WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.100 I want you to picture an actor, just picture 00:00:03.100 --> 00:00:05.960 someone who has starred in films that have collectively 00:00:05.960 --> 00:00:09.400 grossed over 11 billion dollars worldwide. Right. 00:00:09.500 --> 00:00:12.179 Which is just a staggering number. It's massive. 00:00:12.500 --> 00:00:14.839 And they just received a twenty twenty five knighthood 00:00:14.839 --> 00:00:17.660 from King Charles the third for services to drama. 00:00:17.920 --> 00:00:21.019 Wow, yeah, and they very recently cemented their 00:00:21.019 --> 00:00:24.579 legacy quite literally with a handprint and footprint 00:00:24.579 --> 00:00:27.679 ceremony at the TCL Chinese theater in Hollywood 00:00:27.679 --> 00:00:30.280 So we're talking ultimate Hollywood royalty here 00:00:30.280 --> 00:00:32.500 exactly You're probably picturing someone born 00:00:32.500 --> 00:00:34.679 into the business right groomed for greatness 00:00:34.679 --> 00:00:37.640 from day one sure yeah But now I want you to 00:00:37.640 --> 00:00:40.420 take that exact same person and picture them 00:00:40.420 --> 00:00:44.100 as a teenager in South London. Okay. They are 00:00:44.100 --> 00:00:46.679 standing in the middle of a freezing abattoir, 00:00:46.899 --> 00:00:50.159 covered in blood, beheading pigs for a living. 00:00:50.539 --> 00:00:53.619 Good Lord. Right. And they decide, against all 00:00:53.619 --> 00:00:56.100 odds, to apply to the prestigious Royal Academy 00:00:56.100 --> 00:00:58.460 of Dramatic Art. And the admissions panel looks 00:00:58.460 --> 00:01:00.780 at this kid and essentially says, we suggest 00:01:00.780 --> 00:01:03.740 you find a different career. It's, I mean, it 00:01:03.740 --> 00:01:06.319 is the ultimate origin story of an underdog. 00:01:07.129 --> 00:01:08.829 It sounds like a script they would just reject 00:01:08.829 --> 00:01:11.549 for being way too unbelievable. Holy. And yet, 00:01:12.189 --> 00:01:15.549 it's entirely true. It is. Welcome to today's 00:01:15.549 --> 00:01:18.930 Deep Dive. We are looking at a massive stack 00:01:18.930 --> 00:01:23.030 of comprehensive biographical and career dossiers 00:01:23.030 --> 00:01:25.810 covering the life, the method, and the absolute 00:01:25.810 --> 00:01:28.629 madness of Sir Gary Oldman. Yes. Our mission 00:01:28.629 --> 00:01:31.890 today is to understand exactly how a working 00:01:31.890 --> 00:01:34.409 class kid who was flat out rejected by the British 00:01:34.409 --> 00:01:37.069 acting establishment evolved into Hollywood's 00:01:37.069 --> 00:01:39.709 ultimate chameleon, the quintessential actor's 00:01:39.709 --> 00:01:41.709 actor. And we should establish right away that 00:01:41.709 --> 00:01:43.709 this isn't just going to be like a dry reading 00:01:43.709 --> 00:01:46.019 of a filmography. No, definitely not. What we 00:01:46.019 --> 00:01:49.159 are really exploring today is the mechanics of 00:01:49.159 --> 00:01:52.079 sheer undeniable willpower. We're looking at 00:01:52.079 --> 00:01:54.920 the intense, sometimes really dangerous psychological 00:01:54.920 --> 00:01:58.219 toll. of complete and total artistic immersion. 00:01:58.700 --> 00:02:00.500 Like how does someone actually become someone 00:02:00.500 --> 00:02:03.079 else? Exactly. So let's go back to those early 00:02:03.079 --> 00:02:04.799 days and look at the environment that forged 00:02:04.799 --> 00:02:07.540 him. He was born in 1958 in New Cross, London. 00:02:07.780 --> 00:02:10.120 And the dossiers paint a picture of a childhood 00:02:10.120 --> 00:02:14.060 that was far from easy. His father, Leonard, 00:02:14.219 --> 00:02:16.539 was an alcoholic who actually left the family 00:02:16.539 --> 00:02:19.099 when Gary was just seven years old. That's tough. 