(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Thu 9 October 2025 15:15, UK
Gary Oldman has been working since the 1980s, and during his impressive career, he has taken on some pretty big (and diverse) roles, from Sid Vicious to Winston Churchill, and his skills have made him one of the most acclaimed actors of his generation.
You can tell that Oldman holds each character close to his heart, studying them intensely so as to deliver a nuanced performance, but it’s the ones that require the most dedication which seem to be his favourites. Take Lee Harvey Oswald from JFK, of course based on a rather mysterious real-life figure, which gave the actor plenty of space to carve out his character.
Talking to AFI, he explained, “That was an exceptional experience because there was very little of Oswald on the page, and I guess I was asked to become a detective. Oliver Stone gave me some money and some airline tickets and said just go off and find out who this guy was. So that’s a personal favourite.”
In the same interview, he mentioned his love for the ’90s Quentin Tarantino vehicle, True Romance, which saw his unforgettable turn as Drexl Spivey, the white pimp who thinks he’s Black, complete with dreadlocks, a golden grill, and a mysterious milky eye. It is a character so ridiculous, much like Robert Downey Jr in Tropic Thunder a decade later, yet under the veteran’s careful supervision, it totally works.
Then there’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the 2011 film which earned Oldman an Oscar nomination. Directed by Tomas Alfredson, the actor brought John le Carré’s iconic fictional character, George Smiley, to life, and he thoroughly enjoyed the process. “The whole experience of this movie, this part, this director and this incredible cast of actors, it felt very rare and just harmonic, where something came together,” he recalled.
Oldman also discussed with The Independent that his more recent role in the Apple TV+ show Slow Horses is also one of his all-time favourites. The show about the fate of MI5 flotsam has been widely heralded since it debuted in 2022 for its lens on the slow side of the professional spy business, and it has already cycled through five seasons, with Oldman playing protagonist Jackson Lamb, an irritable yet dedicated figure.
“Where would he be in the canon, as it were? I think up there with you know, Darkest Hour, Tinker Tailor,” he said, the former of which saw him play Churchill to widespread praise, including an Academy Award win to cement his prowess.
Despite the fact that he had to sit through tedious hours of makeup to get him to look like the notorious British prime minister, it was evidently worth it. “It takes the better part of a year to work on the role, and that includes all of the things that you would imagine. You read the material and then go to the books and the news footage and speeches, and all of that stuff,” he told Tim Lammers.
For Oldman, it’s these roles that take ages to prepare for that seem to be the most rewarding, even if they force him through hours and hours of ardent preparation and even, as was the case with playing Churchill, bad nicotine poisoning.
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