Gary Oldman like a "disguise" when he's working.
Gary Oldman
The 62-year-old actor feels he can "hide" his insecurity with make-up and prosthetics and feels much more "comfortable" that way, so when he played screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz in 'Mank' without any transformation, he initially felt vulnerable before eventually finding the job "liberating".
He said: "I like a disguise because of my own insecurity. When I can hide, it makes me feel more comfortable. I don't know, maybe it comes back to not feeling worthy.
"I'm coming up to 24 years of sobriety in March, but I remember all the things that made me want to drink, you know?
" So when David [Finscher, director] said, 'I want you as naked as you've ever been, I do not want a veil between you and the audience', it played into my insecurities. He said, 'Trust me'. So you go, 'OK'. And really, it was the best call. Oddly enough, after a couple of days, it was rather liberating."
Gary won an Oscar for his portrayal of late Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 'Darkest Hour' and though the politician was known for his great speeches, the actor's favourite scene involved no dialogue.
Speaking to John David Washington, Ben Affleck, Sacha Baron Cohen, Delroy Lindo and Steven Yeun for the Hollywood Reporter's Actors Roundtable, he said: "Churchill wrote more words than Dickens and Shakespeare put together, and he was a talker. But someone asked me, 'What's your favourite scene in 'Darkest Hour'?'
" And my favourite scene was Churchill walking down a hallway: He hears Hitler broadcasting, and he turns back and shuts the door so he's closing Hitler out. There's no dialogue, just the physicality, the action, the intention, the thought.
"The way Joe Wright staged it, it's a quiet moment, and one of my favourites."
When it comes to his work, the 'Harry Potter' star is more interested in "the journey" than what the finished movie is like.
He said: "I'm not so concerned with the end product. I like the journey. What's better than waking up in the morning and going, 'God, wow, the car is here early. Hell, I'll get in it. I want to see these people that I'm working with.' I wake up feeling so blessed that I am in a career where I want to go in to work."
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