00:02:19.159 --> 00:02:21.879 Yeah. He went to school in Deptford, left at 00:02:21.879 --> 00:02:24.300 age 16 to work in a sports shop. And believe 00:02:24.300 --> 00:02:26.509 it or not, He actually had musical aspirations 00:02:26.509 --> 00:02:29.969 first. Wait, really? Music? Yeah. He played the 00:02:29.969 --> 00:02:33.409 piano. But then he sees a film called The Raging 00:02:33.409 --> 00:02:36.710 Moon from 1971 starring Malcolm McDowell. And 00:02:36.710 --> 00:02:40.430 that was The Spark. Oh. It wasn't seeing a classic 00:02:40.430 --> 00:02:42.409 Shakespearean play at the Globe that bit him. 00:02:42.469 --> 00:02:45.050 It was Malcolm McDowell on a movie screen. He 00:02:45.050 --> 00:02:47.530 said he just connected with the raw energy of 00:02:47.530 --> 00:02:49.919 it and decided, I want to do that. Which is such 00:02:49.919 --> 00:02:52.180 a pivotal moment to understand his psychology, 00:02:52.300 --> 00:02:54.740 I think. Right. Because he didn't have a traditional 00:02:54.740 --> 00:02:56.960 path laid out for him. Right. As you mentioned, 00:02:57.039 --> 00:02:58.900 he was working assembly lines, he was a porter 00:02:58.900 --> 00:03:01.960 in an operating theater selling shoes, and, yeah, 00:03:02.199 --> 00:03:05.080 working in that pig abattoir. So gritty. Very 00:03:05.080 --> 00:03:08.639 gritty working -class reality. So when he finally 00:03:08.639 --> 00:03:11.620 musters the courage to apply to the Royal Academy 00:03:11.620 --> 00:03:13.840 of Dramatic Art, RDA, and they reject him... 00:03:13.840 --> 00:03:15.719 it really could have been the end of the road. 00:03:15.800 --> 00:03:18.000 Oh, absolutely. They told him to try again next 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:21.560 year, but honestly advised him to just find something 00:03:21.560 --> 00:03:23.580 else to do for a living. They just didn't see 00:03:23.580 --> 00:03:25.759 the polish they were looking for. Which makes 00:03:25.759 --> 00:03:28.639 his retrospective comeback to that moment so 00:03:28.639 --> 00:03:32.030 brilliant. Years later, when an interviewer asked 00:03:32.030 --> 00:03:34.210 him about that radiator rejection, he just dead 00:03:34.210 --> 00:03:36.569 -panned, the work speaks for itself. I love that. 00:03:36.650 --> 00:03:39.389 It's so good. And it really did. Because he simply 00:03:39.389 --> 00:03:42.530 refused to quit. He went somewhere else. He won 00:03:42.530 --> 00:03:44.409 a scholarship to the Rose -Brewford College, 00:03:44.590 --> 00:03:48.129 graduated with a BA in acting in 1979, and described 00:03:48.129 --> 00:03:51.509 himself during this period as a shy but incredibly 00:03:51.509 --> 00:03:54.169 diligent worker. He applied a blue -collar work 00:03:54.169 --> 00:03:57.169 ethic to the stage. Exactly. He became a total 00:03:57.169 --> 00:03:58.990 powerhouse in the theater, eventually winning 00:03:59.080 --> 00:04:01.460 awards for a play called The Pope's Wedding at 00:04:01.460 --> 00:04:04.240 the Royal Court Theatre. Yeah. And this brings 00:04:04.240 --> 00:04:06.680 us to the ultimate irony of his film breakthrough. 00:04:06.919 --> 00:04:09.680 Yes, the role of Sid Vicious in the 1986 film 00:04:09.680 --> 00:04:12.509 Sid and Nancy. The irony here is incredible. 00:04:12.969 --> 00:04:15.750 He actually turned down playing the iconic punk 00:04:15.750 --> 00:04:18.930 rocker twice. Twice? Twice. According to his 00:04:18.930 --> 00:04:21.629 notes, he thought the punk movement was just 00:04:21.629 --> 00:04:24.769 banal. He read the script and thought, why bother? 00:04:24.970 --> 00:04:27.509 Wow. He openly admitted he had his nose in the 00:04:27.509 --> 00:04:29.810 air at the time, believing his classical theater 00:04:29.810 --> 00:04:33.370 work was vastly superior to film. Right. It's 00:04:33.370 --> 00:04:36.149 like a classically trained violinist being forced 00:04:36.149 --> 00:04:39.290 to play in a gritty, spit -covered garage punk 00:04:39.290 --> 00:04:42.600 band. only to find out that it's this raw, chaotic 00:04:42.600 --> 00:04:45.019 performance that actually makes them a legend. 00:04:45.120 --> 00:04:47.180 That's a great way to put it. So I have to ask 00:04:47.180 --> 00:04:49.899 you, is it that initial theatrical arrogance, 00:04:50.100 --> 00:04:53.000 that formal, rigid training that actually gave 00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:55.899 his punk performance such intense gravity? What's 00:04:55.899 --> 00:04:58.439 fascinating here is how that rigorous stage discipline 00:04:58.439 --> 00:05:00.879 anchored the chaos of the character. Yeah. Like 00:05:00.879 --> 00:05:02.540 if you just put a chaotic person in front of 00:05:02.540 --> 00:05:04.579 a camera to play Sid Vicious, you get a mess. 00:05:05.019 --> 00:05:07.819 Oldman wasn't just thrashing around. He was applying 00:05:07.819 --> 00:05:11.899 intense methodical Shakespearean focus to someone 00:05:11.899 --> 00:05:14.240 who had absolutely no focus at all. Right, he 00:05:14.240 --> 00:05:17.240 studied him. Exactly. He studied