Acclaimed actor Gary Oldman has opened up about his experiences working on Harry Potter and The Dark Knight, and how both “saved” him.
Oldman got candid on an episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, where he talked about how both projects allowed him to have more family time.
“Thank God for Harry Potter. I tell you, the two — Batman and Harry Potter — really, they saved me, because it meant that I could do the least amount of work for the most amount of money and then be home with the kids,” said Oldman.
Oldman received acclaim for his work in both franchises, playing Sirius Black in multiple Harry Potter movies and Commissioner Gordon in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy. Olman is also well-known for playing Dracula in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour.
In 2001 Oldman divorced American model Donya Fiorentino and was then granted custody of their children.
“At 42 years old, I woke up sort of divorced and I had custody of these boys,” says Oldman “That, in itself, was hard because there was a shift in the industry where a lot of productions were in Hungary, Budapest, Prague, Australia, you know, all of these places. So, I turned down a lot of work.”
While filming The Dark Knight Oldman would constantly fly back and forth between Los Angeles and his home in London. The actor says he did 27 round trips during production.
“I’d fly in for a day, I’d do a shoot a day, and I said look I’m in the car going back to the airport, if there’s anything wrong I’ll turn the car around but when we wrap I’m in the car to the airport. To his [Christopher Nolan] credit, he stayed on schedule.”
The Drew Barrymore show airs on CBS and can also be streamed on Pluto TV and Amazon Prime Video.
