In Praise of Gary Oldman

“Gary Oldman is my absolute complete and utter hero. He’s the f*cking man. I look at him and I want to be like that for my generation — I want to have that same quality. He’s incredible. And there is a definite ‘hang on a minute’ [moment], but I’ve got past the star-struck part now."

“Gary Oldman is, hands down, the greatest actor that’s ever lived.”

"Critics never fail to single Oldman out, because no matter how terrible the film, or overblown the performance, he is one of a few truly great living actors – arguably, even, the best.

Why he was ignored by the Academy Awards for so long is a mystery: In 1987, a quarter-century ago, he played the doomed playwright Joe Orton so well (in Prick Up Your Ears), one could scarcely distinguish between him and the capricious, deeply sexual, brilliant and charismatic writer.

Oldman is weak-chinned, slight and somewhat plain-featured, but his acting – like the shy, wispy hero of Kurt Vonnegut's short story Who Am I This Time? – transforms him not only into beasts, but sometimes into dangerous beauties.

His Joe Orton emanated sex through his frank, appraising eyes, pelvis-forward stance, and amazingly animated mouth (he leers, turns up its corner, smiles blindingly); as does, differently and powerfully, his George Smiley.

Smiley is not a sexual creature, exactly. But he is a man whose weakness is love, and Oldman uses his dark, inscrutable eyes and mouth (pursed, largely, in the Tomas Alfredson film, or open, like that of a drifting, hapless fish) to lure us to the passion beating at this drab espionage expert's centre."

"When I started out, my Gods, so to speak, were Gary Oldman, Sean Penn and Mickey Rourke and so it's a real honour for me to be sitting at the same table and mentioned in the same way with these fine actors."

"My favourite actors are chameleons - people like Gary Oldman or Daniel Day-Lewis. You don't see the actor when you watch them, you see the character."

"He's the reason I'm acting."

"He wasn't nuts. That guy is a genius. He's one of the best actors who ever lived; when I met him, and seeing him perform. He's one of the brightest lights, one of the sharpest edges... The guy is a master. Even back then I was inspired."

"A very strong candidate for the world's best living actor."

"He’s the most amazing, generous actor. For a start, you don’t really know you’re working with Gary Oldman. It was Winston Churchill opposite me."

"I think Gary Oldman is as fine an actor as Daniel Day-Lewis, but Gary is not double-barrelled. You might say Daniel has made better choices, but Gary Oldman’s Oscar was massive to people from my background."

"I love working with extreme people, and Gary's extreme. He finished filming Romeo on Sunday at 11pm in New York, got on the red-eye, and arrived on my set [in LA] at seven the next morning, with his mum. Genius."

"He's kind of like Mr. Potato Head. It's like he has this ability to transform himself into something different at will."

"Oldman is one of the great actors, able to play high, low, crass, noble."