The Hit List: Why everyone’s talking about Gary Oldman

EVEN before winning a Golden Globe and becoming an Oscar favourite, film star Gary Oldman had no regrets at devoting a year of his life to Winston Churchill.

PLAYING Winston Churchill is, says Gary Oldman with some understatement, “going to be a hard act to follow”.

The actor is utterly transformed by layers of make-up into Britain’s wartime PM in Joe Wright’s drama Darkest Hour.

And it’s hard to argue the 59-year-old hasn’t earnt the Golden Globe win and Oscar favouritism the role has garnered.

Oldman devoted practically all of 2016 to Churchill.

“It was one of those jobs where you weren’t just gonna turn up and hope for the best,” he says with a laugh. “It needed my focus and attention, this one, most definitely.”

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Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour.

There are clearly no regrets. As Oldman maps out a typical working day on Darkest Hour, he dwells more on the “fantastic company” than on, say, the lack of sleep.

“A normal day, my pick up would be 1.45am. Get to the set, they would shave my head, cover my neck in glue, then start make-up. We would go through that process for three hours and 15 minutes, then I would get dressed — another 45 minutes. Then set, rehearsal, shoot a 10 to 12 hour day, then 45 minutes to an hour to remove the make-up. And eventually, 18 hours later, get to bed. Then get up and start all over again.”

He recalls one particular day where Kristin Scott Thomas, who plays Churchill’s steely wife Clementine, was complaining about the set-up taking too long — she’d been ready to go for hours.

“I just stood there and smiled at her. She was bemoaning something or other then turned to me and went, ‘Oh my God, you’re the wrong person!’ and swiftly walked away. It was very funny. I was the last person that she needed to complain to.”

Actor Gary Oldman poses for photographers at the premiere of Darkest Hour. Picture: Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP

With Britain at risk of imminent invasion, Darkest Hour hones in on parliament’s floundering response to the threat of Hitler.

With no one else up to the task, Oldman’s Churchill is handed the poison chalice of being PM. Under pressure to negotiate peace with the Germans, Churchill pushes against a tide of disapproving colleagues and a doubtful King George VI to reflect the public will: No surrender.

It’s such an immersive performance that one wonders if even the actor can see any trace of Gary Oldman on screen.

“I see glimpses, yeah. There are moments where I would have to look very hard for flashes of Gary coming through,” he says.

“We tried hard to reach a hybrid,” he adds of the make-up, “something that captures the spirit of Churchill but also doesn’t interfere with the performance — you see some of Winston and some of Gary.”

Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill in a scene from film Darkest Hour.

Oldman counts Darkest Hour as the most enjoyable experience of his 30-odd year career. Yet it wasn’t a job he immediately wanted.

“There were a few reservations,” he admits. “Because you’re looking at a man so iconic and so mythologised and many, many other great actors have played him before, it wasn’t a quick yes.”

Yet the star of Chris Nolan’s Batman trilogycouldn’t resist the wordsmithery of Churchill. “One of the things that pushed me over the edge was the chance to stand in a room and speak some of that beautiful language,” he nods.

Oldman has been nominated for the Best Actor Oscar once, for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. “It’s all very nice,” he says of the fuss. “Is it the most important thing? No. Is it nothing? No. Does it mean something? Yeah. If it’s time, it’s time. If it’s not, it’s not.”

Originally published as The Hit List: Why everyone’s talking about Gary Oldman