Gary Oldman’s bizarre Playboy meltdown

WELL HE didn’t hold back! In one interview, Harry Potter star Gary Oldman managed to diss the Pope, Robert De Niro and society in general.

LOOKS like Commissioner Gordon had better send up a Batsignal for better p.r. handlers.

Gary Oldman, the go-to supporting actor for such blockbuster series as Harry Potter, The Dark Knight and now Planet of the Apes (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes debuts July 11), went thermonuclear on the Golden Globes, Nancy Pelosi and the cops who arrested Mel Gibson. He also defended Alec Baldwin and implied most of his own movies were crap in a rangy and caustic interview with Playboy.

Oldman’s top 12 targets:

The cops who arrested Mel Gibson and the reaction to his use of anti-Semitic and racist slurs:

Gary Oldman is defending fellow actors Mel Gibson and Alec Baldwin from critics of their comments.

“I just think political correctness is crap. That’s what I think about it. I think it’s like, take a f***ing joke. Get over it ...

“I don’t know about Mel. He got drunk and said a few things, but we’ve all said those things. We’re all f***ing hypocrites. That’s what I think about it. The policeman who arrested him has never used the word ‘ni****’ or that ‘f***ing Jew’?”

The reaction to Alec Baldwin’s rants:

“Alec calling someone an [Oldman spells out the slur word] in the street while he’s pi***d off coming out of his building because they won’t leave him alone. I don’t blame him.”

The Golden Globes:

Oldman is not a fan of the Golden Globes.

“It’s a meaningless event. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is kidding you that something’s happening. They’re f***ing ridiculous. There’s nothing going on at all. It’s 90 nobodies having a w**k.”

The Pope:

“Oh, f*** the pope! [Oldman laughs and puts his head in his hands.] So this interview has gone very badly. You have to edit and cut half of what I’ve said, because it’s going to make me sound like a bigot.”

The Dark Knight and Harry Potter:

“It was work,” he said dryly of the $2 billion series. He added that when people tell you they loved a movie you were in, it’s best not to say something rude about it because “That’s the sort of thing Sean Penn would say. So I now tell people, ‘Thank you, that’s great,’ and move on.”

12 Years a Slave hype:

12 Years A Slave won best picture at this year’s Academy Awards.

If you didn’t vote for it in this year’s Academy Awards race for Best Picture, “You were a racist.” Oldman hastened to add, “It’s not like I’m a fascist or a racist.”

Nancy Pelosi:

“Well, if I called Nancy Pelosi a c**t — and I’ll go one better, a f***ing useless c**t — I can’t really say that. But Bill Maher and Jon Stewart can, and nobody’s going to stop them from working because of it. Bill Maher could call someone a fa***t and get away with it.”

Society in general:

“I think we’re up s*** creek without a paddle or a compass. Culturally, politically, everywhere you look ... Read the newspaper. Go online. Our world has gone to hell.”

Robert De Niro:

Even Robert De Niro copped a spray from Oldman.

“You sit there and watch a comedy, let’s say Meet the Fockers, and it’s Robert De Niro. You tell them [meaning his children] this guy was at one time considered the greatest living actor. My boys look at me and say, ‘Really? This guy? He’s a middle-aged dad.’ ”

Children of privilege:

Oldman grew up working-class in London and dropped out of school at 16.

“I know what it means to do a job ... I worked in a factory. I respect people in the service industry. What irritates me more is when people aren’t respectful. There’s a lot of nonsense behaviour, especially in a place like Hollywood. The money, the power, they create little monsters.”

Helicopter parents:

“There’s never any unsupervised play to develop skills or learn about hierarchy in a group or how to share. The kids honestly believe they are the center of the f***ing universe. But then they get out into the real world and it’s like, ‘S***, maybe it’s not all about me,’ and that leads to narcissism, depression and anxiety.”

Himself:

Gary Oldman in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

Analysing his own breakthrough role — playing doomed Sex Pistols punker Sid Vicious in Sid & Nancy — he says, “I don’t like myself in the movie, no. Frankly, I didn’t want to make it in the first place. I was talked into it at the time. And now, if I flip through the channels and come upon it, it’s ‘F***! Sid & Nancy, ’ and off it goes.”

This article originally appeared in the New York Post.

Originally published as Gary Oldman’s bizarre Playboy meltdown