Gary Oldman claimed his performance as Pure-Blood wizard Sirius Black in the Harry Potter movies was "mediocre" in an interview.
On the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the 65-year-old Oscar winner said:
“I think my work is mediocre in it."
He continued with a nod to his late co-star Alan Rickman:
“Maybe if I had read [J.K. Rowling’s] books, like Alan, if I got ahead of the curve, if I had known what’s coming, I honestly think I would’ve played it differently."
Gary Oldman says his work as Sirius Black in \xe2\x80\x98Harry Potter\xe2\x80\x99 was \xe2\x80\x9cmediocre\xe2\x80\x9d:\n\n\xe2\x80\x9cI think my work is mediocre in it\xe2\x80\xa6 Maybe if I had read the books\xe2\x80\xa6 if I had got ahead of the curve, if I had known what\xe2\x80\x99s coming, I honestly think I would\xe2\x80\x99ve played it differently.\xe2\x80\x9d— (@)
You can watch the bit on a clip shared on X (formerly Twitter) here.
While Oldman was tough on himself over his portrayal of Sirius Black, Harry Potter fans thought otherwise.
@PopCrave but the thing is that Sirius didn\xe2\x80\x99t know what was coming so why should he have played the character any differently? I think it\xe2\x80\x99s great that he didn\xe2\x80\x99t read the books because what happened to Sirius was just as sudden and unknown to Gary Oldman as it would\xe2\x80\x99ve been to Sirius Black.— (@)
Others gave him props for being honest.
But the majority were convinced he was still nothing short of brilliant.
The celebrated actor, known for portraying Count Dracula in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), James "Jim" Gordon in The Dark Knight Trilogy (2005–2012), and Dreyfus in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), said he would take his roles "on the fire and burn it and do it all again."
“It’s like anything. If I sat and watched myself in something and said, ‘My, God, I’m amazing,’ right? That would be a very sad day, because you want to make the next thing better,” said the actor, adding that it was all “so subjective.”
Here is the full episode.
Gary Oldman talks SLOW HORSES, HARRY POTTER, BATMAN I Happy Sad Confused youtu.be
Despite the criticism of his performances, Oldman expressed gratitude for his roles in the Harry Potter and Batman films during an appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show on December 14.
The roles came amid his 2001 divorce and custody battle with photographer Donya Fiorentino, with whom Oldman had two sons, Gulliver (born in 1997) and Charlie (born in 1999).
“Thank God for ‘Harry Potter.' I tell you, the two—‘Batman’ and ‘Harry Potter’—really, they saved me, because it meant that I could do the least amount of work for the most amount of money and then be home with the kids," he said.
Oldman has been married five times. He is currently married to writer and art curator Gisele Schmidt, whom he wed in August 2017 in a private ceremony.
He has another son, Alfie, from a previous marriage when he was married in 1987 to his ex-wife, English actor Lesley Manville.
Oldman and Manville remain friends and through Alfie they have two grandchildren, Matilda and Ozzy.
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