The performance that played with Gary Oldman’s insecurities
Churchill, Sirius Black, Jim Gordon, Sid Vicious, Dracula, Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg. Gary Oldman has chewed his way through some of the biggest characters on the big screen over the last 40 years, and it’s a wonder he hasn’t collapsed under the extreme weight of his own gravitas.
A bonafide icon of cinema, Oldman has risen from humble beginnings to be recognised as one of the greatest living actors, scooping every major award and plaudit that cinema has to offer. But perhaps poetically, one of the most challenging roles he ever took on was that of one of the foremost theatre critics in New York at the beginning of the Golden Age of Cinema.
While it’s not uncommon to see major Hollywood actors the subject of mockery when they talk about preparing for a role (we’re looking at you, Jared ‘Morbin Time’ Leto), some roles actors take on have a very tough time getting into the headspace of their character. Getting into the headspace is one thing, but taking physical steps that put your life on a similar trajectory to your character, can take a heavy toll on an actor.
Oldman, it seems, was no stranger to this experience when working on David Fincher’s look at the creation of Citizen Kane from the perspective of one of its co-authors, Herman Mankiewicz. Mank, with Oldman in the titular role, is almost a legendary story in the history of Hollywood, seeing the rise of Hollywood’s most formidable script doctors as he came to find the only real project that presented a challenge that he could personally invest in, despite the well-known battle for control of the film going on behind the scenes.
Mankiewicz proved a challenge for Oldman, still relatively fresh off the back of winning his first Oscar in a leading role as Winston Churchill in The Darkest Hour. Trying to take on the role and properly round out the character caused Oldman to doubt his own abilities to the extent that he commented in an interview with the LA Times in 2021.
He said: “I know what kicked in my insecurity initially—it would have kicked in eventually anyway—but I’m reading this script, and Mank has all these one-liners he throws out, and you have to infuse them with enough charm to make them palatable. How do you make this guy likable and not this grump, snarky drunk? That was the challenge.”
It’s rare to get such a stark admission from one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, but Oldman was happy to express his self-doubt about the role, although he was able to draw parallels between his own experiences and the character. In particular, Oldman’s previous battle with alcohol was a connecting point for the actor to the role with Oldman further stating: “Herman, with that self-effacing humour, he was at lunch, drinking with a friend, who said, ‘Why don’t you go home sober for once?’ And he answered, ‘What? And have [wife] Sara throw me out as an impostor?’ I did the same thing. I would sit down and tell the waiter, ‘I’ll have a large vodka tonic. And can you bring it now because I’m an alcoholic. I need it quicker.’”
Despite his concerns in the role, Oldman clearly found a way to make the role work and was once again nominated for an Oscar for ‘Best Actor’ for the part, whilst the film was a critical success. It would be interesting to know whether co-star Tom Burke has any similar issues getting to grips with playing Orson Welles, though, wouldn’t it?