Sid's movements 00:05:17.240 --> 00:05:20.220 like a dancer. But that level of commitment came 00:05:20.220 --> 00:05:23.870 with a severe physical price. Oh, yeah. To play 00:05:23.870 --> 00:05:27.129 Sid Vicious, Oldman starved himself so intensely 00:05:27.129 --> 00:05:29.930 to match the punk rocker's emaciated frame that 00:05:29.930 --> 00:05:32.709 he actually had to be hospitalized. That is just 00:05:32.709 --> 00:05:35.009 crazy. His body just gave out. It was our very 00:05:35.009 --> 00:05:37.769 first glimpse into his incredibly dangerous commitment 00:05:37.769 --> 00:05:40.350 to total immersion. He doesn't just pretend, 00:05:40.410 --> 00:05:43.470 you know. He physically alters his reality. And 00:05:43.470 --> 00:05:45.930 that performance completely blew the doors open 00:05:45.930 --> 00:05:48.610 for his move to Hollywood. Roger Ebert said it 00:05:48.610 --> 00:05:51.050 proved he was the best young British actor around. 00:05:51.089 --> 00:05:54.259 I got praise. For sure. So by the early 90s, 00:05:54.259 --> 00:05:56.759 he moved to the US and becomes the de facto leader 00:05:56.759 --> 00:05:58.980 of this group of young actors dubbed the Brit 00:05:58.980 --> 00:06:01.360 Pack. The Brit Pack. Yeah, and this ushers in 00:06:01.360 --> 00:06:04.060 what we have to call his big villain era. He 00:06:04.060 --> 00:06:06.180 weaponized all that stage presence we just talked 00:06:06.180 --> 00:06:09.160 about to become Hollywood's favorite 1990s bad 00:06:09.160 --> 00:06:12.180 guy. The run of roles he had in this period is 00:06:12.180 --> 00:06:14.459 staggering, and it really shows his range. He 00:06:14.459 --> 00:06:17.000 plays Lee Harvey Oswald in Oliver Stone's JFK. 00:06:17.000 --> 00:06:20.100 That is huge. Huge. And to prepare for that, 00:06:20.180 --> 00:06:23.470 he didn't just read a book. He actually met with 00:06:23.470 --> 00:06:26.769 Oswald's wife, Marina, and her daughters to understand 00:06:26.769 --> 00:06:29.970 the domestic reality of an assassin. Wow. Then 00:06:29.970 --> 00:06:33.470 he pivots completely to play the title role in 00:06:33.470 --> 00:06:36.910 Bram Stoker's Dracula. Terrifying. He plays the 00:06:36.910 --> 00:06:39.810 violently unpredictable, dreadlocked pimp Drexel 00:06:39.810 --> 00:06:43.670 Spivey in True Romance. And of course, the corrupt 00:06:43.670 --> 00:06:48.009 DEA officer Norman Stansfield in Leon. the profession. 00:06:48.209 --> 00:06:50.670 Oh my god, yes. Which publications consistently 00:06:50.670 --> 00:06:53.300 rank as one of cinema's greatest most terrifying, 00:06:53.560 --> 00:06:56.180 corrupt cops. He was everywhere and he was terrifying. 00:06:56.420 --> 00:06:58.720 And what's interesting from the sources is his 00:06:58.720 --> 00:07:01.040 self -admitted acting style during this time. 00:07:01.040 --> 00:07:03.779 Right. Because he was actively cultivating a 00:07:03.779 --> 00:07:05.740 quote unquote big act of style. He wanted to 00:07:05.740 --> 00:07:07.720 distance himself from his British peers, who 00:07:07.720 --> 00:07:09.540 he felt were stuffy and interchangeable. He wanted 00:07:09.540 --> 00:07:11.680 to be loud. Yeah. He actually admits to overacting. 00:07:11.740 --> 00:07:13.939 He said, I do go for it a bit as an actor. But 00:07:13.939 --> 00:07:16.399 he insists that the screen can hold that epic 00:07:16.399 --> 00:07:19.199 size if it comes from a sincere place. And to 00:07:19.199 --> 00:07:21.459 achieve that sincerity, he developed what he 00:07:21.459 --> 00:07:24.790 described as his cloud technique. This is crucial 00:07:24.790 --> 00:07:27.550 to understanding how Gary Oldman works. He makes 00:07:27.550 --> 00:07:31.050 a very sharp distinction between an impression, 00:07:31.230 --> 00:07:33.430 which he says is just painting with broad strokes, 00:07:33.790 --> 00:07:35.810 so you recognize someone in a few seconds, like 00:07:35.810 --> 00:07:39.399 a sketch, and true immersion. immersion for him 00:07:39.399 --> 00:07:41.920 is about completely surrounding yourself with 00:07:41.920 --> 00:07:44.300 the assignment. Like stepping into it. Exactly. 