{"id":1768,"date":"2011-12-18T07:15:52","date_gmt":"2011-12-18T07:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tmblr.kamilah.ca\/?p=1768"},"modified":"2011-12-18T07:15:52","modified_gmt":"2011-12-18T07:15:52","slug":"commissionerjimgordon-gary-oldman-what-ive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmblr.kamilah.ca\/?p=1768","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

commissionerjimgordon<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Gary Oldman: What I\u2019ve Learned<\/h1>\n

Actor, 53, Los Angeles<\/p>\n

\n

What other people<\/strong> think of me is none of my business.<\/p>\n

Acting is living truthfully<\/strong> under imaginary circumstances. An acting teacher told me that.<\/p>\n

You choose your friends<\/strong> by their character and your socks by their color.<\/p>\n

\u201cFuck \u2018em.\u201d<\/strong> Shortest prayer in the world.<\/p>\n

A lazy man works twice as hard.<\/strong> My mother told that to me, and now I say it to my kids. If you\u2019re writing an essay, keep it in the lines and in the margins so you don\u2019t have to do it over.<\/p>\n

I wanted to play Dracula because<\/strong> I wanted to say: \u201cI\u2019ve crossed oceans of time to find you.\u201d It was worth playing the role just to say that line.<\/p>\n

We all look for that other half,<\/strong> that partner. I mean, wouldn\u2019t it be great to say that line to someone and mean it?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s 99 percent crap<\/strong> across pretty much everything. And then there\u2019s that one plateau where I want to be.<\/p>\n

You ever go into a house,<\/strong> see a light switch, and it\u2019s slightly crooked? Drives me crazy. Crazy.<\/em><\/p>\n

There are bass players who<\/strong> know when not to play. I don\u2019t know if that can be taught.<\/p>\n

Bernie Taupin!<\/strong> My hero growing up! His lyrics are cinematic.<\/p>\n

You can make a performance better<\/strong> in the editing, but you can sure tear passion to tatters with the scissors.<\/p>\n

What would you do<\/strong> if you were a painter, and you gave your painting over to someone, and then you saw it in an exhibition and they\u2019d cut seven inches off the top of it? And the corner was painted red. We thought it would be better red.<\/em> But that wouldn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n

I enjoy playing characters<\/strong> where the silence is loud.<\/p>\n

The phone call is often<\/strong> the best part of it. Your agent says, \u201cThey want you to play Hamlet at the Old Vic.\u201d And you go, \u201cHoly shit! Hamlet at the Old Vic! Wow! God! Fantastic!\u201d Then you hang up and it\u2019s \u201cFuck, I\u2019m playing Hamlet.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lights go down.<\/strong> What do you got?<\/p>\n

When you meet someone,<\/strong> you can get something out of him like when you first look at a painting.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m almost incapable of lying.<\/strong> I\u2019d be a terrible spy.<\/p>\n

New York is<\/strong> London on steroids.<\/p>\n

Downtown L. A. looks like<\/strong> they started to build Chicago and then gave up \u2026 and let it become a sprawling suburb.<\/p>\n

I never moved<\/em> here.<\/strong> I came here to make a film. I\u2019ve lived in America now for nearly twenty years.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re tired?<\/strong> Have a baby, then come back and tell me how tired tired is.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no handbook<\/strong> for parenting. So you walk a very fine line as a parent because you are civilizing these raw things. They will tip the coffee over and finger-paint on the table. At some point, you have to say, \u201cWe\u2019re gonna have to clean that up because you don\u2019t paint with coffee on a table.\u201d<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t step straight up<\/strong> to the front of the ATM line. You don\u2019t cut in front of people at the ticket desk. You take your turn. You can learn great life lessons from board games.<\/p>\n

My kids are<\/strong> my greatest achievement.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re proud of what I\u2019ve done,<\/strong> but wonderfully underwhelmed.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t bring the work home.<\/strong> That\u2019s because I do the work up front. I prepare. Once you find the character and take it around the block a few times, the engine will always be warm. You just need to rev it up. You\u2019re not turning the key cold. You can finish a day, leave it at work, go home, and help the kids with their homework.<\/p>\n

I never thought I\u2019d see<\/strong> the end of celluloid in my lifetime, but it seems to be one amazing deal away.<\/p>\n

By the way, the Harry Potter<\/em><\/strong> series is<\/em> literature, in spite of what some people might say. The way J.K. Rowling worked that world out is quite something.<\/p>\n

A few years ago, my mother asked<\/strong> what I\u2019d like for my birthday. I had enough socks, slippers, and ties. So I said: \u201cI don\u2019t know, get me a ukulele.\u201d It kind of fell from the sky into my head. And she got it for me. I started playing it and now my kids are into it. So we\u2019ve gone ukulear in the house.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t pursue things.<\/strong> They come to me. They come through the letter box. People get an idea in their heads. \u201cWhat about Gary Oldman?\u201d<\/p>\n

A director expects<\/strong> you to come in, open your suitcase, and say, \u201cOkay, here\u2019s my stuff, guv\u2019nah.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s only one<\/strong> authentic version of Gary, and I\u2019ve got to really know who that is.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What a fantastic interview. I love this line: ‘Acting is living truthfully under imaginary circumstances. An acting teacher told me that.’ Right now reading about people feeling content and peaceful in their place in life is extremely helpful for reliving my anxiety. The funniest things do the tricks. Certain songs are very helpful, wise words, and others personal experiences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

commissionerjimgordon: Gary Oldman: What I\u2019ve Learned Actor, 53, Los Angeles What other people think of me is none of my business. Acting is living truthfully under imaginary circumstances. An acting teacher told me that. You choose your friends by their character and your socks by their color. \u201cFuck \u2018em.\u201d Shortest prayer in the world. A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[363,366,415,522,1557],"class_list":["post-1768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anxiety","tag-coping","tag-interview","tag-life","tag-peaceful"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmblr.kamilah.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmblr.kamilah.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmblr.kamilah.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmblr.kamilah.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmblr.kamilah.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tmblr.kamilah.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1768\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmblr.kamilah.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmblr.kamilah.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmblr.kamilah.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}