Why Gary Oldman avoided TV for 40 years: “There was a sort of snobbishness”
When it comes to a medium, most actors pick one and stick to it. You’re either known as a theatre actor, a movie actor or a television actor, even if you dabble in more than one. For most of his career, Gary Oldman was decidedly a film actor.
Well like all legendary English actors, he began his career as a true thespian on the stage. After graduating from drama school, he made a concerted effort to get his name out there and ended up becoming a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
That was until he was reluctantly cast in Sid & Nancy in 1986, thinking theatre was far superior. But to the dismay of his younger self, it’s been a straight run of intense film performances ever since. From the titular character in Bram Stoker’s Dracula to three Harry Potter and as many Christopher Nolan Batman films and on to his Academy Award winning turn as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, he’s had a long and successful career on the silver screen.
And despite a few cameos and early short appearances, Oldman avoided the small screen even more than he initially did the big one. That was until 2022, when he came farting onto our TV screens as Jackson Lamb in Slow Horses. The slovenly, greasy haired M15 rejects supervisor might sound like a step down from his previous roles on paper, but he’s captivated audiences with his crude humour and full-on cockney accent.
But why did Oldman wait over four decades to commit himself to TV? Well, it’s a familiar story. “Early on, there was a sort of snobbishness, wasn’t there, about television? You were either a movie actor or you were a television actor,” he told The Wrap. “And like theater people who looked down on movie actors, the movie actors looked down on TV actors.”
Calling yourself out there, are you Gary? No, but he’s not really wrong. As he points out, we are very much in a ‘Golden Era’ of television. Before the noughties, we might have had plenty of great sitcoms and more casual television shows, but they weren’t the kind that drew in capital-A Actors.
But since the likes of Sex and the City and The Sopranos through to Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones and Killing Eve, television has boomed and now “everybody wants to get in the game” according to Oldman. He points to the more developed nature of characters on television due the longer form and how appealing this is as an actor.
Although it’s fair to say he’s been incredibly lucky in his transition from film to TV, managing to secure a role in a highly acclaimed show. Then again, who knows how much of this is down to him. After all, he’s Gary Oldman and he does a spectacular job as the slightly grotesque Lamb.
Despite his often more refined and slick film roles, Lamb seems like a role he was born to play. Even if the role does seem to be doing an unfortunate number on the actor’s appearance, with him maintaining the long, greasy locks and hint of a belly on and off the screen. But regardless of your thoughts on this, it’s safe to say we’re all probably pretty glad that Oldman got over his decades-long aversion to TV.
