Gary Oldman Initially Felt Like an Outsider on the ‘Harry Potter’ Set
Harry Potter welcomed veteran actor Gary Oldman to play the mysterious wizard Sirius Black. But it took a while before Oldman felt like he belonged with the crew.
How Gary Oldman reacted to the cast of ‘Harry Potter’
Oldman was very candid about his motivation behind playing Sirius Black in the wizard series. He hadn’t taken on any projects for quite some time. So he saw Prisoner of Azkaban as a means to maintain his income.
“Well, I needed the work – that’s the honest answer,” Oldman once said according to HPANA. “I haven’t worked for a while, a couple of years. So I thought it would be nice to get back to work and earn some money. Pay the bills. Also, it’s prestigious, it’s a phenomenon, so you’re not just making a movie. It’s joining the family of some kind of cinematic dynasty I suppose. It is interesting to be a part of that. The material was good, the director was interesting and it is nice to actually be in a movie that my kids could see.”
Oldman was only familiar with the series by name only, but was somewhat knowledgeable of the cast. Still, his own experiences as an actor made him feel quite different from his Harry Potter co-stars. Fortunately, the welcoming behavior of the cast quickly made Oldman feel like he was a part of the family.
“I arrived from a different planet, and I was intimidated,” Oldman once told BBC. “I knew that Dan was a fan, and so you have the added responsibility of hoping that you live up to that expectation – I didn’t want to disappoint him. I just wanted to do the best Sirius Black I could do. You are made to feel at home very quickly, but at first you are very much an outsider coming into this family.”
Gary Oldman became a star to his kids thanks to ‘Harry Potter’
Oldman had high praise for his Harry Potter role even after so many years. In hindsight, working on the film adaptations gave him the opportunity to bond with his family.
“Thank God for Harry Potter,” Oldman said not too long ago on The Drew Barrymore Show. “I tell you, the two – Batman and Harry Potter– really they saved me, because it meant that I could do the least amount of work for the most amount of money and then be home with the kids.”
But Harry Potter also brought him closer to his kids in another way. It turned out that his children were already fans of the wizard franchise. And it seemed they only really saw their father as a star after his casting as Sirius Black.
“But when it was announced that I was doing this movie, I was a superstar overnight at my kids’ school,” Oldman said. “Now they’ve got the posters and the t-shirts and the ‘articulated action figure’ of Sirius Black, so they actually take me to school on their share day. They’re loving the whole experience. One of them is still a little young – Charlie, he’s five – but my big boy Alfie, he’s 15, and he was at the premiere. They’re thrilled that I’m part of this family and this phenomenon that is Harry Potter.”
Gary Oldman would’ve changed his ‘Harry Potter’ performance if he read the book
Although some praised Oldman’s portrayal of Sirius, Oldman was his own harshest critic when it came to his acting. Oldman lamented over avoiding the film’s source material unlike his Potter co-star Alan Rickman. He felt doing so might’ve given him the inspiration needed for a more self-satisfying performance.
“I think my work is mediocre in it…. Maybe if I had read the books like Alan, if I had got ahead of the curve a bit, if I had known what’s coming, I honestly think I would’ve played it differently,” Oldman said on Happy Sad Confused.
