On This Page. . .
Perception Verses Reality
I wrote this in high school a couple of years ago. I've just updated it a bit to fit in with my current lifestyle. I know it's stupid (and the title's crap) but I thought you might want to read it!
Gary Oldman: Master Of Morph
The thesis required for the first year of college. It's current (and permanent home) is The Dark Side. . .I just wanted a copy for myself!
INITIATING SCAN. . .
MATCH FOUND
PASSWORD:******
ACCESS PERMITTED
HYPERSEARCH: OLDMAN, GARY
SEARCHING. . .PLEASE WAIT. . .
SEARCH COMPLETE
Press any key to continue. . .
NAME: Gary Leonard Oldman
DATE OF BIRTH: 21/3/58, New Cross, South London
OCCUPATION: Actor
WHAT’S THE STORY?
Gary Oldman was born in New Cross, South London in 1958. His father was an alcoholic welder who left when he was 7. His father being an alcoholic probably led to his addiction to alcohol in later life. While in rehab, he met his third wife Donya. Gary is now reformed. He failed all his exams, was a petty thief and dreamt of being a pianist. Malcolm McDowell in the film If. . . changed his mind. He applied to the Rose Bruford College for Speech and Drama. When they asked what he had to fall back on he said ‘Thieving.’ He’s been married 3 times. He has two much loved sons called Alfie and Gulliver. His first film was Sid and Nancy in 1986. His first major American film was Bram Stoker’s Dracula in 1992. He became ‘cool’ when he took the cameo role of Drexl Spivey, a white, would be Rastafarian pimp in the Quentin Tarantino scripted True Romance (1993). The film was directed by British director Tony Scott. He has also played Ludwig van Beethoven in the film Immortal Beloved and, surprisingly enough, a reverend in The Scarlet Letter.
WHAT’S THE STORY. PART II?
I first discovered Gary Oldman back in December 1994. While doing Christmas shopping in my home town, I stumbled upon the poster for Bram Stoker’s Dracula. I decided that I liked it, so my mum brought it for me as a bonus Christmas present. And so began a long and sometimes painful obsession with Gary Oldman. Over the following months, I tried to find out as much as possible about Gary Oldman. I scanned newspapers, books on vampires and film magazines (at the time I didn’t have access to the Internet). Then Leon was released in the cinema, so I scanned reviews of that. Unfortunately, it was certificate 18 (about the same as the American R rating) so I couldn’t see it. But later that year, Immortal Beloved was released. That was the first time I saw Gary Oldman on the big screen. (I still have my ticket stub somewhere!) Since then, I’ve collected various films of Gary’s and too many magazines to name. My favourite films will always be Dracula and True Romance. I spent a lot of my time in high school involved with the drama group, writing, acting and directing for them, so Gary became my inspiration.
PERCEPTION VERSES REALITY
His childhood and lifestyle is very real life. While most actors seem to have been brought up in rich acting families, Gary has had to struggle. He is the total opposite of most actors today. He was born and brought up in a rough neighbourhood in South London. He was into petty thieving and failed at school. He was once an alcoholic but he took the plunge and beat it. He saw his brother in law shot and would have applied this to roles in such films as True Romance and Leon. He uses his emotions and memories to create his characters. He dreamt of being a pianist but when he saw the actor Malcolm McDowell in the film If. . . his mind was changed. . .forever. He saw only three options in his life. He could either become a policeman, a villain or a pianist. Reality told him that it was too late to become a pianist. But with acting he saw that he could be a policeman and a villain. So he gunned for acting instead. People always ask me what kind of influence Gary has on me. My parents think that it’s a bad influence because of the kind of characters he plays. Although they know understand that he has inspired me in the things I right and the way I act a role. But to me, Gary has had a good influence on me. He was the person who made me reconsider what I wanted to do once I left school. At one point I had no idea what I wanted to do. I also felt like I was going to fail every one of my final exams (I didn’t ‘cause I’m now at college!) Then after watching some of Gary’s films, I decided that I wanted to work in film. (I’ve been a film freak for as long as I can remember!) I have a strong love of directing so I enrolled in a college course which would help me achieve my goal. I’m not going to give up acting though. I have dreams of writing, directing and acting in my own movies! I hope that when I come to make a movie I will at least be able to Gary a credit. Not just as an actor or producer (dream on, Rach!) but as the influence behind my career.
