Gary Oldman thinks he was “mediocre” in the Harry Potter films

Gary Oldman has revealed that he believes his work in the Harry Potter film franchise was not up to his own standards. 

Oldman played Harry’s godfather Sirius Black across four of the films, starting with 2004’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and winding up with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in 2007.  

But now, in an interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, he has said that he is not especially proud of his contribution to the films. 

“I think my work is mediocre in it,” he said. “No, I do. Maybe if I had read the books like Alan [Rickman], if I had got ahead of the curve, if I had known what’s coming, I honestly think I would have played it differently.” 

“I’ll tell you what it is. It’s like anything, if I sat and watched myself in something and said, ‘My god, I’m amazing,’ that would be a very sad day, because you want to make the next thing better.” 

Just earlier this month, Oldman took time to explain how the Potter films, as well as the Dark Knight trilogy, “saved” him when he became a single father. 

“At 42 years old, I woke up divorced and I had custody of these boys,” he says. “So that was hard because there was a shift in the industry where a lot of productions were being [filmed in], it was Hungary, Budapest, Prague, Australia, you know, all of these places.” 

“Thank God for Harry Potter,” Oldman added. “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.” 

Oldman is currently starring in the Apple TV+ series Slow Horses, which released its third season last month. The show was renewed for a fourth season in June last year. 

In a five-star review of season three, NME wrote: “The sad thing about Slow Horses is how few people are watching it on Apple TV+ in the UK. Far fewer are subscribed versus the other streaming giants. However, this season could change all that as the buzz around the show becomes impossible to ignore: it’s the best show on TV right now.” 

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