Gary Oldman Biography, Age, Dracula, Movies, Oscar, and Interview

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Gary Oldman Biography

Gary Oldman born Gary Leonard Oldman is an English actor and filmmaker who has performed in theatre, film, and television. Known for his versatility and expressive acting style, Oldman is regarded as one of the greatest actors of his generation.

Gary Oldman Age

Oldman was born on 21 March 1958, New Cross, London, England. He is 61 years as of 2019.

Gary Oldman Images

Gary Oldman Height

He stands at a height of 1.74 m.

Gary Oldman Spouse(s)

Lesley Manville (m. 1987; div. 1990)
Uma Thurman (m. 1990; div. 1992)
Donya Fiorentino (m. 1997; div. 2001)
Alexandra Edenborough (m. 2008; div. 2015)
Gisele Schmidt (m. 2017)

Oldman has been married five times. He wed English actress Lesley Manville in 1987, and their son, Alfie, was born the following year. Oldman left Manville in 1989, three months after their son was born. She noted in 2018 that the pair are on good terms, saying, “He’s got a new wife, and we all get on… Gary and I are friends.” They have two grandchildren, Matilda and Ozzy Oldman, through Alfie.

Oldman met American actress Uma Thurman on the set of State of Grace; they were married in 1990, but divorced two years later. From 1997 to 2001, he was married to Donya Fiorentino, with whom he had two sons: Gulliver (born 1997) and Charlie (born 1999).

On 31 December 2008, Oldman married English singer and actress Alexandra Edenborough in Santa Barbara, California. Edenborough filed for divorce on 9 January 2015. In September 2017, Oldman married writer and art curator Gisele Schmidt in a low-key ceremony at the home of his manager, Douglas Urbanski.

Gary Oldman Young

Oldman was born in New Cross, London, the son of Leonard Bertram Oldman (1921–1985), a former sailor who also worked as a welder, and Kathleen (née Cheriton; 1919–2018). He has stated that Leonard was an alcoholic who left the family when Oldman was seven years old. Oldman attended West Greenwich School in Deptford, leaving school at the age of 16 to work in a sports shop. He was a pianist as a child, and later a singer, but gave up his musical aspirations to pursue an acting career after seeing Malcolm McDowell’s performance in the 1971 film The Raging Moon. In a 1995 interview with Charlie Rose, Oldman said: “Something about Malcolm just arrested me, and I connected, and I said, ‘I wanna do that’.”

Growing up in south London, Oldman supported his local football club Millwall, and also followed Manchester United so that he could watch his idol, George Best. In 2011, Oldman would learn from his mother that his father represented Millwall after World War II, with Oldman stating: “Just after the war, she ran a boarding house, for football players, Millwall players. And I knew that my dad was involved somehow with the reserve team. But two weeks ago my mum said, ‘Oh yeah, your dad played for Millwall. When he was young he had a couple of first team games’.”

Gary Oldman Sister

Oldman’s sister Maureen (known professionally as Laila Morse) is an actress. She had a role in his directorial debut, Nil by Mouth (1997), before going on to play Mo Harris in the long-running BBC series EastEnders.

Gary Oldman Career

He attended the Rose Bruford Training College for Speech and Drama (now the Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance) on scholarship, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in theatre in 1979. After starring in repertory productions in York and Colchester, he was accepted as a member of the Glasgow Citizens Theatre, appearing in such productions as Massacre at Paris (1980) and Chinchilla (1980). Oldman returned to London, where he continued to pursue theatre work. Meanwhile, he made his film debut in Remembrance (1982). He then embarked upon a series of performances at the Royal Court Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Theatre; his 1985 performance as Scopey in Edward Bond’s The Pope’s Wedding at the former venue won particular acclaim.

In 1986 Oldman turned in a star-making performance as drug-ravaged Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious in the film Sid and Nancy. He later played doomed playwright Joe Orton in Prick Up Your Ears (1987) and Rosencrantz in the film adaptation of Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990). His work in several American films led to roles as assassin Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK (1991) and as the title character in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992). Oldman’s cameo as a patois-spouting, dreadlocked drug dealer in the Tony Scott bloodbath True Romance (1993) helped solidify his American following. He won further praise for his restrained portrayal of Ludwig van Beethoven in Immortal Beloved (1994).