TRANSMISSION TERMINATED
LOG OFF
This is dedicated to a number of people:
The one, the only GARY OLDMAN! Without him there would be no thesis!
My best friend, Brennon McGuire, for just being his wonderful self and for being such an inspiration in my life. "To you, two one, too many, a mystery of one. A friend in the crowd." - extract from Two One Friend - Brennon McGuire.
Renee Lea Dutcher, the Gary fan I met via the Internet and also a great help and inspiration.
Giso: For having a most excellent website dedicated totally to Gary and for *hopefully* adding this thesis to his website!
Helen: For putting up with me for the past four years and for willingly let me wear out her precious copy of Bram Stoker’s Dracula!
And to all the people who put up with me talking Gary, Gary, Gary 24/7!
INTRODUCTION
When I came to consider my options for my thesis there really was only one answer - Gary Oldman. Because of his childhood and the failures in his life, I felt that there was a way for me to some how relate to him. Until a few years ago, he was a little known actor with parts in low budget films. Even now in 1997, he didn’t get much recognition until he released his directorial debut Nil By Mouth. But anyway, I really don’t want to give much more away, as everything I can say here is is expressed in more depth later on. I hope you enjoy this!
Rachael Gilliver. Spring 1998
INTRODUCTION
One of Britain’s most renowned actors is best known for playing twisted people in equally twisted films. In one decade of working in Hollywood he’s racked up a CV of assorted weirdoes including assassins (JFK), vampires (Bram Stoker’s Dracula), bent cops (Leon) and Rastafarian hooligans (True Romance) to name just a few. But after nearly twenty years of acting, he decided it was time to have a shot at directing. Nil By Mouth, the semi - autobiographical story of his early life, was premiered at the 150th Cannes Film Festival where it went down a storm! It even won Best Actress for it’s leading lady, Kathy Burke. Eleven years after making his film debut in the British film Sid and Nancy, he is eventually at the top of the Hollywood A-list. His name. . Gary Leonard Oldman. Let’s give him some credit. . .
HIS LIFE
Gary Oldman was born in Peckham, South London on 21st March 1958 to Len and Kay Oldman. His father, who Oldman has described as a drunken welder, left the Oldman household when Gary was just seven. His mother then raised him and his two older sisters until a stepfather moved into ‘the dump’ that the Oldman’s called home. Len Oldman died in 1986 due to his drinking problem. Gary talks passionatly about his father. He talks about how he misses him, how he would have taken his father to film festivals and premieres and how his father would have loved them. The South Bank Show recently did a profile on Gary, detailing his life and his film Nil By Mouth. The programme showed Gary crying as he spoke of his father. This touched me, showing that behind the 'hard - man' image of his screen character is indeed a kind and caring man. Oldman became an alcoholic which was probably a result of his fathers’ drinking habit. He eventually joined Alcoholics Anonymous a few years ago and is now cured. Oldman is an accomplished pianist who has the credit of teaching himself to play the piano. As a child he would make a piano keyboard from paper, tape it the table and bang away at it. His way of saying he wanted to play the piano. He left school with no qualifications and was into petty thieving. In his mid to late teens he tinkered with ideas of what to do with his life. Pianist, policeman or villain were high on his list. But then he came to and saw the light when he realised, that as an actor, he could be both a policeman and a villain. So he gunned for acting. His love of acting, he says, started after seeing Malcom McDowell in the film If. . . He saw McDowell again in the film Raging Moon and decided that acting was for him. An inspired drama teacher took him under his wing and became a father figure to the young Oldman. Oldman also joined the National Youth Theatre and it went from there. He applied for the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama in London. He won a place but only after telling them that he had thieving to fall back on! He won a BA Honours in Theatre Arts and stared in a variety of stage productions before finding fame in the 1986 film Sid and Nancy. Gary is now married to model Donya Fiorentino and they have a beautiful son called Gulliver. He gets very hurt by what the press say about him and of the image they draw of him. (Talking about an article in the Express) "And it said that the father of my present wife's daughter has sole custody. So you get the impression that I'm unstable and that my betrothed was some sort of coke - snorting, money grabbing party girl who doesn't have custody of her kid. And it made me sound calculating, uncompassionate and cold - hearted. I am none of the above. And my family were very upset." (GQ magazine. July 1997)
