A role that “ticked all the boxes” Gary Oldman was looking for would make him happier than ever: “It fell from the sky”
Gary Oldman has spent his career shapeshifting into some of the most iconic characters to grace our screens. Who can forget his role as Drexl Spivey in True Romance? He might not have been in it for long, but his performance as the milky-eyed pimp with dreadlocks is simply forgettable. He similarly stole the show in Leon: The Professional as Norman Stansfield, a corrupt and ruthless DEA agent, while his turn in Darkest Hour as Winston Churchill naturally won him an Oscar.
It seems as though doing different accents and embodying characters far removed from himself comes natural to Oldman, who made his film debut in the 1982 drama Remembrance before impressing critics with a role as a bigoted skinhead in Mike Leigh’s Meantime and a leading part as the Sex Pistols bassist in Sid and Nancy. The 1990s was a big decade for Oldman, and he appeared in many Hollywood hits that cemented him as one of the most talented stars of his generation.
Yet, there eventually came a point in his career when he wanted to do something a bit different. He didn’t want to have to undergo hours of makeup or accent training – he wanted to do something closer to home. This is what inspired one of his best performances in recent years as Jackson Lamb in Slow Horses, which began airing on Apple TV+ in 2022.
Oldman had starred in a few television shows before in on-off episodes, but this was the first time he was leading several seasons of a series made for the small screen. He knew that this was a new area he wanted to try, however, telling Stephen Colbert, “I’ve been a fan of long-form TV. And I would look sometimes with envy and admiration for these shows. Best directing, best cinematography, some of the best writing, certainly the best acting. Far better than what we’re mostly seeing on the big screen.”
Talking to his “sort of manager, producing partner Douglas Evanski,” Oldman expressed his interest in stepping away from the silver screen for a bit and working on a television show that would slowly unfold over several seasons.
“So here’s this golden age of television. And I said to him, ‘Wouldn’t it be lovely to just sort of do a show and repeat a character?’ I said, ‘But it would have to be very well written, of a high pedigree.’ I said, ‘I don’t really want to wear a wig. I’ve worn too many wigs. I don’t want to wear prosthetic makeup because I’ve worn too much of that. So I don’t want to sit in a makeup chair for very long. I don’t want a big, elaborate costume. I want something that’s kind of easy. I don’t really want to do an accent, I’d like something close to my own voice. Oh, and if it could be in the spy world, you know, like [John] le Carré or something, that would be even better.”
Luckily for Oldman, Evanski was able to find a project that was exactly what he was looking for. When Oldman found out, he knew he’d struck gold. “And then we’re sitting on a plane together and he’s chuckling over a script he’s reading. I said, ‘What are you laughing at? Is it that good?’ He said, ‘I’m reading a character who is just about to become your best friend.’ And it fell from the sky and ticked all the boxes. It’s ridiculous.”
Oldman has received acclaim for his performance as Jackson, whom he has played over four seasons so far, all of which have been lauded as some of the finest TV episodes of recent years.