Oldman’s capacity for physical transformation and multifarious means of conveying menace led to a string of villainous roles. He prowled the screen as a slickly coiffed agent of evil in the Luc Besson-directed sci-fi extravaganza The Fifth Element (1997) and schemed against a liberal vice presidential nominee as a corrupt senator in The Contender (2000). In the Ridley Scott-helmed Silence of the Lambs sequel Hannibal (2001), he disappeared under layers of prostheses to play Hannibal Lecter’s former patient and nemesis, whom the cannibal induced into cutting off his own face after drugging him.

Though proficient at evoking the morally bankrupt, Oldman proved equally adept at summoning pathos. He assumed the mantle of the avuncular Sirius Black in several installments of the Harry Potter films, beginning with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), and played a police lieutenant allied to the titular caped crusader in director Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy (2005, 2008, 2012). His turn as the unassuming yet dangerous spy George Smiley in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (2011) earned Oldman his first Academy Award nomination, for best actor. In 2012 he appeared as a gangster in Lawless, a Prohibition-era drama about bootlegging.

Oldman’s later credits included the thrillers Paranoia (2013) and Criminal (2016) as well as the action remakes RoboCop (2014) and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014). In 2017 he appeared in the action-comedy The Hitman’s Bodyguard and then starred under heavy prosthetics as Winston Churchill in the drama Darkest Hour, set during the early years of World War II when the prime minister must rally Britain to carry on against encroaching German troops rather than pursue a peace treaty. For his performance in the latter film, Oldman won his first Academy Award. He then appeared as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the thriller Hunter Killer (2018).

Gary Oldman Hannibal

Mason Verger is a fictional character and a primary antagonist of Thomas Harris’ 1999 novel Hannibal, as well as its 2001 film adaptation and the second and third season of the TV series Hannibal. In the film, he is portrayed by Gary Oldman, In the 2001 film, Hannibal, Mason is portrayed by Gary Oldman.

Gary Oldman True Romance

True Romance is a 1993 American romantic crime film directed by Tony Scott and written by Quentin Tarantino. The film stars Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette with an ensemble cast including James Gandolfini, Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer, Gary Oldman, Brad Pitt, and Christopher Walken. He portrayed Drexl Spivey in the film.

Gary Oldman Batman

portrayed James Gordon in the film.

Gary Oldman 5th Element

Portrayed his role as Zorg

Gary Oldman Tiptoes

Tiptoes is a 2003 film directed by Matthew Bright and starring Matthew McConaughey, Kate Beckinsale, Patricia Arquette, and Gary Oldman. Gary portrays the role of Rolfe Bedalia, Steven’s twin brother

Gary Oldman Sirius Black

Is known for his roles as Sirius Black in the Harry Potter series

Gary Oldman Friends

Played actor Richard Crosby in two episodes of Friends. He appeared in the season 7 episodes “The One With Monica and Chandler’s Wedding: Part 1” and “The One With Monica and Chandler’s Wedding: Part 2.”

Gary Oldman Darkest Hour

Darkest Hour is a 2017 war drama film directed by Joe Wright and written by Anthony McCarten. Set in May 1940, it stars Gary as Winston Churchill

Gary Oldman Dracula

Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a 1992 American gothic horror film directed and produced by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. It stars Oldman as Count Dracula

Gary Oldman Oscar

The 2018 Oscar winner for Best Actor is Oldman for his performance in DARKEST HOUR. This is his second Academy Award nomination and first Oscar win. He was previously nominated for TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY (2011, Actor in a Leading Role).

Gary Oldman Dead

He is still alive

Gary Oldman Dark Knight| Gordon

Portrayed as James Gordon

Gary Oldman Music

Ruber (1998)

I Wanna Be Your Dog (1986)

My Way (1986)

Syd and Lou Lullaby (2004)

Just Ask (2004)

Gary Oldman Lawless

Lawless is a 2012 American crime drama film directed by John Hillcoat. He portrayed his role as Floyd Banner.

Gary Oldman Game Of Thrones

He didn’t star in Game of Thrones but he is the look-alike of Aidan Gillen who is portrayed as little finger in the film.