00:07:44.560 --> 00:07:47.800 He describes it as building a big cloud of a 00:07:47.800 --> 00:07:50.500 character's psychology, their history, their 00:07:50.500 --> 00:07:53.800 mannerisms, their deepest secrets. He steps inside 00:07:53.800 --> 00:07:57.060 that cloud and then just let some of it rain 00:07:57.060 --> 00:07:59.240 through into the performance. Okay, let's unpack 00:07:59.240 --> 00:08:00.879 this because I really want to understand the 00:08:00.879 --> 00:08:03.439 mechanics of this cloud. Sure. If he actively 00:08:03.439 --> 00:08:05.980 admits to going over the top, and he's playing 00:08:05.980 --> 00:08:08.720 these massive explosive characters like in Leon 00:08:08.720 --> 00:08:12.259 when he literally screams everyone at the top 00:08:12.259 --> 00:08:15.639 of his lungs. Why doesn't it feel like a Saturgy 00:08:15.639 --> 00:08:18.339 Morning cartoon? That's the question. What anchors 00:08:18.339 --> 00:08:20.699 these massive performances so they don't just 00:08:20.699 --> 00:08:22.740 float away into pure camp? Well, it comes right 00:08:22.740 --> 00:08:24.540 back to that word you highlighted earlier. Yeah. 00:08:24.680 --> 00:08:26.560 Sincerity. The secret to Oldman's immersion. 00:08:26.730 --> 00:08:29.129 is that he never judges the character from the 00:08:29.129 --> 00:08:31.490 outside. Yeah. He isn't winking at the audience 00:08:31.490 --> 00:08:33.490 saying, look at me playing a bad guy. Right. 00:08:33.529 --> 00:08:36.830 He's not in on the joke. Not at all. He is fully 00:08:36.830 --> 00:08:40.090 inhabiting the warped internal justification 00:08:40.090 --> 00:08:42.950 of the villain. When he plays Norman Stansfield 00:08:42.950 --> 00:08:45.669 or Dracula, he is stepping inside a psychology 00:08:45.669 --> 00:08:49.070 where their horrific actions make complete sincere 00:08:49.070 --> 00:08:51.929 sense to them. Oh. A cartoon villain knows they 00:08:51.929 --> 00:08:54.730 are evil. Oldman's villains think they are the 00:08:54.730 --> 00:08:57.460 hero of their own story. The cloud he builds 00:08:57.460 --> 00:08:59.860 isn't just made of funny accents and loud shouting. 00:09:00.340 --> 00:09:02.779 It's made of the characters deeply held, albeit 00:09:02.779 --> 00:09:05.440 completely twisted beliefs. But carrying those 00:09:05.440 --> 00:09:07.539 dark, twisted clouds around everywhere, I mean, 00:09:07.539 --> 00:09:09.980 it had to take a massive toll. It did. It brings 00:09:09.980 --> 00:09:12.639 us to a really turbulent time in his life. Looking 00:09:12.639 --> 00:09:15.340 at the dossiers from this era, it's a heavy mix 00:09:15.340 --> 00:09:17.899 of public triumphs and very dark personal moments. 00:09:18.299 --> 00:09:20.159 And just to be completely clear with you listening, 00:09:20.259 --> 00:09:23.059 as we get into this next part, we're simply unpacking 00:09:23.059 --> 00:09:25.360 what the historical and legal records from The 00:09:25.360 --> 00:09:28.259 Time Show We aren't taking sides or making judgments. 00:09:28.360 --> 00:09:30.559 We're just conveying the history exactly as it 00:09:30.559 --> 00:09:33.480 was documented because it's a complex period 00:09:33.480 --> 00:09:36.759 that deeply affected his career trajectory. Understood. 00:09:36.980 --> 00:09:39.860 And it is vital context. The personal struggle 00:09:39.860 --> 00:09:43.279 during this era was profound. Oldman had a very 00:09:43.279 --> 00:09:46.299 public battle with alcoholism in the early 90s. 00:09:46.320 --> 00:09:50.299 He had a drink driving arrest in 1991. He later 00:09:50.299 --> 00:09:52.379 admitted that his drinking was so severe at its 00:09:52.379 --> 00:09:56.159 peak that he used to literally sweat vodka. It's 00:09:56.159 --> 00:09:58.419 so dark. The lifestyle was catching up to him. 00:09:58.720 --> 00:10:01.500 He checked himself into rehab in 1994, and he 00:10:01.500 --> 00:10:03.620 has spoken publicly about finding his sobriety 00:10:03.620 --> 00:10:07.019 in 1997 through Alcoholics Anonymous, an organization 00:10:07.019 --> 00:10:09.299 he credits for quite literally saving his life. 00:10:09.639 --> 00:10:12.080 Alongside his recovery, there were highly publicized 00:10:12.080 --> 00:10:15.159 legal and personal battles. In 2001, he divorced 00:10:15.159 --> 00:10:18.000 his third wife, Donia Fiorentino. And during 00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:20.919 that deeply contentious divorce, she claimed 00:10:20.919 --> 00:10:23.840 that he assaulted her, specifically stating he 00:10:23.840 --> 00:10:25.720 hit her in the face with a telephone receiver 00:10:25.720 --> 00:10:28.519 in front of their children. A very serious allegation. 