(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Mon 25 August 2025 19:15, UK
If someone told me that Gary Oldman had been designed in a laboratory by a team of scientists trying to create the perfect actor, then I’d believe them.
The British institution carries himself like nobody else. He can do the serious stuff, he can do the funny stuff, he can do everything in between, and you never know what he’s going to do next. When he was finally honoured with a ‘Best Actor’ Oscar in 2018, it had been a long time coming.
There’s a running joke about Oldman that he never looks the same in any of his films. Sirius Black is completely different from Winston Churchill, and you’d never believe that the guy from Slow Horses was also Commissioner Gordon, George Smiley, and the villain in The Fifth Element. In an industry where many people get by simply playing themselves, Oldman always goes above and beyond to lose himself in a part.
According to the man himself, people first became aware of his chameleonism (if that’s a word) during the mid-to-late 1980s. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Oldman explained that two films he made back-to-back helped get him noticed during a time where he was mostly performing on stage.
“Theater was my main thing, cinema sort of an interesting sideline, an opportunity to work in another medium, and certainly make more money than you could in the theater,” the star revealed. “I remember I did Sid and Nancy, then Women Beware Women at the Royal Court. Then I did Prick Up Your Ears. In Sid and Nancy, I was playing a down-and-out, heroin-addicted punk rocker. And then in Prick Up Your Ears, I was playing a homosexual British playwright. And so the contrast showed, quote-unquote ‘versatility’. But that wasn’t engineered – it was just luck. Having those two roles back-to-back sort of put me on the map.”
Sid and Nancy is pretty self-explanatory. This 1986 film chronicles the turbulent relationship between Sex Pistols star Sid Vicious (Oldman) and his American sweetheart Nancy Spungen (Chloe Webb). Their story was one of incredible highs and the lowest of lows, ending with Nancy’s death, possibly at Vicious’ own hands. The film made little impact at the time, but has since developed a fervent cult following. Oldman’s performance as the troubled rocker is regularly cited as one of his best.
One year later, Oldman found more success playing a real-life figure. In Prick Up Your Ears, he plays influential British playwright Joe Orton. Once again, the movie centres on a volatile relationship, this time between Orton and his boyfriend Kenneth Halliwell (Alfred Molina). This time, it’s Oldman’s character on the receiving end of a killing blow, as Halliwell murders his lover with a hammer and then kills himself with an overdose. Basically, if you’re in a bad mood, avoid both of these movies.
Though they might be as upbeat as a root canal, these two films helped Oldman establish himself as a cinematic tour de force. By playing two wildly different characters in such a short space of time, he proved that he could tackle any role, a trait that would later define his extraordinary career.
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