“He might want to watch that”: The director Gary Oldman called “self-destructive”
As far as British acting brilliance goes, it’s hard to look beyond the impact of the legendary and inimitable Gary Oldman. As admired in his native United Kingdom as he is in the States, the London-born actor has proven time and time again that he is more than deserving of his reputation as one of the best of all time.
Early in his career, Oldman cut his teeth in the Royal Shakespeare Company and appeared in a handful of films in the 1980s, such as Remembrance, Sid and Nancy and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Before long, Oldman established himself as a serious talent and took on more notable roles in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, True Romance, and Leon: The Professional duly followed.
It would be easy to judge Oldman’s career from the many great films he has been in, but it’s just as interesting to look at the calibre of directors he has worked with over the years. The likes of Christopher Nolan, Paolo Sorrentino, Francis Ford Coppola, David Fincher, Alfonso Cuaron and Robert Zemeckis have all called upon Oldman to deliver his undoubted talent and prowess as an actor.
There’s one director with whom Oldman shares a special relationship even though he’s only acted for him on one occasion. Speaking with The Hollywood Interview, Oldman once said of Oliver Stone, “He’s a force of nature. Brilliant. Self-destructive. He might want to watch that [and] curb that a bit. Great vision. Angry. Good. He’s good. His energy is just enviable. A powerhouse. I had a great time working with him.”
The film in question was Stone’s 1991 epic political, historical thriller JFK, which explores the investigation into the assassination of John F Kennedy. Kevin Costner plays New Orleans investigator Jim Garrison, who looks into the possibility that there was a conspiracy surrounding the assassination of Kennedy and that Lee Harvey Oswald (played by Oldman) was actually just a scapegoat.
According to Oldman, Stone had seen the actor in the 1990 neo-noir crime drama State of Grace and knew that he would be able to play Oswald. “He said he saw an ‘intensity’ and ‘haunted quality’ in my character and wanted Oswald to have that same sort of withdrawn, haunted quality,” Oldman explained.
However, when it came to the character of Oswald, Oldman found that there wasn’t much of him on the page, and he was sent out to New Orleans with an envelope full of cash and a list of phone numbers. Stone trusted Oldman to investigate his character of his own accord, and though the result was a brilliant performance, it was one that seemed to leave Oldman feeling down and perhaps somewhat sympathetic of Oswald.
“I remember I was very isolated on that shoot, didn’t hang out with anyone,” the actor said. “I stayed in my hotel room on my own, ate on my own, walked around town on my own. There’s a part of me that is that, a loner.” Still, it was for this very reason that Stone knew that Oldman was the right actor to play the suspected assassin of JFK.
Stone is indeed a “self-destructive” yet brilliant director, who has earned as much criticism as he has acclaim, but whatever his limitations as an artist may be, the truth is that he has delivered some of the most intense pieces of cinema ever known, bringing master actors like Oldman into the fray on many brilliant occasions.