00:10:28.879 --> 00:10:30.860 Extremely. Again, strictly looking at the legal 00:10:30.860 --> 00:10:33.960 outcomes in our sources, Oldman was investigated 00:10:33.960 --> 00:10:35.919 by the authorities and he was cleared of these 00:10:35.919 --> 00:10:39.019 charges. The judge ultimately awarded Oldman 00:10:39.019 --> 00:10:41.679 sole legal and physical custody of their two 00:10:41.679 --> 00:10:45.779 sons. Right. And years later in 2018, his son 00:10:45.779 --> 00:10:48.620 Gulliver publicly defended his father. Gulliver 00:10:48.620 --> 00:10:50.700 claimed he was present during the alleged incident, 00:10:51.120 --> 00:10:53.720 stated unequivocally that it didn't happen, and 00:10:53.720 --> 00:10:55.860 strongly condemned the media for what he called 00:10:55.860 --> 00:10:58.240 the disgusting perpetuation of those assault 00:10:58.240 --> 00:11:00.580 allegations. The friction really extended well 00:11:00.580 --> 00:11:02.460 beyond his personal life, too, bleeding into 00:11:02.460 --> 00:11:04.519 his professional and political life as well. 00:11:05.220 --> 00:11:07.820 In the year 2000, he starred in an executive 00:11:07.820 --> 00:11:10.019 produced a political drama called The Contender. 00:11:10.179 --> 00:11:13.529 OK. Rumors swirled in the press that Oldman was 00:11:13.529 --> 00:11:16.850 furious, claiming the studio, DreamWorks, edited 00:11:16.850 --> 00:11:19.929 the film to have a pro -democrat bias. However, 00:11:20.269 --> 00:11:22.889 his manager immediately called these reports 00:11:22.889 --> 00:11:25.970 sloppy sensationalism, stating Oldman is the 00:11:25.970 --> 00:11:28.289 least political person he knows and that the 00:11:28.289 --> 00:11:31.370 studio didn't influence the final cut. Film critic 00:11:31.370 --> 00:11:34.009 Roger Ebert even investigated the situation himself 00:11:34.009 --> 00:11:36.769 and called the rumors a complete myth concocted 00:11:36.769 --> 00:11:39.210 by the media. But the political friction didn't 00:11:39.210 --> 00:11:42.820 stop there. In 2014, he gave a highly controversial 00:11:42.820 --> 00:11:46.220 interview to Playboy magazine. Oh, yes. He denounced 00:11:46.220 --> 00:11:48.559 what he saw as excessive political correctness 00:11:48.559 --> 00:11:51.679 in media. He made remarks defending actors Alec 00:11:51.679 --> 00:11:54.139 Baldwin and Mel Gibson against backlash they 00:11:54.139 --> 00:11:56.519 had received for offensive slurs, attributing 00:11:56.519 --> 00:11:58.779 their behavior to anger and inebriation rather 00:11:58.779 --> 00:12:01.379 than malice. Right. He also made comments about 00:12:01.379 --> 00:12:04.080 Hollywood being run by Jews. He faced massive 00:12:04.080 --> 00:12:06.139 immediate backlash for the interview. Naturally. 00:12:06.299 --> 00:12:08.639 Following this, he issued multiple public apologies, 00:12:08.919 --> 00:12:10.970 calling his own remarks offensive, insensitive, 00:12:11.169 --> 00:12:13.909 pernicious, and ill -informed. Both the Anti 00:12:13.909 --> 00:12:16.730 -Defamation League and the Simon Weisenthal Center 00:12:16.730 --> 00:12:18.889 publicly welcomed his apologies and accepted 00:12:18.889 --> 00:12:21.549 his contrition. When you take all of these colliding 00:12:21.549 --> 00:12:24.870 factors, the personal demons, the intense media 00:12:24.870 --> 00:12:27.730 scrutiny, the controversies, it led to a very 00:12:27.730 --> 00:12:30.509 noticeable career slump in the early 2000s. Yeah. 00:12:30.610 --> 00:12:32.669 Critics openly referred to this period as his 00:12:32.669 --> 00:12:35.360 low point. He was taking roles that commentators 00:12:35.360 --> 00:12:37.960 described as barrel scraping most notably starring 00:12:37.960 --> 00:12:41.679 in a critically panned 2003 film called tiptoes 00:12:41.679 --> 00:12:45.039 where he played a man with dwarfism Wow, it was 00:12:45.039 --> 00:12:47.840 a stark contrast to the prestige of his early 00:12:47.840 --> 00:12:50.419 90s run. So what does this all mean? I really 00:12:50.419 --> 00:12:52.419 struggle to reconcile this part of his life. 00:12:52.419 --> 00:12:55.620 You have a guy whose entire brand his superpower 00:12:56.090 --> 00:12:59.269 really is complete meticulous emotional control 00:12:59.269 --> 00:13:01.870 on camera. He builds these perfect psychological 00:13:01.870 --> 00:13:04.389 clouds and yet off camera, he was completely 00:13:04.389 --> 00:13:07.090 losing control of his life. Was the cloud technique 00:13:07.090 --> 00:13:09.450 