A night out with Gary Oldman

Monday morning, I got an email from a workmate notifying me of a live interview with Gary Oldman that night, in a little dive in Brick Lane. Needless to say I was thrilled by the opportunity, and had trouble sitting still for the rest of the day. After wandering, disoriented, through half of East London, I finally found the venue and settled into a comfy chair, near the front, with a pint of San Miguel (that was later to haunt me during the 3 hour interview).

The interview was conducted by Jack English, a photographer and friend of Gary’s. Jack has done a lot of on-set photography, including on Gary’s directorial debut Nil By Mouth. Gary, who had been in Paris only two hours earlier (working on the next Harry Potter film), came across as wonderfully down to earth and intelligent. He spoke about a number of his roles, to the accompaniment of short film clips, as well as generally on various topics.

I have summarised the interview as well as I can remember, and he made many comments that should be instructive for actors, writers and directors alike. (Please note, all quotes are paraphrased from memory.)

• On acting – Wouldn’t describe himself as a method actor, but uses whatever works. Menthol is used in the industry to make one’s eyes water for crying, but when asked to ‘weep’ (apparently a more difficult and subtle effect), he flicked through a book of photos of his absent son in order to appropriately upset himself. On Sid & Nancy he put small scratchy crystals in his eyes to irritate the lenses, in order to appear drunk and bleary. His enthusiasm for such tactics has waned as he’s gotten older, and he wouldn’t repeat that experience.
• On rehearsals – They are very valuable to both actors and directors, and were a key part of Nil By Mouth. However, they are more and more being sacrificed as studios try to speed up their production timelines. Wolfgang Peterson didn’t want to do any for Air Force One and was then stuck during production when Gary baulked at some crappy dialogue. Cheaper to discover such things at rehearsals!
• On choosing roles – Nowadays, he prefers jobs that are close to home and don’t take long to shoot, so he has more time for his family and script-writing. Ads are good (he's done one recently for Nokia).
• On aging – He used to get offers for 19 to 20 year old rebels, and now gets “bookish 35 year olds”. It's as if this change happened overnight!
• On playing villains – This was a running joke throughout the evening. However, if he 'll be paid a lot, and doesn't waste much time, he'll play a villain. Is currently considering whether to play the bad guy in Die Hard 4 on these criteria.
• On Dracula – Wasn’t in a good place at the time, and found himself at loggerheads with director Francis Ford Coppola. Later apologised to Francis at Cannes. Also, funny to note that Keanu Reeves didn’t like the homoerotic undertones between their characters. “Dracula has been around for a very long time. It’s clear he now swings both ways.” Makeup and costume took about 6 hours each day.
• On True Romance – His character, Drexl, only has a few minutes screen time, so Gary went to town in order to make a big impact. He got the works: a scar, a milky eye, dreadlocks and nasty teeth.
  
• On Hannibal – Gary plays the bodily paralysed, and horribly disfigured paedeophile, Mason Verger. Ironically, despite only being able to move one lidless eye, this was his most liberating role. (To get the required effect, there was an elaborate contraption under the prosthetic face prising his eyelids apart. Someone was on hand to add eye-drops.)
• Roles he has passed on – Didn’t really want to say, but mentioned My Left Foot (it was only meant to be a small BBC production under an untried director, whereas he had an opportunity to work on another film with a favourite director), and Schindler’s List (didn’t want to spend 16 weeks in Poland in winter).
• His favourite directors – Alex Clarke, John Cassavetes and Francis Ford Coppola (“the greatest living American film director”). Would like to work with Jim Jarmusch, Tim Burton or Martin Scorcese. However, Scorcese isn’t as good as he used to be. Complained about the casting of Cameron Diaz in Gangs of New York (didn’t we all?) as an example of Scorcese “starfucking”. Nonetheless, Gary is greatly enamoured of Scorcese’s recent documentaries No Direction Home: Bob Dylan and A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies.
• On Luc Besson – His direction is very specific. Probably too specific. His films are all big cartoons. Praises Luc's first film, The Last Battle, as his best.
• On Oliver Stone – An excellent director. Gave him a lot of free reign on JFK, allowing him to research the character of Lee Harvey Oswald throgh interviews with ex-FBI agents and former acquaintances. However, notes that Oliver Stones “mindfucks” his actors, is “mean” and a bit of a “prick”.
• On the Scott brothers – Tony shoots with 5 cameras, and moves through scenes very quickly. Ridley, by contrast, is concerned with perfecting the mise en scene, even to the extent of pausing midshot to correct background details. Tony yells and swears. Ridley likes to do sketches on set, as he has an art direction background.
• On directing Nil By Mouth – As an actor, he has learned from his experiences with other directors. For example, he doens't want to be a meany like Oliver Stone. By contrast, actors thrive on praise, and being complimented by the director (for example, following the screening of dailies) will “get an actor through the week”. Once he’s got his master shot, he likes to let the actors try variations of their own. He also likes to shoot during rehearsals, when the actors don't know about it! Got his sister to act in Nil By Mouth, and gave her gin to help her relax. High praise for Ray Winstone and Kathy Burke. Was happy to use non-actors from his old neighbourhood. Liked having “dirty frames”, ie. where there are unfocused elements in the foreground etc. Describes some of the “happy accidents” that occurred during filming. For example, he noticed that the child actress wasn’t enjoying herself. He took her aside, and asked what the problem was. Apparently her parents were making her act in films when she didn't want to. Gary promised that she didn’t have to do any more dialogue, and in the end her character developed into a mute witness to the domestic violence, which was a lot more powerful. His favourite shot is the child in the playground who, with one backward glance, is able to penetrate through a character's “bullshit” and lies, straight to the “soul”. Jack English compared the opening sequence of the film to a Cassavetes film.
• On financing Nil By Mouth – Was initially very difficult to get money. Luc Besson happened to hear about the film and, on a napkin, wrote up a deal that got the film made. (Though this deal was very favourable to Luc.) When the film was released, a number of offended inviduals asked why they hadn’t been personally approached for investment. They had, but had turned the film down.
• On Hollywood – Gary was asked whether he thought Hollywood was out of ideas. He owned up to being part of the endless prequel/sequel cycle (with his roles in Batman Begins and Harry Potter), but noted that there are plenty of good films below the radar. He quoted Kevin Bacon’s The Woodsman as an example. (A great film!)
• The future – Currently writing an adaptation of Siamese Twin novel Chang & Ang. Ballpakrs the production costs at about US$50 million. Says the scriptwriting is easier for him than for Nil By Mouth (which was written, he says, over 30 years) because there is always the soruce material to fall back on. Has heard that listening to tribal drumbeats is an effective remedy for writer’s block, but he hasn’t yet tested this theory.

All in all, very interesting. I took advantage of the informal setting to introduce myself afterwards. I was able to confirm that his portrayal of Commissioner Jim Gordon in Batman Begins was based on Frank Miller's Batman: Year One comic book. Shame that he was underutilised by Chris Nolan.

Gary was also kind enough to sign my Nil By Mouth DVD and pose for a photo (taken by Jack English no less!). He even remembered my name at the end. What an affable fellow!