The “once-in-a-lifetime” role Gary Oldman almost turned down: “I wanted to say no”
There comes a time in all of our lives when fear and chance have to be weighed up. When an opportunity comes knocking, whether it be a new house, a new job, a move across the world or even a new relationship, nerves can keep you from answering. Sure, Gary Oldman’s moment was a bit bigger than simply a new lease, but it still took a lot.
You always know in your gut when this one is different. In other instances, if a new opportunity sparks anxiety, it might just be easy to write it off as something not worth the stress or the effort. If the pay-off doesn’t outweigh the strife, chances are you are better off not spiking your adrenaline too much or turning yourself into a nervous wreck.
But on rare occasions, despite the fear and nerves still being high, you simply know in your gut that this is something you have to do. The anxiety has to be worked through for the sake of something special or potentially life-changing when the voice inside you is screaming that it could change everything.
Oldman has likely come face-to-face with that feeling a few times. Throughout his filmography, he’s often taken bold career turns, moving from action to drama to historical roles to romantic leads. By now, he’s played just about every type of character an actor can and has gathered up some truly iconic roles throughout the way, like Sirius Black in Harry Potter, taking on Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK, or Dracula in Francis Ford Coppola’s adaptation of the classic.
Each change likely comes with fear, but one offer almost sent him running. When offered the chance to play Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, he genuinely didn’t know if he could do it. “There was always this big fat pink elephant in the room, asking me how I was going to pull this off,” he said, adding, “I wanted to say no, but I mulled over it.”
Talking to the Los Angeles Times about the 2017 role, part of the issue was his awareness of how physically taxing the project would be, as well as the obvious emotional toll of playing such a looming historic figure. But to do the transformation, a lot of prosthetics would be involved in a four-hour-long makeup chair session, every day, for 48 consecutive days.
Then, add on top of that the historic element. Oldman is no stranger to playing real-life figures, as he kicked off his career playing Sid Vicious and then dropped into all kinds of people, from presidents to presidents’ assassins. But this one felt different.
“There was a lot of pensive soul-searching,” he said as he took time trying to figure out if he could break through his nerves.
In the end, though, he knew he had to. “Once that seed was planted, I knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I would never get a chance like this again,” he said, finding the bravery from somewhere and winning himself a ‘Best Actor’ Oscar.