actually bleeding into his reality? That's a 00:13:09.450 --> 00:13:12.230 fair question. How does an actor survive period 00:13:12.230 --> 00:13:14.529 where their personal demons and their public 00:13:14.529 --> 00:13:17.269 controversies just violently collide? If we connect 00:13:17.269 --> 00:13:20.929 this to the bigger picture, this turbulent era 00:13:20.929 --> 00:13:23.409 effectively burned the movie star ego right out 00:13:23.409 --> 00:13:26.250 of him. The invincible, untouchable, 90s leading 00:13:26.250 --> 00:13:29.409 man was gone. He was humbled by the legal battles, 00:13:29.610 --> 00:13:31.769 by his sobriety journey, and by the critical 00:13:31.769 --> 00:13:35.769 panning. What survived that fire was a pure character 00:13:35.769 --> 00:13:38.129 actor. Just the core of the artist. Exactly. 00:13:38.509 --> 00:13:41.210 Someone who was sober. grounded and desperate 00:13:41.210 --> 00:13:44.289 for a profound artistic reinvention. He couldn't 00:13:44.289 --> 00:13:46.509 rely on the explosive, chaotic energy of his 00:13:46.509 --> 00:13:49.250 youth anymore. He had to rebuild his craft from 00:13:49.250 --> 00:13:52.009 the ground up, finding a new way to channel that 00:13:52.009 --> 00:13:54.950 intensity. And rebuild he did. because surviving 00:13:54.950 --> 00:13:57.710 those dark years led to one of the most incredible 00:13:57.710 --> 00:14:00.169 pivots in modern cinema history. Unbelievable 00:14:00.169 --> 00:14:03.250 pivot. He goes from playing unhinged, screaming 00:14:03.250 --> 00:14:05.990 psychos to becoming the absolute moral anchor 00:14:05.990 --> 00:14:08.730 of two of the biggest film franchises in history. 00:14:09.090 --> 00:14:11.450 And in doing so, he fundamentally shifts his 00:14:11.450 --> 00:14:13.830 entire acting style. We are talking, of course, 00:14:14.009 --> 00:14:15.950 about his roles as Sirius Black in the Harry 00:14:15.950 --> 00:14:19.169 Potter series, beginning in 2004, and James Gordon 00:14:19.169 --> 00:14:21.629 in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, starting 00:14:21.629 --> 00:14:24.009 in 2005. Here's where it gets really interesting. 00:14:24.110 --> 00:14:26.429 The irony here is just staggering. It really 00:14:26.429 --> 00:14:29.690 is. The guy who built a career playing the most 00:14:29.690 --> 00:14:33.409 explosive, terrifying villains on screen becomes 00:14:33.409 --> 00:14:36.330 universally beloved by an entirely new generation 00:14:36.330 --> 00:14:39.950 of moviegoers for playing these weary, deeply 00:14:39.950 --> 00:14:43.250 good, deeply moral father figure. Serious Black 00:14:43.250 --> 00:14:45.049 and Jim Gordon are the guys you want in your 00:14:45.049 --> 00:14:47.789 corner. Exactly. And he changes how he acts to 00:14:47.789 --> 00:14:50.289 do it. He transitions from that big 90s acting 00:14:50.289 --> 00:14:53.370 to what he beautifully describes as playing characters 00:14:53.370 --> 00:14:55.710 where the silence is loud. I love that phrase. 00:14:56.029 --> 00:14:58.190 It's like he went from playing lead electric 00:14:58.190 --> 00:15:00.590 guitar with the amp blown out, smashing the instrument 00:15:00.590 --> 00:15:03.309 on stage, to playing a completely acoustic set 00:15:03.309 --> 00:15:05.450 where you can actually hear his fingers sliding 00:15:05.450 --> 00:15:08.149 on the strings. The restraint is what makes it 00:15:08.149 --> 00:15:10.549 deafening. That is the perfect analogy for his 00:15:10.549 --> 00:15:12.889 evolution. Oldman learned through his trials 00:15:12.889 --> 00:15:15.190 that restraint can actually be just as powerful, 00:15:15.470 --> 00:15:17.629 if not more powerful, than projection. Right. 00:15:17.950 --> 00:15:21.629 He applied the exact same intense cloud of research 00:15:21.629 --> 00:15:24.789 and psychology to a comic book cop like Jim Gordon 00:15:24.789 --> 00:15:27.029 that he did to Dracula. He didn't just phone 00:15:27.029 --> 00:15:29.769 it in. No. Not at all. He didn't phone it in 00:15:29.769 --> 00:15:31.889 just because it was a blockbuster. He treated 00:15:31.889 --> 00:15:34.669 these franchise roles with Shakespearean gravity. 