Gary Oldman would have liked to play Sirius Black differently in Harry Potter

“When I started filming Harry Potter, I could only rely on the third volume: The Prisoner of Azkaban…”

Present in Cannes this week, to present Parthenopethe film by Paolo Sorrentino in official competition, Gary Oldman took the opportunity to talk about his time in the franchise Harry Potter and reassure fans: no, he does not hate the saga. And if he found himself “mediocre” in Sirius Black, that says nothing about what he thinks of the films:

“What I meant was that as an artist or actor or painter you are always hypercritical of your own work. If that wasn't the case, if I was happy with what I did, it would be death for me, if I watched a performance of myself and thought, 'My God, I look fantastic in this,' it would be a sad day.”

Gary Oldman maintains despite having some regrets about the way he played the character, which appeared from Prisoner of Azkaban : “There was such secrecy surrounding the novels… they were under lock and key. Now, if I had known from the beginning, if I had read the first five books and seen the character arc, I would have may have looked at it differently and painted it in a different color (than the books). Because when I started filming Harry Potter, I could only rely on the third one. volume: The Prisoner of Azkaban and the representation that was made of this man But it was only a book in Sirius Black's library…”

He concludes : “That's what I found myself mediocre at. It's not me telling myself that it's a horrible film while watching it or that my character is rubbish. I just wish it happened in different circumstances.”