Gary Oldman explains “mediocre” comments about ‘Harry Potter’
English acting royalty Gary Oldman has clarified his comments after controversially claiming he was “mediocre” in the Harry Potter series.
In the set of films, Oldman took on the role of Sirius Black, who was first shown to audiences in the Prisoner of Azkaban, the third movie in the franchise. He is the aforementioned prisoner in the movie title, and it’s revealed that he’s Harry’s godfather, leading to the duo to strike up a close relationship as he becomes a father figure to the teenage wizard.
The opportunity came at an interesting in Oldman’s career when he was desperate for work following a hiatus, which allowed him to focus on spending time with his family. The role of Sirius Black thrust Oldman back into the limelight, but as a perfectionist, he was unhappy with what he contributed to the part.
During an appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast last year, Oldman brazenly admitted, “I think my work is mediocre in it.”
He then highlighted the performance of Alan Rickman, and explained why he should have followed the late actor’s lead, noting, “Maybe if I had read the books, like Alan. If I had gotten ahead of the curve a bit – if I had known what’s coming – I honestly would have played it different.”
Now, Oldman explained what he meant by his comments during a press conference at Cannes Film Festival following the premiere of his new film, Parthenope.
Oldman remarked (per Variety): “What I meant by that is, as any artist or any actor or painter, you are always hypercritical of your own work. If you’re not, and you’re satisfied with what you’re doing, that would be death to me. If I watched a performance of myself and thought, ‘My God, I’m fantastic in this,’ that would be a sad day.”
The actor also explained that the reason that he hadn’t read the books to get a deeper understanding of his character was because they were “under lock and key” rather than laziness on his behalf.
The Parthenope star elaborated: “If I had read the five books and I had seen the arc of the character, I might have approached it differently. I may have looked at it differently and painted in a different color. So when I started Harry Potter, all I had was the book, The Prisoner of Azkaban, and that one representation of that man. One book in the library of Sirius Black. And that’s kind of what I meant by it.”
Oldman then confirmed that his “mediocre” remark was solely about his performance rather than the series of films on the whole, adding, “It’s not me looking at the movie and saying it’s a terrible film or I’m terrible, I just wish it had been under different circumstances. That’s what I meant, not to be rude to any of the people out there who like that film.”
Meanwhile, Parthenope received a huge standing ovation for nine-and-a-half minutes at Cannes on May 21st, and Della Porta had tears running down her face. Director Paulo Sorrentino also looked deeply emotional as a result of the adoring reception.
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