00:15:35.009 --> 00:15:36.950 He internalized the exhaustion and the burden 00:15:36.950 --> 00:15:39.889 of a good man in a corrupt city, and he let that 00:15:39.889 --> 00:15:42.629 radiate through his posture, his tired eyes, 00:15:42.929 --> 00:15:45.789 his quiet voice. And the absolute pinnacle of 00:15:45.789 --> 00:15:49.710 this new restrained style came in 2011. He starred 00:15:49.710 --> 00:15:52.870 in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, a brilliant adaptation 00:15:52.870 --> 00:15:55.250 of the John Luttre novel. The masterpiece. He 00:15:55.250 --> 00:15:58.100 plays the quiet, incredibly methodical British 00:15:58.100 --> 00:16:01.539 spy George Smiley and the mechanics of his preparation 00:16:01.539 --> 00:16:04.879 here are staggering. What did he do? Well to 00:16:04.879 --> 00:16:08.419 prepare he gained 15 pounds just to change the 00:16:08.419 --> 00:16:11.169 way he carried himself. He obsessively studied 00:16:11.169 --> 00:16:13.250 Alec Guinness' previous performance of the role, 00:16:13.570 --> 00:16:15.429 and he even went to the author, John Le Carre, 00:16:15.570 --> 00:16:17.870 to perfect the character's vocal cadence and 00:16:17.870 --> 00:16:20.470 tone. That's dedication. And that role of Loud 00:16:20.470 --> 00:16:23.610 Silences finally earned him his very first Academy 00:16:23.610 --> 00:16:26.230 Award nomination for Best Actor. Which, frankly, 00:16:26.409 --> 00:16:29.210 was long overdue. Seriously. Prior to that nomination, 00:16:29.429 --> 00:16:31.750 he was widely considered by critics and his peers 00:16:31.750 --> 00:16:34.070 to be the greatest living actor never to have 00:16:34.070 --> 00:16:36.320 been nominated for an Oscar. It's crazy it took 00:16:36.320 --> 00:16:39.000 that long. But George Smiley proved that his 00:16:39.000 --> 00:16:42.200 acoustic set, his loud silences, could command 00:16:42.200 --> 00:16:45.279 the Academy's attention just as much as his explosive 00:16:45.279 --> 00:16:48.600 early rolls. He proved he didn't need to scream 00:16:48.600 --> 00:16:51.039 to be heard. Which brings us to the climax of 00:16:51.039 --> 00:16:54.230 his career, the crown jewel. This is where his 00:16:54.230 --> 00:16:57.029 immersive cloud technique reaches its most extreme 00:16:57.029 --> 00:17:00.629 physically taxing peak and leads to ultimate 00:17:00.629 --> 00:17:03.309 institutional validation. Yes. We're talking 00:17:03.309 --> 00:17:05.690 about his unbelievable transformation into British 00:17:05.690 --> 00:17:08.349 Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the 2017 00:17:08.349 --> 00:17:11.410 war drama Darkest Hour. The physical commitment 00:17:11.410 --> 00:17:14.230 here rivals what he did to himself back in the 00:17:14.230 --> 00:17:16.890 80s for Sid and Nancy, but at a much older age. 00:17:17.029 --> 00:17:19.130 Right. To become Churchill, Oldman didn't just 00:17:19.130 --> 00:17:21.869 put on a fat suit. He spent 200 hours sitting 00:17:21.869 --> 00:17:23.529 in the makeup chair over the course of the shoot. 00:17:23.769 --> 00:17:26.910 200 hours? He carried 14 pounds of silicone rubber 00:17:26.910 --> 00:17:30.450 on his body every single day to replicate Churchill's 00:17:30.450 --> 00:17:32.750 physical mass and the way it made him move and 00:17:32.750 --> 00:17:34.950 breathe. And the detail that just blows my mind 00:17:34.950 --> 00:17:37.829 reading through these dossiers. Yeah. He smoked 00:17:37.829 --> 00:17:41.049 $20 ,000 worth of Cuban cigars during filming. 00:17:41.509 --> 00:17:45.440 $20 ,000. He literally gave himself nicotine 00:17:45.440 --> 00:17:47.759 poisoning. That is, I mean, that is intense. 00:17:47.859 --> 00:17:49.599 And I have to push back on this a little bit. 00:17:49.779 --> 00:17:52.740 To get nicotine poisoning for a role at age 59, 00:17:53.359 --> 00:17:55.799 is that just dedication to the craft or is that 00:17:55.799 --> 00:17:58.380 a total refusal to break the illusion of the 00:17:58.380 --> 00:18:01.140 cloud? Like at what point does the method become 00:18:01.140 --> 00:18:03.480 a hazard? It's the ultimate manifestation of 00:18:03.480 --> 00:18:06.000 the cloud and perhaps a bit of both. He couldn't 00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:08.319 just look like Churchill and hold an unlit prop. 00:18:08.319 --> 00:18:10.480 Right, it had to be real. He had to physically 00:18:10.480 --> 00:18:13.720 endure the same toxic habits. to fully inhabit 00:18:13.720 --> 00:18:16.160 the psychology. He had to feel the scratch in 00:18:16.160 --> 00:18:19.039 his throat, the shortness of breath, and the 00:18:19.039 --> 00:18:22.160 payoff for that hazardous immersion was monumental. 