Gary Oldman says his work in 'Harry Potter' movies is 'mediocre,' would've played role 'differently'
Gary Oldman in 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.' (Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection)
Gary Oldman thinks that he needed more of a… serious approach to his work playing Sirius Black in the “Harry Potter” movies.
“I think my work is mediocre in it,” Oldman remarked on Thursday’s episode of the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, adding, “maybe if I had read the books” like his late co-star Alan Rickman did, he’d feel differently.
Had he gotten “ahead of the curve” like Rickman, he said, “if I had known what’s coming I honestly think I would’ve played it differently.”
Oldman portrayed Black, Potter’s long-lost godfather and a framed fugitive who turns out to be the titular prisoner from the third film, 2004’s “Prisoner of Azkaban.”
But it’s not just his role in the “Potter” movies that Oldman is self-critical about.
“I’d put it all on a fire and burn it and do it all again,” he said of his acting portfolio. This includes his iconic 1992 role as Dracula in “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” a performance he said that he’s also “not crazy about.”
The Oscar-winner did, however, say that his tendency to “nitpick” his own work is a healthy habit that boils down to just wanting “to make the next thing better.”
Oldman appeared as Black in four of the eight “Potter” franchise films – based on the book series by author J.K Rowling – including “Azkaban,” 2005’s “Goblet of Fire,” 2007’s “Order of the Phoenix” and briefly in the 2011 conclusion “Deathly Hallows: Part 2.”
He also reunited with the cast in 2022 during the “Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts” special on Max. (CNN and Max are both part of the same parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.)
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