Gary Oldman Robocop

RoboCop is a 2014 American cyberpunk action film directed by José Padilha and written by Joshua Zetumer, Nick Schenk, Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner. It is a remake of the 1987 film of the same name also written by Neumeier and Miner. The film stars Joel Kinnaman as the title character, with Gary Oldman. He portrays Dr. Dennett Norton

Gary Oldman Quotes

Speaking very generally, I find that women are spiritually, emotionally, and often physically stronger than men.

My passion and energy get mistaken for anger.

How many movies do you see when you can say this director really knew what film he wanted to make? I can count them on the fingers of one hand.

’Nil By Mouth’ was a bit autobiographical, but as I always pointed out at the time, that’s not my dad.

Interesting things come your way but as you get older, your lifestyle changes. I don’t want to travel; I don’t want to be in a hotel room away from my family.

Gary Oldman Sid

He played the role of Sid Vicious in the film Sid and Nancy.

Gary Oldman Movies

Year	Title	Role
2020	Dreamland
2020	The Courier
2019	The Woman in the Window	Alistair Russell
2019	The Laundromat	Jürgen Mossack
2018	Tau	Tau
2018	Hunter Killer	Admiral Charles Donnegan
2017	The Space Between Us	Nathaniel Shepherd
	The Hitman’s Bodyguard	Vladislav Dukhovich
	Darkest Hour	Winston Churchill
2016	Man Down	Captain Peyton
2016	Criminal	Quaker Wells
2015	Child 44	Timur Nestorov
2014	RoboCop	Dr. Dennett Norton
2014	Dawn of the Planet of the Apes	Dreyfus
2013	Paranoia	Nicolas Wyatt
2012	The Dark Knight Rises	James Gordon
2012	Lawless	Floyd Banner
2011	Red Riding Hood	Father Solomon
	Kung Fu Panda 2	Lord Shen
	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2	Sirius Black
	Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy	George Smiley
	Guns, Girls and Gambling	Elvis
2010	The Book of Eli	Carnegie
	Countdown to Zero	Narrator
	One Night in Turin	Narrator
2009	The Unborn	Rabbi Joseph Sendak
	Rain Fall	William Holtzer
	A Christmas Carol	Tiny Tim/Bob Cratchit/Jacob Marley
	Planet 51	General Grawl
2008	The Dark Knight	James Gordon
2007	Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix	Sirius Black
2006	The Backwoods	Paul
2005	Batman Begins	James Gordon
	Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire	Sirius Black
	Dead Fish	Lynch
2004	Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban	Sirius Black
2004	Who’s Kyle?	Scouse
2003	Tiptoes	Rolfe
2003	Sin	Charlie Strom
2002	Interstate 60	O. W. Grant
2002	The Hire: Beat the Devil	The Devil
2001	Nobody’s Baby	Buford Hill
2001	Hannibal	Mason Verger
2000	The Contender	Rep. Sheldon Runyon
1998	Lost in Space	Dr. Zachary Smith
1998	Quest for Camelot	Sir Ruber
1997	The Fifth Element	Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg
	Air Force One	Egor Korshunov
	Nil by Mouth	N/A
1996	Basquiat	Albert Milo
1995	Murder in the First	Milton Glenn
1995	The Scarlet Letter	Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale
1994	Léon: The Professional	Norman Stansfield
1994	Immortal Beloved	Ludwig van Beethoven
1993	True Romance	Drexl Spivey
1993	Romeo Is Bleeding	Jack Grimaldi
1992	Bram Stoker’s Dracula	Count Dracula
1991	JFK	Lee Harvey Oswald
1990	Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead	Rosencrantz
	State of Grace	Jackie Flannery
	Henry & June	Pop
1989	Criminal Law	Ben Chase
1989	Chattahoochee	Emmett Foley
1988	Track 29	Martin
1988	We Think the World of You	Johnny
1987	Prick Up Your Ears	Joe Orton
1986	Sid and Nancy	Sid Vicious
1982	Remembrance	Daniel

Gary Oldman Tv Shows

Year	Title	Role
1983	Meantime	Coxy
1984	Dramarama	Ben
1984	Morgan’s Boy	Colin
1985	Summer Season	Gary
1986	Honest, Decent and True	Derek Bates
1989	The Firm	Clive “Bex” Bissell
1989	Knots Landing	Don Ross
1991	Heading Home	Ian Tyson
1993	Fallen Angels	Pat Keiley
1999	Tracey Takes On…	Hairdresser
1999	Jesus	Pontius Pilate
2001	Friends	Richard Crosby
2002	Greg the Bunny	Himself

Gary Oldman Nominations

He has been nominated on Emmy Award and the Palme d’Or. In 2011, Empire readers voted him the recipient of the Empire Icon Award.