HIS FILMS
Oldman is best known for playing the bad guys in off the wall type of films including Sid and Nancy, State of Grace, Leon the Professional and True Romance. His first film was Alex Cox’s Sid and Nancy in which he played doomed punk star, Sid Vicious. Oldman is renowned for his intense preparation for his acting roles. For Sid and Nancy the preparation included going to dinner with Sid’s late mother and living for a while in the room in the Chelsea Hotel where Nancy died. He also lost thirty five pounds to play Sid which landed him in hospital and earned him warnings of a possible heart attack from his doctor. His second film came in 1987 and was the Alan Bennett directed film, Prick Up Your Ears, the biographical film of gay playwright, Joe Orton. The film provided Oldman with his funniest role to date despite the tragic outcome (Orton was murdered with a hammer by his lover, Kenneth Halliwell). The preparation for the role, Oldman said, became very camp when both he and his screen lover, Alfred Molina, stopped sleeping with their wives during filming. He was also in the Tom Stoppard written and directed film Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead as Rosencrantz and Lee Harvey Oswald in the Oliver Stone directed film JFK. But the film that really shot him to fame with the American audiences was the Francis Ford Coppola smash hit Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The film made two hundred million dollars world wide and two million pounds in first three days in Britain. But Dracula was far from an easy role for talented Oldman. During the course of pre-production he had to learn Romanian, swordsmanship and study dancing. He spent hours in the make-up chair and costume fittings. When he was transformed into the ‘old’ Dracula, the make-up took five hours and involved twelve latex layers on his face and five on each hand. At one point, Oldman was rushed to hospital with an allergic reaction to the make-up. A double briefly replaced him as the wolf beast but even under the make-up people on set could tell the difference. Relationships between himself, the director and his co-star, Winona Ryder, were not good. Coppola and Oldman would argue over the slightest things like the length of a scene. During pre-production he was Ryder’s best friend but then he did or said something and she wouldn’t go near him. After this he landed a number of roles. These included bent cops Jack Grimaldi and Stansfield (Romeo is Bleeding and Leon), a sadistic Alcatraz warden, Milton Glenn (Murder In The First) and corrupt armsdealer, Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg in Luc Besson’s summer hit The Fifth Element. He’s been in over twenty films over the past eleven years but my all time favourite has to be Drexl Spivey, the deranged white Rastafarian pimp he played in the Tarantino scripted film True Romance. The part of Drexl was a cameo and Gary spent just five days on set. British director, Tony Scott, chose Gary for the role because of Gary’s off - the - wall characteristics. In the film, Gary used a weird accent which was based on a security guards’ half Queens, half Rasta accent. He was quoted as saying, in the book Tarantino A - Zed, that with Drexl he was really able to use his acting abilities to their full extent. The role was also difficult for Gary because it was so outrageous. He also likes time to study his character but because of the amount of time he had he didn’t have the time. Tony Scott said that Gary isn’t too clever, he can’t tell you why he’s doing things, but he has the best instincts. As Gary said in the film " I’m still a mystery to you. . ." (True Romance)
MASTER OF MORPH
