Gary Oldman. (source: WIKIMEDIA CC)
Isolated from others, disintegrating, with a bottle in his hand. Such was a character in a script he got from his favourite director Paolo Sorrentino.
There was no need to ask further details. He knew exactly what to do with it. Isolated from others, disintegrating, with a bottle in his hand; it was what he had been for many years, until he reached a point when he knew it was either he would pull himself together or die.
GARY OLDMAN, one of the greatest actors ever and Academy Award winner for Darkest Hour, decided not to throw away his talent and put up a fight.
The movie Parthenope is a story about how sometimes one doesn't have to become the main hero of their life and doesn't have to make use of what others envy them. It would almost seem that they let slip all their gifts, including youth and beauty, without making any major mistake.
In the interview, Gary Oldman talks about:
what he did and what he would do to be able to act in a Paolo Sorrentino film;
why he came to understand the disintegration his character finds himself in;
why there is no point in walking away from problems;
what his long isolation and alcoholism looked like;
what he is like now;
about the disappointment in idols;
that nothing in his life was intimate;
what makes him happy.
For many, Paolo Sorrentino is something of a cult director. What do you think?
Not long ago a journalist asked me: You have a fairly long career, worked with David Fincher, Chris Nolan, Alfonso Cuarón. Do you still have a dream of someone calling you and suggesting a collaboration? Without hesitation, I said Paolo Sorrentino. I hoped that by saying it out loud like his it would somehow reach him. And indeed, he contacted me soon after. It was like in the movie You've Got Mail. He wrote me that he had heard I was a fan of his, that he was making a new film I might be interested in. And suggested that we meet. I told him that would play a shadow on the wall for him if he so wanted, I would play anything, even Santa Claus.
And what if the script were to disappoint you?
But it didn't. It was a beautiful, wonderful script. Paolo is a unique storyteller, almost a philosopher. When I watch his movies, I feel like God is opening a window into the human psyche for me. He is funny, witty and always able to come up with something surprising. I have yet to see a story of his without something unexpected happening. In addition, he is an expert when it comes to beauty as such are the locations he films in.
This time it was the mythical island of Capri. Did you feel like a star surrounded by luxury?
It was unbearably beautiful. But you know how it is; if you have problems, you couldn't be able to shake them off even if you were in a paradise. Problems follow you everywhere. Many people are mistaken in believing that when they move to the south of France, everything will suddenly be fantastic. No; everything is going to be exactly the same as it was in northern England. Things will only be fantastic when you work on yourself and put things in order.
Did you have problems like that?
I used to drink a lot and couldn't care less where. If there was alcohol in my hotel room, I wouldn't leave it even when I was in the most beautiful place on the planet. There was a deep sadness inside me and I brought it with me everywhere. I was actually like one of Paolo's characters. They too are always surrounded by beauty, but they are torn inside, sometimes it is pain, sometimes their own eccentricity. Paolo didn't even have to explain to me what to play. I knew instinctively what he wanted from me.