Gary Oldman Net Worth

He has an estimated net worth of approximately $50 million

Gary Oldman Youtube

To interact with his youtube channel click here

Gary Oldman Twitter

Gary Oldman Interview

GARY OLDMAN: Jack, how are you?

JACK WHITE: I’m good. If it’s all the same to you, I’m going to be speaking as Winston Churchill for the rest of the interview.

OLDMAN: [laughs] Okay.

WHITE: [As Churchill] This is not the beginning of the interview, but it may be the end of the beginning.

OLDMAN: That’s fantastic. That isn’t in the film, but you’ve obviously done your research.

WHITE: How are you, sir? I haven’t talked to you in a minute.

OLDMAN: I’m doing well. I’m busy with things. I’m being creative, which is always good. What about you?

WHITE: I’ve been recording in New York, Los Angeles, and Nashville. I’ve never recorded in New York or L.A. before. I tried to go to some new places and meet musicians I’ve never met before, and see if I could get to a new place. I’m getting somewhere. I’ll send you something. It’s good gardening music or roofing music or, you know, back-alley stabbing music. [Oldman laughs] I’m trying to think of some good activities that people haven’t written songs for yet. What is good is this Winston Churchill performance. I had to keep staring at your eyes to see if it was really you. You’ve always been my favorite actor, and I’m not just saying that. The only date I went on in high school was to see Dracula. I used to get in big coffeehouse debates about your acting. I would say, “Every single time you see Gary Oldman, he is completely transformed into someone you can’t even recognize.”

OLDMAN: I think what it comes down to is that acting is an antidote to self-hatred. [both laugh]

WHITE: I’m going to write that down. I’m going to start acting some more now.

OLDMAN: I think it was my way out, a sort of avenue of escape. The fun of it was getting away from myself and stepping into the characteristics and the behavior of someone else. It stems from that thing of not necessarily being that comfortable in your own skin. But the challenge of playing someone like Winston Churchill is that there’s more footage of him than you might believe, and there’s certainly enough to read about. Next to Washington, I think he has the most biographies about him. And then there’s his own writing, which is something like 50 books.

WHITE: Churchill wrote 50 books?

OLDMAN: I haven’t read all of them, but I’m told every one of them is worth reading. He changed political parties twice. He fought with distinction in four wars, he served in politics, I think, for over 50 years, and he held almost every political office.

WHITE: This is Donald Trump you’re talking about? [Oldman laughs] No, it’s safe to say we don’t have leaders like that anymore.

OLDMAN: He defended the British constitution, won the Nobel Prize for Literature, painted 500 paintings, and exhibited at the Royal Academy. I mean, if you could find someone else who has done that …

WHITE: What is the general feeling about Churchill in Britain nowadays? Is he a controversial figure? Is he highly revered?

OLDMAN: I think he’s both. There’s a lot of rather radical, revisionist history that goes on with Churchill. He’s often misquoted or half-quoted. So it really depends on where you get your information. Not only was the cost of the First World War enormous in terms of lives, but it was also financially crippling to Europe. And then, of course, shortly thereafter, you had the economic crash, which was just devastating. People thought that the First World War was the war to end all wars. After that, it was peace at any price. While Churchill was researching a biography of his ancestor John Churchill, who was the Duke of Marlborough and a great general, he went to Germany in 1932 and saw firsthand what was happening there. They were re-arming. He raised the alarm in Britain, and that was very out of step with the atmosphere of pacifism.

WHITE: It’s also people not following history—if you horribly shame the loser of a war, you will fight them again.

OLDMAN: And sadly, we did. In Churchill’s research while writing this biography, he could see that there were certain repeating patterns. So he was coming out of years of thinking about war, studying war. He was equipped. It was like a muscle that he was exercising while Chamberlain was waving this piece of paper around, saying, “Peace in our time.” Churchill was considered a warmonger. I think that’s why he’s revered and hated.

