In his time, Gary Oldman has played a gallery of iconic characters - both fictional and real - from Dracula to Joe Orton, Sid Vicious, Beethoven and Lee Harvey Oswald.
Now he adds George Smiley, John le Carré’s elegant spy, in Tomas Alfredson's remarkable adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Surrounded by the crème-de-la-crème of British acting talent, including John Hurt, Colin Firth, Toby Jones, Mark Strong, Tom Hardy and Benedict Cumberbatch, Oldman's Smiley, who is charged with the task of rooting out a mole in the 'Circus', is a masterclass in stillness.
Below, Oldman explains what it's like to be back in the spotlight after a decade playing support roles in blockbusters like the Harry Potter franchise and the Batman trilogy. He also talks about his feelings towards the groundswell of support for his work in Tinker Tailor and whether he misses living in England, now he lives in Los Angeles.
Q: How does it feel to be back doing a lead with Tinker Tailor?
A: Great. I’ve played these cameos and supporting characters, in fantasy, for ten years, so coming back as a lead in a story like this... I got to have a go with all of them - that was the great thing. I worked with Colin, and I worked with John, and I worked with Tom and I worked with Benedict. I worked with all of them. It was lovely.
Q: Was it odd to be in a period movie, even though it's in the 1970s?
A: It was kind of weird. You're essentially doing a period movie. You either do future, fantasy or you do something that is distant past. So to be in a period movie, in a period you remember, was very peculiar. It made you feel old! You would be on the set and go 'Wow! I remember those lighters!' or 'My mum used to have one of those ashtrays!' There were things all around you from the period. It was quite a walk down memory lane for me. It was quite nostalgic.
Q: How do you feel with the positive response to Tinker Tailor?
A: The response to it has been great. We've had a success with it a few months back when it opened here. We've had a very, very good weekend the last couple of days at the box office in the States, and it's one of the two best reviewed movies of the year - Tinker and The Artist. If you thought they were effusive and gushing here, they've been extraordinary in the States, so they've really responded.
Q: Does it feel strange to be back in the spotlight like this?
A: Yeah. I don't think it happens... there's a harmonic convergence, a thing where you feel it's the right script, and the right role, and the right director and the right cast. It comes together, but it's rare, but it is.
Q: Maria Djurkovic has already won the BIFA for Production Design, which is very positive...
A: Yeah. I was a little disappointed that we never got a nod for ensemble cast - at least for SAG. It's a pretty damn good cast.
Q: How do you keep sane with all the awards talk?
A: It's bizarre. I’ve got a real insider's take on it now. It is... it's campaigning. So you go to these Q&As, and you press flesh, like you would campaigning for a fucking presidential race. You're out there. It's weird. You're selling the movie, and you're letting people know that it's out there, but you're also in an awards race. Or you're part of it. The voting body of SAG is huge. It's like 2200 people. I must've met 1500 of them!
Q: There seems to be a generation of actors who look up to you. And also a generation of critics that grew up on your films...
A: Yeah, though they've not always been kind! I feel that for a while there I was the one who had left. I did leave and go to America.
Q: Well, this film feels like a return to that great era of British filmmaking to which you belong...
A: I love people like [Chris] Nolan and Tomas [Alfredson] who see something other than me screaming my lungs out, or whatever is asked of one. But they don't make movies like this. They don't come along that often. They're quite rare. And there's the dumbing down of the movies. Everything is explained for you. Movies are like a wall of noise coming at you, there are too many cuts, there's too much imagery. I go to the movies, and I go with my kids, and it's like overload. You come out and I want to go and have a fucking lie down! You go, 'Jesus Christ!' It’s just like I've been assaulted. So Tinker Tailor demands something of you, and it's nice in a way... I feel smug that we've proved some people wrong.
Q: Will you be doing the sequel, Smiley's People?
A: I think so. A couple of years away maybe. I think Tomas wants to make a Swedish film, which I can understand - he wants to go back and do something there. But it would be the same creative people behind it. It would be the same team. I'd love to revisit it. Yeah.
Q: In this, and The Dark Knight Rises, you’ve worked with Tom Hardy a lot recently. Can you see a younger version of yourself in him?
A: He says he’s a fan. Been a fan. Yeah, I can see a bit of me in Tom. He’s got a lot of great things going for him too. I think he’s incredibly charismatic and beautiful and he's got a great talent too. It's quite a cocktail. Not everyone has that. But he's beautiful, like Paul Newman. He's got that aliveness, like raw meat.
Q: How do you feel being a part of the Batman trilogy?
A: I've been very lucky with Potter too. To get Potter was lucky. To get Batman's just greedy! I'm sure a lot of people hated me and went 'He's in two franchises!' There's a bittersweet thing to it, really. Even though it's been over seven or eight years that we've been making them, we have a break. But it's always there at the back of your mind that you're going to return and come back. Chris, I think, was being a little coy. When I asked him a few years ago, are you going to make a third? When Chris says 'I don't know', he's negotiating, with the studio. I think he's holding his cards very close to his chest. I think he's too smart and classy to just make a third one for the sake of making it, no matter what kind of pressure he was under from the studio. He wanted to get a story. He said, 'If I can get the story and it's worth telling, then I will make a third.' So that's the thing he wanted to fix, that's the thing he wanted to land on. I think it's interesting that he hasn't gone from the Riddler or the Penguin, anyone like that, and that he's gone for Bane. But I was there three weeks ago, on a rooftop of a city block. And it was the last night, and it was sad to retire him, in a way. They gave me a shadow-box, and it has my badge, the glasses and underneath, they've taken a moustache, one that they stick on the stunt-men, given me that.
Q: Nolan was a big Tinker Tailor fan too, right?
A: Yeah. We got a text from the producer, his wife, Emma, and she said he loved it. And I'd read somewhere that he said he thought it was one of the best movies of the year.
Q: What do you think has kept you away from leads for so long?
A: I think just life, circumstance. They make you not available. You're in Batman, say, from April to November. They won't let me go and work on another movie. So I can't shave my moustache off and have my hair cut and get a suntan. But when you play someone like Smiley, you're there for 12 weeks and you're working every day. Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining. Life could get worse!
Q: Do you miss England?
A: Yeah, yeah. I’ve been in Los Angeles now for sixteen years. I was in New York for seven years before that. So it's really adding up now, the time I've been away. But I've got family here, in-laws. My wife is English. My kids are American but love England. My son, who is 14, wants to come to university here, once he's finished high school. They love it here. So I don't really feel a disconnect. It was lovely to come back here and work on Tinker, to be here for three months. But next Christmas we're coming back to spend it here.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is now available on DVD and Blu-Ray. Watch the trailer below: