Actor Gary Oldman said Sunday evening he expects to be a lifelong student of Winston Churchill.
Oldman had plenty of material to draw from for his portrayal of the British prime minister in “Darkest Hour,” which won him a best actor award from the Screen Actors Guild.
“I think there were 100 books that were written about him. He wrote 50,” Oldman told reporters backstage. “I’m still reading so I imagine my curiosity about him will be a lifelong journey.”
He said he was first impressed by the leader’s “energy and dynamism” and began building his characterization from the outside.
“I started outside in and tried to get the physicality and the walk and that gives you clues,” the actor said. Then “at some point the intellectual side of it has to stop … (you need to) metabolize it … make it into a … living, breathing person.”
The SAG Awards are particularly coveted because they are voted on only by fellow actors and Oldman was one of many who talked about when they first knew they wanted to be an actor.
For Oldman, it was seeing Malcolm McDowell in a 1971 film called “The Raging Moon.”
McDowell had a wonderful vulnerability in his portrayal and McDowell was “captivated by that huge grin” and McDowell’s mesmerizing blue eyes.
“It was like a lightning bolt,” Oldman said. “I thought there and then, I want to do that, that’s what I want to do for a living.”
Oldman said he has been “very lucky and very blessed” despite ups and downs in his careers. And he took some of the younger generation of actors to task.
“Some young actors … not all of them,” Oldman said, are part of “a generation that wants to get everything instantly. They want to take four weeks of acting school and they’ve got it, they think they’ve got it.
“There’s no substitute for the work,” Oldman said, sending a message to young actors they need to pay their dues.
As for awards season, Oldman said he was living in the moment.
“We have today, but there’s no guarantee we’re going to get tomorrow, so my feeling is, enjoy the moment in the sun. It will eclipse, it always does. It’ll be someone else standing up here next year.”
–City News Service