00:18:22.299 --> 00:18:25.259 It really was. He finally shed the title of greatest 00:18:25.259 --> 00:18:27.700 actor never to win an Oscar. Yeah. He didn't 00:18:27.700 --> 00:18:30.180 just win the Academy Award, he swept the entire 00:18:30.180 --> 00:18:31.940 awards season. Yeah, he took everything. He won 00:18:31.940 --> 00:18:34.440 the Golden Globes, the BAFTA, and the Screen 00:18:34.440 --> 00:18:37.279 Actors Guild Award for best actor. And the institutional 00:18:37.279 --> 00:18:40.700 honors just kept coming. Fast forward to 2025, 00:18:41.140 --> 00:18:43.299 and King Charles III makes him a Knight Bachelor, 00:18:43.599 --> 00:18:46.579 Sir Gary Oldman. That same year, he places his 00:18:46.579 --> 00:18:49.480 handprints and footprints outside the TCL Chinese 00:18:49.480 --> 00:18:52.039 theater, immortalized in Hollywood concrete. 00:18:52.140 --> 00:18:54.559 The ultimate Hollywood stamp of approval. Exactly. 00:18:54.940 --> 00:18:57.500 Currently, he is starring as the cantankerous, 00:18:57.720 --> 00:19:00.920 slovenly British spy, Jackson Lamb in the Apple 00:19:00.920 --> 00:19:05.000 TV Plus series, Slow Horses. And in 2022, he 00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:07.099 stated that this series will likely be his final 00:19:07.099 --> 00:19:10.630 act. He intends to retire from acting once Slow 00:19:10.630 --> 00:19:13.049 Horses ends its run. This raises an important 00:19:13.049 --> 00:19:16.430 question, you know. What drives a man who has 00:19:16.430 --> 00:19:18.470 already proven everything? Yeah, what's left? 00:19:18.609 --> 00:19:20.589 When you look at the entire trajectory from the 00:19:20.589 --> 00:19:22.809 young boy working in a freezing South London 00:19:22.809 --> 00:19:26.210 abattoir told by the elitist ID to find another 00:19:26.210 --> 00:19:28.470 job because he wasn't good enough, to the knighted 00:19:28.470 --> 00:19:30.589 Oscar winner imprinting his hands in Hollywood 00:19:30.589 --> 00:19:33.500 concrete. The validation is absolute and complete. 00:19:33.680 --> 00:19:36.000 It's undeniable. He has absolutely nothing left 00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:38.099 to prove to the establishment that once rejected 00:19:38.099 --> 00:19:40.960 him. It is an unbelievable journey. We've tracked 00:19:40.960 --> 00:19:43.259 Sir Gary Oldman from the pig abattoir to the 00:19:43.259 --> 00:19:46.000 punk rock stage, literally starving himself for 00:19:46.000 --> 00:19:48.630 art. We watched him weaponize his stage presence 00:19:48.630 --> 00:19:51.690 to become the definitive 90s villain. We walked 00:19:51.690 --> 00:19:53.950 through the dark personal struggles and the media 00:19:53.950 --> 00:19:57.009 controversies of the early 2000s, watched him 00:19:57.009 --> 00:20:00.250 strip away his ego into the quiet powerful restraint 00:20:00.250 --> 00:20:03.289 of George Smiley and Jim Gordon, and finally 00:20:03.289 --> 00:20:06.390 arrived at the nicotine stained Oscar sweeping 00:20:06.390 --> 00:20:09.789 triumph of Winston Churchill. It is a career 00:20:09.789 --> 00:20:12.730 defined by an absolute refusal to be just one 00:20:12.730 --> 00:20:16.210 thing. He built a legacy by becoming everyone 00:20:16.210 --> 00:20:19.470 else, meticulously crafting these clouds for 00:20:19.470 --> 00:20:21.849 decades. Exactly. And that leaves you with something 00:20:21.849 --> 00:20:24.950 really fascinating to chew on today. Gary Oldman 00:20:24.950 --> 00:20:27.450 spent a lifetime putting himself inside the clouds 00:20:27.450 --> 00:20:30.210 of murderers, wizards, spies, and prime ministers. 00:20:30.849 --> 00:20:32.730 He wore their psychologies, their accents, and 00:20:32.730 --> 00:20:34.609 their physical weight like it was his own skin. 00:20:35.210 --> 00:20:37.990 If Slow Horse truly is his final role and the 00:20:37.990 --> 00:20:40.269 master chameleon finally washes off the makeup 00:20:40.269 --> 00:20:43.470 for good, who is the man left standing when the 00:20:43.470 --> 00:20:45.490 last cloud clears? That's the real question. 00:20:45.630 --> 00:20:47.309 Does the chameleon ever truly have a baseline 00:20:47.309 --> 00:20:49.650 color of its own? That is the ultimate mystery 00:20:49.650 --> 00:20:52.170 of the actor's actor. Keep diving deep into the 00:20:52.170 --> 00:20:54.150 things that make you curious, and we'll catch 00:20:54.150 --> 00:20:54.910 you on the next one.