How Gary Oldman got into the mindset of Lee Harvey Oswald
Depending on the actor, it’s either a great deal easier or a lot more difficult to play a real-life figure that’s no longer alive, not that Gary Oldman was left with much of a choice.
In some cases, being able to speak face-to-face with the person they’re playing can be of huge benefit for a performer, whether it’s to adopt a mindset or take on mannerisms that more closely reflect the subject. When time doesn’t allow for it, then exhaustive research can often fail to paint a full picture, never mind the risk of being criticised by any descendants or historians who disagree.
As somebody known for their deep commitment to doing justice to any character they play, Oldman was forced to adopt some more unique methods when he was cast as Lee Harvey Oswald in Oliver Stone’s JFK, with the assassin of John F. Kennedy being gunned down live on television by nightclub owner Jack Ruby while in the custody of the Dallas Police Department on November 24th, 1963.
In addition to the reams of column inches, editorials, think pieces, and books dedicated to Oswald, there was also the fact Stone’s movie was being told from the perspective of what its director believed, not necessarily incidents and events that are widely accepted and inarguable facts.
Essentially, Oldman had to convincingly embody Oswald based on what’s proven true while also acting out the story conceived by Stone that regularly plays fast and loose with certain degrees of authenticity. It was not the easiest task in the world, but one that required an unorthodox approach nonetheless.
As Oldman told Film4, “There wasn’t a great deal of Oswald on the page”.
Fortunately, Stone had his own suggestions, which saw him hand his actor “an envelope full of money and some plane tickets”. In turn, he was urged to “take yourself off to New Orleans” with a couple of phone numbers in his pocket.
The Academy Award-winning director “really sent me off as investigator, like a detective”, Oldman recalled. “And I just sort of met a bunch of people and then tried to put a profile of Oswald, bringing that back to Oliver”. It’s unclear just how extensive his research ended up being, but it did cause him to cast doubt on the lone gunman theory for a while.
“I do have the advantage of having been up at the window with the rifle at the book depository and looked through the sight at the route he took,” Oldman continued. “And at the time, I thought to myself, ‘No way. How on Earth could anyone achieve this?'”. It wasn’t a permanent shift in opinion, though, seeing as he noted he’d “watched a documentary where they put this theory forward that he, in fact, was indeed the lone gunman”, which once again turned him onto the belief Oswald was acting on his own.
