Gary Oldman says self-satisfaction "means death to me" - Comments on his role as Sirius in "Harry Potter" and reveals his true intentions

Photo by Gage Skidmore

Charismatic bassist Sid Vicious in "Sid and Nancy" (1986), the corrupt detective in "Leon" (1995), British Prime Minister, and Gary Oldman in "Winston Churchill" (2017) Oldman is a talented actor who has played a variety of characters. However, Oldman has previously revealed that he is not satisfied with his role as Sirius Black in the Harry Potter series. He recently spoke about the true meaning of this statement at the Cannes Film Festival, and Deadline reported the details.

Oldman first appeared as Sirius Black, Harry's godfather, in the third Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), and has appeared in four films in total. He credits the Harry Potter series for helping his career, allowing him to spend time with his own children while filming, but he's not satisfied with his character. Was it the background? The story all started when Oldman appeared on the podcast Happy Sad Confused in December 2023 and revealed that his performance as Sirius Black was ``I think it was mediocre.'' 

At the time, Oldman said, ''If I had read the original story like Alan Rickman, who played Snape, and knew what was going to happen ahead of time, I honestly think I could have acted differently.'' He expressed his regrets. Oldman said, ''Every artist, actor, or painter is always looking for faults in their own work. If they weren't doing that and were satisfied with what they were doing, That would mean death to me. If I were to look at my performance and think, ``Wow, how amazing I am,'' that would be sad.'' is emphasized. He also mentioned that his regret was that he approached the role without reading the original work.

“There are hidden secrets surrounding the novel. They are tightly locked. If you knew from the beginning, if you had read the five books first, I think if I had known the arc, I could have approached it differently, looked at it differently, and given it different colors. I had only read ``The Prisoner of Azkaban.''

In the Harry Potter series, the character's growth and relationships change, and the worldview becomes more colorful with each successive work, starting with the first work, The Philosopher's Stone. If Oldman had followed the original work from the beginning, his resolution to the work and characters would have been higher, and he might have been able to take a different approach. This is perhaps the reason why Oldman is such a sincere and excellent actor.

"I'm not saying 'Harry Potter' is a terrible movie or that my acting was terrible. I'm just saying that I wish it would have been done under different circumstances. To those who loved it, I don't mean to be rude at all."

Source: Deadline