Gary Oldman is back on Apple TV+ thanks to the release of the fourth season of his Emmy-nominated drama “Slow Horses,” and his continued role as Jackson Lamb almost affected his reunion with Christopher Nolan in “Oppenheimer.” Oldman, who played detective James “Jim” Gordon in Nolan’s Batman trilogy, played U.S. President Harry S. Truman in the director’s Oscar-winning drama. But accepting the role meant telling Nolan that his “Slow Horses” character came first.
“this [role] “It’s a little different because I’m tied to it, even when I get a six-month break. It dictates whether I do anything else,” Oldman told the Wall Street Journal about how his preference for moving on from the characters he plays now changed from doing an ongoing TV series. “I did one day of ‘Oppenheimer.’ I said to Chris Nolan, ‘I’d love to come and do it, but I’d have to wear a wig and a hat and I can’t cut my hair.’ So if you can handle that, I’d love to come and do it. If you don’t want the wig, you’ll have to get someone else to do it. Lamb is never far away in that sense.”
“I remember hearing something once where John Lennon said he hated his voice, though it’s hard to believe,” Oldman continued. “He always wanted to put some kind of effect on his voice or double his voice. He said, ‘I’m going to burn all the cylinders and start over.’ I know what he meant. I don’t go back and revisit these things. They’re old stuff. If someone asked me, ‘What’s your best work?’ I’d have to say, ‘Next season.’”
Nolan agreed to don the hood, and the duo returned to work on “Oppenheimer.” During an appearance on “The Drew Barrymore Show” last year, Oldman credited “Harry Potter” and “Batman” for saving him personally and professionally. Oldman’s acting opportunities were drying up before he landed the roles of Sirius Black and Jim Gordon — roles that endeared him to fans of the genre and gave his career a star power it had never had before.
“At 42, I woke up divorced and had custody. [my] “Boys, that in itself was a tough thing because there was a shift in the industry where there was a lot of work being produced,” Oldman said. [filmed in] “Hungary, Budapest, Prague, Australia, you know, all these places. So, I turned down a lot of work.”
“Thank God for Harry Potter,” he said. “Thank God for Harry Potter. I tell you, the two movies — Batman and Harry Potter — really saved me, because it meant I could do the least amount of work for the most amount of money, and then be home with the kids.”
Season 4 of Oldman's “Slow Horses” premieres on Apple TV+.
