‘Tiptoes’: The bizarre movie role Gary Oldman called “a dream”
Gary Oldman is one of the most revered acting talents of his generation, known for his iconic performances in cult classics like Sid and Nancy, as well as extremely popular productions such as Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy, his range is often cited as one of the industry’s most developed and has seen him take on real-life figures and outlandish characters with equal vigour and grace. Despite all his great work, there are also some missteps in Oldman’s illustrious filmography.
In recent years, Oldman has continued to add to his legacy with films such as David Fincher’s Mank and the Apple+ series Slow Horses, which, given the time to luxuriate in the respiration of a character, might arguably be his finest moment on screen. The actor is also looking to continue his filmmaking work by directing a biopic about Eadweard Muybridge, the pioneer who studied motion through photography.
Oldman’s body of work continues to serve as a source of inspiration for aspiring artists, but there are some films that stand out as truly bizarre projects and one role in particular that one would assume he’d rather forget. One of them is undoubtedly the 2003 Matthew Bright film Tiptoes which Bright came up with when he was 18, wanting to make “a raucous comedy about little people fucking each other”. Two decades and counting on, the movie’s premise alone is enough to make a modern audience wince, but when looking at the cast list, things get even more uncomfortable.
Intended as a rom-com, Tiptoes starred Matthew McConaughey as Stephen, who ends up impregnating a painter named Carol (played by Kate Beckinsale). When Stephen discovers that Carol has his child inside her, he is forced to tell her the truth about how most of his family members actually have dwarfism.
Gary Oldman played the role of Stephen’s twin brother Rolfe, a little person who teaches Carol all about his condition. While Oldman received some acclaim for his portrayal of an individual with dwarfism, delivering a performance as nuanced as any other in his oeuvre, many found the entire film to be extremely insensitive and offensive due to its controversial casting choice.
“He was on his knees,” Kate Beckinsale explained later to MTV while talking about Oldman’s visual appearance as a little person with an uncomfortable acceptance. “He was basically on his knees with a prosthetic part of his head and face and a hump and different kinds of harnesses to strap his arms back to make them short, and special clothes.”
Beckinsale reportedly joined the production because she was allowed to wear her lucky hat during the filming. While talking about the effects, she added: “They had various different effects, like if he was sitting in a chair, his legs would actually be inside the chair, and he’d have these little fake legs sticking out on top. It was amazing what they did with him.”
Peter Dinklage also starred in the film as Rolfe’s best friend. In a later interview, he reflected on the bizarre project: “There was some flak. Why would you put Gary Oldman on his knees? That’s almost like blackface.’” However, for Dinklage, it was the calibre of Oldman’s ability that allowed such an idea to even get off the ground in the first place. “I have my own opinions about political correctness, but I was just like, ‘It’s Gary Oldman. He can do whatever he wants.'”
Oldman has been equally effusive about the project, during an interview, he noted: “It is a glorious part. A dream of a role.” However, he did take a little bit of convincing to pick up the part: “It wasn’t an immediate ‘yes’”, he explained. “I just wondered how I would meet the physical challenge of it. I happen to think it is incredible make-up and a new benchmark in the field of make-up.” But, even with such accurate make-up, Oldman admitted the difficulties he faced: “It’s a stretch to imagine the pressure and the tension that he {Stephen] carried.”
Tiptoes marked the final directorial project of Bright, who expressed a lot of disappointment about the producer’s cut, which apparently took away a lot from the film. Even Dinklage expressed his admiration for the director’s cut and called it “gorgeous”. To this day, Bright has held onto the hope that his version of Tiptoes will be exposed to the world one day.