WHITE: Churchill was the perfect person at the perfect time. What do you think of impressionists? When I see a comedian or an actor trying to do impressions of people, I sometimes wonder where the line is between someone who can do a very good impression and someone who is doing a very good job at acting and immersing themselves in a role. There must be some line when you were acting as Churchill. How do you know if you’re crossing the line into impression?

OLDMAN: I have a relatively good ear and can do a few impressions of people. I don’t study them, but I think what happens with an impressionist is that they’re looking at one particular source.

WHITE: Like, if they were to do the president, they would take one little thing he said and exaggerate it and make into a catch phrase.

OLDMAN: Yes, or a particular physical mannerism or something. But they’re only focused on that one thought. Impressionists have to paint with a very broad stroke because you’ve got to see it within a couple of seconds. You go, “That’s a really funny Robert De Niro.” As an actor, though, you look at different aspects of a character. I try to completely surround myself with the assignment. It’s like being in a big cloud and then some of it rains through—for instance, looking at not only Churchill’s way of walking and mannerisms and the way he sounds, but also looking into the psychology.

WHITE: You worked with Dennis Hopper in Chattahoochee [1990]—I watched him recently in Cool Hand Luke [1967]. He has a small part where he acts like he’s crazy. I didn’t meet him so maybe you can school me on this, but it seems to me that his real-life persona was like the characters he played. Like, if you met him at a bar, you’d say, “Wow, that guy is a character.” But an actor like you has to become the character. So what is it like working with someone like Dennis Hopper, actors who don’t really have to push themselves into some other world; they can just kind of be who they are?

OLDMAN: Well, I certainly look at people like that and think, “Christ, I have to do all this work.” [laughs] Obviously, in the same way that blues musicians have influenced your songwriting and your playing, I look at my heroes’ work: Alan Bates, Tom Courtenay, Albert Finney, and certainly character actors like Alec Guinness, who I admired enormously. But my taste is very wide. I love Cary Grant. I love the absolute simplicity of Gary Cooper. I also look at Newman and McQueen and even Redford. I mean, if you watch Redford in All the President’s Men [1976], it’s one of the greatest screen performances.

WHITE: Tell me why.

OLDMAN: It’s in the eyes. He’s not traveling away from himself vocally or physically, or doing all the pyrotechnics. There’s something about the psychology. I will always say this to students of acting—we talk about phone acting.

WHITE: What is that?

OLDMAN: There’s an example in Darkest Hourwhen I’m on the phone with Roosevelt. Often you’re not speaking to the other actor; someone is reading the lines in the room or you’re not even getting any of the feed. There are people who are very good at it and people who are not good at it. In All the President’s Men, there is one take of Redford switching phones, talking to different people; it’s about six or seven minutes long. Very, very slow push in on Redford. And I would say to students, “You want to see phone acting? That is the Michelangelo of phone acting.”

WHITE: I know the scene you’re talking about. He’s switching back and forth between two people who are trying to stonewall him. That is a long scene.

OLDMAN: It’s beautiful stuff.

WHITE: I have a fun thing for you to try next time you’re at a coffee shop or in an airport. People have these Bluetooth headsets where it looks like they’re talking to themselves, but they’re really talking on the phone. I think you should say as loud as possible, “Hold on one second, I’ve got another call.” And then switch into a Russian accent and say, “Hold on, I’ve another call.” And then switch into Winston Churchill, and see if anyone catches on.

OLDMAN: [laughs] I’m going to try that in Starbucks when I’m in the line. It’s funny you mention being out and about. As an actor, you people-watch, you observe. And the more famous you become, the sad thing is you lose the ability to do that. Instead of people-watching, you become the focus of attention.

WHITE: I think Bob Dylan said that you can look into the window of a restaurant and everyone is being normal, and then you walk into the restaurant and everything changes, and you don’t get to see people being normal anymore. You might as well just leave. [laughs]

OLDMAN: I went to a crowded restaurant many years ago in Manhattan with David Bowie. And, oh my god, talk about atmosphere change.

WHITE: I bet. But you do a great job of disguising yourself in everyday life.

OLDMAN: Yeah. You might find this, too: if people don’t expect you to be there, they don’t see you. I’m sure that you’re recognized, but sometimes people might do a double take and then move on.

