Gary Oldman: “Harry Potter and Batman saved my career”

The actor explains that in the early 2000s, he found himself in a very complicated situation, personally and professionally.

He was already a legendary actor, absolute villain of the big screen thanks to Dracula by Coppola, thanks to Leon Or The fifth Element by Luc Besson. But in the early 2000s, Gary Oldman was mired in complicated personal histories and a divorce that was going badly. And if he managed to get out of it, it’s thanks to Harry Potter And Batman. He told Drew Barrymore’s podcast today (via Variety) that the roles of Sirius Black and Jim Gordon allowed him to get his head above water, at a time when the actor had just divorced from Donya Fiorentino (to whom he was married from 1997 to 2001).

“At 42, I woke up divorced and had custody of my two boys! It was a difficult time personally and professionally, because there was a change in the industry at the time. Many productions were now filmed in Hungary, Budapest or Prague or even Australia. I couldn’t go there and so I refused many roles…“, explain Gary Oldman before continuing:

“Thank God there was Harry Potter ! THANKS Harry Potter ! I tell you ! Harry Potter and Batman! Truly, they saved my life and my career, because it allowed me to work less, while making more money and at the same time I could come home to be with my children.”

During the filming of the first film in Christopher Nolan’s saga, Batman Begins in 2005, Oldman made repeated trips back and forth between his home in Los Angeles and the filming of the film in London in order to continue raising his children:

“When we made the first Batman, we filmed in London which served as the setting for Gotham. I flew 27 round trips from Los Angeles…I was flying for one day. I was doing a day of filming. To Chris Nolan’s credit, I thank him for sticking to the schedule carefully. Then I would go home for three days. And I was leaving for two days. And then I came home for a weekend etc. Without that, I just had the impression that my children were being raised by a nanny.“