The iconic 2007 performance that gave Gary Oldman an existential crisis: “Is there one of those in me?”
It doesn’t matter how skilled an actor is or how impressive their credits are, there’s always going to be a performance from another star that makes them sit up straight and think about their own career. What would’ve happened if they’d landed that role instead?
It’s hard to imagine someone like Gary Oldman ever worrying about the trajectory of their career because he has appeared in so many great movies with such consistency, starting in the early 1980s when he made one of his first on-screen appearances in Mike Leigh’s Meantime. From the very beginning, Oldman proved that he wasn’t afraid of a challenging role, playing a racist skinhead in Leigh’s social realist drama, only to step into the shoes of the obnoxious Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious a few years later for Alex Cox’s Sid and Nancy.
By the 1990s, however, his status as one of Hollywood’s finest villains had firmly been established with roles in everything from True Romance to Leon the Professional, but Oldman has never been a one-trick pony. Sure, villains are his bread and butter, the kinds of characters he seems to find easiest to embody, but he has appeared in various less evil roles – let’s not forget. And he’s an incredible director. Seriously, the fact that Nil By Mouth remains his only directorial credit is one of cinema’s greatest tragedies.
I guess he hasn’t had time to direct another film, though, what with his dedication to keeping busy, whether he’s playing Sirius Black in the Harry Potter franchise, starring in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, or transforming into Winston Churchill for Darkest Hour.
With so many illustrious credits to his name, you wouldn’t think he’d even have the time to stop and compare his career to his contemporaries, but when he watched a certain 2007 movie, he was hit with a slight existential crisis.
Daniel Day-Lewis will do that to an actor, though. Of course, he was referring to There Will Be Blood, which is one of the only movies that Oldman has watched and questioned whether he has something like that in him. Day-Lewis’ portrayal of Daniel Plainview in Paul Thomas Anderson’s movie won him an Oscar, and it’s widely considered one of the greatest performances of the 21st century. It’s not hard to see why.
His turn as the manipulative, fraudulent oilman, who won’t stop until he gets what he wants, is, quite frankly, awe-inspiring, and it sent shockwaves through Hollywood when the film was released. It was just that good.
Talking to GQ in 2009, Oldman revealed, “I think There Will Be Blood, of all the stuff I’ve seen in recent years, that’s probably the one you come back to. I think, ‘Am I done yet? Is there one of those in me? Is there a Daniel Plainview in me?’”
Well, is there? Considering that Oldman went on to receive three Oscar nominations after this interview, winning for Darkest Hour, it’s safe to say that he’s got it in him. But he’s never been truly worried about that. When asked by GQ if he thinks there’s a Daniel Plainview-esque performance in him, he replied, “A really crackerjack performance like that? Yeah.”
