The iconic 1980s movie character Gary Oldman can’t stand the sight of: “I started to get irritated”
As slight as it may be, there’s a difference between a beloved movie character and a universally beloved movie character, with Gary Oldman voicing his disdain for an otherwise iconic addition to big-screen canon.
He’s allowed to feel that way because no law dictates that a fictional figure who most people adore isn’t allowed to be despised, although recent technological developments have ensured that if you do go against the grain, folks on the internet are ready to sharpen their pitchforks and darken your online door.
Fortunately for Oldman, he made his feelings clear in the late 1990s, long before social media existed, and long before the most ironic turn of events almost transpired. Shortly after wrapping production on one big-budget sci-fi flick, the actor turned his ire towards a recurring figure from another.
Had the fates aligned differently, they could have ended up sharing the same movie in 2002, albeit not in person, with the Academy Award winner initially lined up for a voice-only role, while his surprising arch-nemesis had been eradicated from physical existence and replaced entirely by CGI.
“I find Star Wars quite violent, to be honest with you,” Oldman explained in 1997, recalling his experience of revisiting the original trilogy with his children. “I can see how the first one worked. I thought he was very clever with it, using the Force. What is it? Is it spirituality? Is it God?”
Despite The Empire Strikes Back being regarded as arguably the greatest Star Wars movie ever made, and if not, then at the very least, it’s one of the finest, most iconic, and influential sequels in Hollywood history, the Fifth Element scenery-chewer “felt it outlived its sell-by date with the second and third in the series.”
To be more specific, as soon as Luke Skywalker touches down on the planet of Dagobah, Oldman “started to get irritated by that plastic, rubbery-looking puppet, Yoda.” To quote the man himself: a fan, he is not. The little green fella has become a staple fixture of a galaxy far, far away, but from the second he appeared onscreen in The Empire Strikes Back, Oldman couldn’t stand the sight of him.
Naturally, that didn’t make his experience of watching the second and third instalments in George Lucas’ sci-fi franchise any more enjoyable the second time around, with the veteran bristling every time that pesky Frank Oz puppeted the crinkled old Jedi onscreen, presumably.
Had his aversion to breaking union laws not forced him to turn down the part of General Grievous in Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, then Oldman and Yoda technically would have been co-stars, which could have made for an awkward moment had he and Oz ever run into each other.
