Gary Oldman led the way for a generation of British actors—among them Daniel Day-Lewis, Alfred Molina and Tim Roth. Schooled in the theatre, Oldman and his coevals claimed as their rightful inheritance the screen legacy of the “Method”, thus extending a line of influence that runs from the Moscow Art Theatre to British film in the 1980s and beyond. What happened in between—the formation of the Group Theatre and the subsequent emergence of the Actors Studio—was crucial to this development, as were the remarkable films that came out of the New Hollywood, and especially the work of Robert DeNiro.
Like DeNiro, Oldman was capable of extreme physical transformations. Already a versatile and award-winning stage actor, Oldman enhanced his reputation with a run of films that showed a talent for deep immersion. He made his screen debut in Remembrance (1982), followed by a supporting role, alongside Tim Roth, in Mike Leigh’s Meantime (1983). The latter hinted at Oldman’s capacity for danger and volatility, albeit with an innate sense of comic timing—qualities that would go on to serve him well. But it was his performances as Sid Vicious, in Sid and Nancy (1986), and as Joe Orton in Prick Up Your Ears (1987), that Oldman revealed the depth and range of his talent. Putting flesh on the bones of biography, Oldman went beyond impersonation. The distinctive manner in which he inhabited both punk and then playwright led Roger Ebert to hail Oldman as “the best young British actor around.” With his ear for accents and a great vocal facility, Oldman now laid claim to roles that previously would have gone to an American. His migration to Hollywood was inevitable and desired, though the films he made on his arrival, Criminal Law (1989) and Chattahoochee (1989), were unremarkable.
Not that Oldman had finished with England. In Alan Clarke’s The Firm (1989), he was exuberant, menacing and funny as an estate agent-cum-football hooligan. He brought the same unpredictability to his Irish-American gangster in State of Grace (1990), which saw him go head to head with Sean Penn. Both actors had drawn from the same wellspring of artistic influence, though it was Oldman who landed eye-catching roles in films by Oliver Stone and Francis Ford Coppola. In JFK (1991), Oldman vanished into the void that was Lee Harvey Oswald; while as the lead in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), he lowered his voice an octave and made the “undead” soulful in perpetuity.
For the rest of the 1990s, Oldman lit up big budget movies with extravagant star turns and in the process typecast himself. But he delved deep for the autobiographical Nil By Mouth (1997), his directorial debut and return to South London roots. Benevolent but pivotal roles in two franchises, Harry Potter (2004 – 2011) and The Dark Knight (2005 – 2012), established his cumulative box office eminence. And as George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), both actor and spy came in from the cold.
—Mick McAloon
Running From The Reels 