Gary Oldman Says His Harry Potter Performance Was “Mediocre”

Gary Oldman‘s portrayal as Harry Potter‘s tragic godfather Sirius Black is widely regarded as one of the stronger castings in the beloved series, but Oldman himself doesn’t seem to agree. In a recent interview, the actor criticized his performance in the films.

Speaking with Josh Horowitz in the latest episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Oldman acknowledged Black as among his most commonly cited roles when fans approach him, but admitted he didn’t have the same enthusiasm the fans have.

“I think my work is mediocre in it, I do,” Oldman said. “Maybe if I had read the books like Alan [Rickman], if I got ahead of the curve, if I had known what was coming, I honestly think I would’ve played it differently.”

The sentiment expanded beyond the Harry Potter franchise to his entire career, with Oldman saying that he’d “put it on a fire and burn it and do it all again.”

“If I sat and and watched myself in something and said, ‘My god, I’m amazing,’ that’d be a very sad day. You want to make the next thing better,” Oldman explained. “It’s so subjective, it’s such a personal thing that you’re looking at that other people are not seeing. It’s not to disrespect someone who says to me they really love me in a movie. They’re seeing something else.”

Elsewhere in the hour-long interview — tied to the third season of his Apple TV series Slow Horses — Oldman recalled a “fantastic” direction note he took from Christopher Nolan while playing Commissioner Gordon in the Dark Knight trilogy.

“I did a scene once in Batman, it was probably one of two notes he ever gave me in seven years,” the actor shared. “He came up to me and said, ‘Let’s do that one more time — there’s more at stake.’ That’s a fantastic piece of direction. I don’t need to know the ins and outs of the whole universe, I just need that nudge. He just wants me to turn up the volume on it, not vocally but the energy, the dynamic.”

Gary Oldman‘s portrayal as Harry Potter‘s tragic godfather Sirius Black is widely regarded as one of the stronger castings in the beloved series, but Oldman himself doesn’t seem to agree. In a recent interview, the actor criticized his performance in the films.

Speaking with Josh Horowitz in the latest episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Oldman acknowledged Black as among his most commonly cited roles when fans approach him, but admitted he didn’t have the same enthusiasm the fans have.

“I think my work is mediocre in it, I do,” Oldman said. “Maybe if I had read the books like Alan [Rickman], if I got ahead of the curve, if I had known what was coming, I honestly think I would’ve played it differently.”

The sentiment expanded beyond the Harry Potter franchise to his entire career, with Oldman saying that he’d “put it on a fire and burn it and do it all again.”

“If I sat and and watched myself in something and said, ‘My god, I’m amazing,’ that’d be a very sad day. You want to make the next thing better,” Oldman explained. “It’s so subjective, it’s such a personal thing that you’re looking at that other people are not seeing. It’s not to disrespect someone who says to me they really love me in a movie. They’re seeing something else.”

Elsewhere in the hour-long interview — tied to the third season of his Apple TV series Slow Horses — Oldman recalled a “fantastic” direction note he took from Christopher Nolan while playing Commissioner Gordon in the Dark Knight trilogy.

“I did a scene once in Batman, it was probably one of two notes he ever gave me in seven years,” the actor shared. “He came up to me and said, ‘Let’s do that one more time — there’s more at stake.’ That’s a fantastic piece of direction. I don’t need to know the ins and outs of the whole universe, I just need that nudge. He just wants me to turn up the volume on it, not vocally but the energy, the dynamic.”