WHITE: Right. “Why is he buying rat poison at the hardware store right now? I mean, there’s no way he could be committing a murder.”

OLDMAN: [laughs] You can always say, “I’m researching a role.”

WHITE: I wanted to ask about whether you think we’re at a pinnacle of how far you can really go in the art of acting before the next generation, the future of acting. It seems like we’re going to see more of what was done with Jeff Bridges in Tron: Legacy [2010], where a younger version of his face was CGI’d onto another person’s body. Where do you see that going? Could you see yourself working 15 years from now in a world where everything is digital?

OLDMAN: In 15 years’ time, I hope to have hung up my gloves.

WHITE: I hope not.

OLDMAN: I’m like you in that I’m an analog guy. As you know, I like wet plate photography.

WHITE: Real film.

OLDMAN: It’s emotional. It’s got soul to it. And I know that you’re a big proponent of this because I think you single-handedly made vinyl a real thing again.

WHITE: Well, sometimes I had to use my other hand, too. [Oldman laughs] I don’t even know what that joke means.

OLDMAN: I’m a little scared of where it’s going. If you take a movie like Dunkirk—Chris Nolan likes to do a lot of in-camera stunts. I believe the boat that sinks in Dunkirk is a boat that is sinking. I think that just adds to the enjoyment of the movie. He uses digital to enhance and complement only where he needs to.

WHITE: And that’s what it should be used for. What’s also interesting about Dunkirk is that the movie came out shortly before Darkest Hour, which is an amazing exploration of just a few weeks of Churchill’s life, and historically, both stories were happening at that same time. How cool is that? What an incredible one-two punch of historical, World War II–based films.

OLDMAN: It’s funny how it’s in the zeitgeist.

WHITE: I love that the film just focuses on this one period in Churchill’s life. You learn a lot by analyzing a brief moment in time. You see how important Dunkirk was and how quickly and easily Britain could have been invaded. If England had been invaded and America wasn’t then able to come over and land planes, who knows what would have happened? It could have been horrendous.

OLDMAN: When they did test screenings of the film for different audiences, would you believe that, not only in America but also in England, very few people knew the story of how close we came?

WHITE: Isn’t that wild? If you really look at it, moments like Dunkirk or the Cuban Missile Crisis are so pivotal and close to the end of humanity as we know it. And now we have North Korea and Trump … Carl Sagan would often say, “The sky calls to us. If we do not destroy ourselves, we will one day venture to the stars.” People are enamored by the idea of, “Oh, we’re going to travel to other worlds.” But the first part is the most important. “If we don’t destroy ourselves.”

OLDMAN: Churchill knew this, almost like a prophet. He could see that technology was influencing weaponry. There is an essay he wrote in 1924 called “Shall We All Commit Suicide?” In it, he wrote, “Death stands at attention, obedient, expectant, ready to serve, ready to shear away the peoples en masse.” And after the war, he said about the nuclear arms race, “All you are going to do is make the rubble bounce.” There was no hope in it. Despite his best efforts, we still had the war.

WHITE: I love how the movie explores all of that and shows people what could have been. You learn a lot about who Churchill was through your brilliant performance of him. What a bizarre character he was. At times, he was an incredible speaker, and other times he was almost like a grumpy old man in the corner of a pub.

OLDMAN: He had a great relationship with the public. He was very honest and very up-front. Churchill said in a speech, “We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering.” He’s not saying that there won’t be enough bananas on the table; he’s telling the people that this is going to be very ugly. And the people loved him for that. I heard a story once that at a gathering of former British prime ministers, the conversation came around to Churchill, and there was a Churchill scholar among the group. One of these prime ministers—I don’t know who it was—said, “Who wrote Churchill’s speeches?” And the scholar said, “Well, he did.” And this ex- prime minister said, “How on earth could he have written his own speeches? How could he possibly have had the time?” And the scholar said, “It’s probably not the answer you want to hear—he was a genius.” He was just one of those incredibly gifted people who had an amazing brain.

WHITE: And passion. When you have passion, there’s all the time in the world. You make the time.

OLDMAN: I’ve never heard it put so well.

WHITE: My speechwriter wrote it for me.

Adopted From: interviewmagazine.com