de l’alcool…Vous voulez être ailleurs. A un moment, j’ai pensé intituler le film « Anywhere But Here » (Partout sauf ici), parce que quand je buvais, je voulais être n’importe où sauf dans mes pompes. Comment avez-vous vécu la médiatisation de vos problèmes d’alcoolisme ? GO:Quand j’ai choisi de suivre un traitement, on ne m’a pas laissé le faire anonymement. Je suis un personnage public. Ca faisait de trop bons papiers ! Vous imaginez les gros titres : « Gary dessaoule », « Gary en cure ». Alors, j’ai décidé d’être clean publiquement. D’une certaine façon, c’était un challenge. Comme de passer à la mise en scène ? GO:Ce n’est pas tout à fait la même chose ! (rires.) Le plus dur quand vous passez pour la première fois à la mise en scène, c’est de partager votre vision alors que vous n’avez rien filmé  auparavant. J’étais tout le temps dans l’abstrait. Quand j’ai parlé d’utiliser un zoom, on m’a demandé : « Pour faire des effets comme dans Columbo ? » Alors que je voulais simplement que le spectateur ait l’impression d’être dans la même pièce que les personnages. Le rendre claustrophobe. Votre mise en scène démontre une vraie maîtrise de la caméra. Où l’avez-vous apprise ? GO:Je crois qu’il y a une grammaire, un langage filmé, qui s’acquiert par osmose. Et j’ai joué dans assez de films pour connaître la plupart des cadrages, les plans larges, moyens, serrés, les gros plans, les champs-contrechamps, les amorces…Mon monteur dit que ce n’est pas mon premier film parce que j’ai un vrai sens d u montage. Mais je ne sais pas ce qu’il veut dire par là ! (rires.) Je crois en fait que tout était dans l’équilibre : dès l’écriture, si le film était trop structuré, trop formalisé, je détruisais ce que je cherchais à réaliser…Ce que je voulais faire, c’était un film honnête où la nuit ressemblerait à la nuit. Je ne voulais pas tricher avec des nuits américaines, des filtres bleus ou quoi que ce soit dans ce genre. J’ai d’ailleurs dit au directeur de la photo : « Il faut que l’aiguille de ta cellule pour mesurer la lumière indique « Vous voulez rire ? » ! » Pour obtenir ce sentiment d’authenticité, vous ne reculez pas devant les scènes très dures comme celle où Raymond téléphone dans son appartement déserté par sa famille… GO:Dans cette scène, je désirais montrer ce qui se passe dans la tête d’un alcoolique. Raymond a un cerveau d’alcoolique. Alors peu importe que le téléphone soit branché ou non ! De toute façon, il aura la communication dans sa tête. Pour qu’on ressente bien la schizophrénie du personnage, je l’ai filmé au téléphone, dans la salle de bains, dans la chambre déserte de son fils, se déplaçant dans la maison comme un fou tout en ayant la conversation téléphonique en continu. Ca me permet de montrer qu’on n’échappe pas à son problème. Vous pouvez vous shooter, ça ne change rien. Quand vous vous réveillez, vous êtes toujours là, vous êtes toujours vous. Comment explique-t-on l’alcoolisme à un acteur qui n’est pas alcoolique ? GO:Pour cette scène en particulier, il y avait juste écrit dans le scénario : « Raymond se débat avec ses démons. » J’ai d’abord fait boire quelques verres à Ray, pour le détendre, et quand il était au téléphone ou dans la salle de bain, je lui donnais des indications : « Regarde le miroir, pense à ton père, lève les yeux au ciel… » Comme sur un film muet- d’ailleurs, on a eu du mal à réintégrer les dialogues ! Il y a tant de choses que Ray a comprises d’instinct…Les grands réalisateurs qui prêtent beaucoup d’attention au choix des acteurs ont raison : le casting, c’est la moitié du travail. Et l’autre moitié ? Celle qui consiste à les diriger, eux, et toute une équipe, comment l’avez-vous gérée ? GO:Quelqu’un m’a dit : « Etre réalisateur, c’est être bouffé par les oiseaux, comme dans le film d’Hitchcock. » C’est vrai qu’il y a tant de choses auxquelles il faut penser. Si seulement on pouvait se concentrer sur ce qu’on a à faire, simplement sur le film ! Mais non, à longueur de journées, tous les membres de l’équipe viennent vous interrompre : « Ca va ces chaussures ? Et cette photo ? On a perdu notre décor pour la semaine prochaine, comment on fait ?… » C’est la mort lente par la torture des mille et une questions ! A Cannes, Mathieu Kassovitz m’a demandé si j’avais éprouvé du plaisir comme réalisateur. Je lui ai répondu : « J’ai trouvé ça génial, même si j’ai eu l’impression que je cherchais à me plier en quatre pour me fourrer la tête dans le cul ! » (rires.) Vous avez trouvé ça génial au point d’envisager de ne plus faire l’acteur ? GO:Il y aura toujours des films que je voudrais faire en tant qu’acteur. Comme le nouveau Terence Malick (La Ligne Rouge) sur lequel je n’ai que quatre jours de tournage. Terence sort de sa retraite au bout de vingt ans (il n’a rien réalisé depuis son deuxième film, Les moissons du ciel, en 76). Quand un réalisateur comme lui vous appelle pour vous offrir un rôle, ça ne se refuse pas. Là, j’ai eu le frisson. Je me suis rappelé pourquoi j’ai voulu devenir acteur. Sinon, j’admets que la plupart du temps, pour moi, ce n’est qu’un boulot. Alors qu’il est vrai que lorsque je tournais « Ne Pas avaler », je débo rdais de vitalité. C’est très excitant d’arriver le matin sur un plateau et qu’on vous saute dessus en vous disant : « Où voulez-vous qu’on place la caméra ? » Sûr de vous, vous répondez : « Je la veux là. » Et ils la mettent là ! Et ils ne la bougent pas tant que vous ne leur dites pas : « Non, finalement, mettez-là ici. » La première fois que j’ai dit « Action » et « Coupez », c’était fantastique. J’étais comme un enfant. (Rires.) Vous comptez montrer le film à vos enfant ? GO:Quand ils seront en âge de le voir. J’ai un fils de 9 ans d’un premier mariage. Comme tous les pères divorcés, je ne le vois que durant les week-ends et les vacances…Une amie m’avait conseillé de tenir une sorte de journal intime à lui montrer plus tard, comme pour rattraper le temps perdu. Après avoir vu le film, elle m’a dit : « Tu te souviens de cette histoire de journal intime…C’est fait, tu l’as écrit. »

Tuesday, 16 December 2008 | 2930 hits | 1 comment | Print |  Write e-mail