© Getty Images/Warner Bros
Actor Gary Oldman (65) has played many roles in his life, but he is still most often addressed for his work as Sirius Black in the ‘Harry Potter’ films. “I think what I did there was mediocre,” he admits in the podcast ‘Happy, sad, confused’.
Sunday, December 31, 2023 at 1:23 PM
In the podcast of film journalist Josh Horrowitz, he looks back on his role as Sirius Black in Harry Potter. He first appeared in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, where he said he had to do one of the most difficult things in the film series. “I had to lie to a frozen lake that they built in the studio. I was virtually dead, my soul left my body. They don’t teach you that at RADA (a famous academy for acting studies in Great Britain, ed.), although my soul has often been sucked out of me by some directors. (grins)”
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“With Harry Potter those recordings took a very long time. It was very slow. Shooting a scene took a week, while you normally do it in two days. And I just had to lie there for a week. Day in, day out, doing nothing. My kidneys got a bit cold, then I was given a hot water bottle, my neck started to hurt, then a pillow was placed under it.”
Killed too early
In the fifth film Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Sirius Black dies. “They really killed me too quickly,” says Oldman. “We often made a bet with the actors: maybe Hagrid will be next… or Ron. And then I read the script: ha, it’s me…” (Continue reading below the photo)
Gary Oldman als Sirius Black in de ‘Harry Potter’-films. — © Warner Bros
But Oldman surprised the audience and Horowitz most with his statement about what he thinks of his work in the popular fantasy series. “I think it’s mediocre. If I had read the books beforehand or known earlier how my character would end up, I would have played it differently. My wife then says: don’t be ridiculous.”