Rather than the Darkest Hour, the new movie is already looking like it will be the British star’s own finest hour.
After years of awards snubs and disappointments, it looks almost certain that the Academy will follow the BAFTAs and give Oldman his first Best Actor Oscar this Sunday.
Unsurprisingly, the actor himself may not be ready to say farewell to Winston Churchill.
In a new interview he reveals the idea for a sequel set at the 1945 Yalta Conference after World War 2 and givng the tantalising possibility that his towering performance could be matched by new on screen incarnations of the equally iconic US and Russian leaders.
In the latest Hollywood Reporter interview, Oldman explained how close he came to not accepting the role at all.
He said: “Racked with insecurity. I turned down Churchill many times. And didn’t want to do it. Didn’t want to go near it. And, ultimately, I think it was fear. And you’re walking in the shadow of [others].”
After it resulted in the greatest accolades of his acreer, he happily discusses where the story could go next: “At the end of the war, there’s the summit with Stalin… And so that is another. Yeah, you know, we might. And we’d get someone. Roosevelt’s a great character, he’s on his way out there isn’t he? Yeah, so maybe. But I need a break from the makeup chair.”
Of course, it’s not just the incredible make-up that transformed Oldman into the iconic war leader. The actor revealed just how much he put into the role, someting he fears younger generations might not understand.
He said: “What you see in Darkest Hour – there’s facility and talent and intuition and things that are at work there. But what you are really looking at is hard homework, hard work. And that is sitting at my kitchen table, pounding those lines in. You are playing someone whose brain is moving is that thing again, a running condition, that inner motor that Churchill had, dynamic, a brain, people not being able to catch up with him. You can’t be searching for those words, searching for the text. You’ve got to know it to a point. I knew when I got to rehearsal for Darkest Hour, I was off the book. Like a play. I knew it like a play. And then it’s in you. And it’s got to be in your blood stream. And that is homework.”
Oldman added: “So there’s things — you can’t teach intuition, you can hone it, you can sharpen it, but you can’t give that to someone. There’s things that you can’t teach. But there are many things that you can. And I see this with my own kids, the younger generation. They want to find it all in five minutes. And the trick is to put the work in. It’s like a dancer: you’re not supposed to see the hard work.”