When I use the phrase ‘Master Of Morph’ I’m referring to all aspects of change that Oldman goes through during the making of a film. There isn’t just the change of his physical appearance but also the way he changes his accent to suit the role and personality and character changes. Although, day to day, he is a nice person with a wife and two children, his personality in the film True Romance turned a full circle and he became a vicious and sadistic pimp. He apparently stayes character throughout a shoot and during the filming of True Romance he apparently prowled the gang run streets of South Central, LA, in character. His appearance in True Romance was very different from the every day Oldman. In the film he was made up with scars, a fishy eye, gold teeth and a mane of dreadlocks. The character was completed with a number of costumes, mainly very bright clothing. His voice, as explained in the previous section, also changed. It was based on that of a security guard he met on the set of Romeo Is Bleeding. Gary was given free rein of how Drexl looked. "With my character Drexl (in True Romance), I made up the make - up, I went and got the gold teeth. I called Tony Scott and said, ‘I want dreadlocks,’ and he sent me a message back saying, ‘Good idea.’ I had the wig made, I got the milky eye contact from Greg Cannom, the make - up man from Dracula, who loaned it to me. I wanted a dead eye, a scar, good teeth, dreadlocks, the whole thing." (Detour Magazine - March 1994) Gary is apparently so good at accents, that even the Americans think he’s American and he jokingly calls himself ‘the British Meryl Streep.’ He says that the words sweater, elevator and sneaker come so much more easily to his tongue than jumper, lift and trainer. His emotions also seem to play a big part in changing from character to character. In the film Bram Stoker’s Dracula he drew on the pain of his father’s death and other, deeper, emotions. "’There was a weeping scene,’ he recalls. ‘Crying I can cope with, I can handle that one. Weeping was a whole different ball game. And you’re going to use things in your life and in your past. I guess what I’m trying to say is it’s not Dracula crying, it’s Gary Oldman, but using the technique of the character. The emotion is mine, because I don’t know what it’s like to be undead and live 300 hundred years.’" (GQ interview, July 1997) There were plenty of changes in Dracula whether it was emotional or physical. During the course of Dracula there were nine manifestations of Dracula. There was the 15th century Dracula, based on old woodcut images of Vlad the Impaler, the 400 year old nobleman in 1896 Transylvania, the half wolf, half man beast, later on as a true wolf and a demonic bat beast. There was also the young Dracula, seen on the streets of 1896 London. The last three incarnations owe their existence to the Dracula special effects team. These were an elusive green mist, a molting chrysalis and a startling assemblage of rats on a human frame.
NIL BY MOUTH
Nil By Mouth is Gary’s directorial debut. It is set in South London and is basically a confession. It tells of drug and alcohol abuse, family violence and sloppy crime. This was Gary’s life, this is his exorcism. "Nil By Mouth is my blues, if you like, about what was outside my window. The film is very much based on my experiences and impression of growing up and living in London. I did not in any way feel a need to edit or make concessions to these memories; my aim was to make a film that simply tells the truth. It is an honest recollection of people and circumstances that have either touched or troubled me." (Foreward to Nil By Mouth by Gary Oldman. Published by Screenpress Books) His father died in 1986 from alcohol abuse and the film is simply dedicated. "For my father. . ." reads the simple caption. "I didn’t have a particularly strong desire to throw a camera around. I know that some actors talk about that ‘natural progression’, but the story wanted to be told. It was bubbling around in my head." (Empire interview, November 1997) It was written from the heart, Oldman’s true feelings and memories of his childhood. While he was writting it, he was known to carry around scraps of paper to note down thoughts and scenes as they came to mind. Sometimes he would wake up as early as five am, itching to get to his computer. (Gary, just for the record, uses a Macintosh!) The film cost near on 4.5 million dollars to make. 1.4 million of it is Oldman’s own hard earned cash. "I have a big chunk of my own money in it," he replies, skirting annoyance. "I'm willing to take a loss because I did what I wanted to do, I made what I wanted it to be. I talk to people, it's like cinema began with Reservoir Dogs, Things To Do When You're Dead In Denver (sic), I think fuckin' hell, say something. Influences and inspiration for a movie like Nil By Mouth are there, you go back to Passolini, Ken Loach, Mike Leigh, Cassevetes. There were things in Secrets And Lies that touched me and I found myself sitting in the Lumiere cinema crying. You come out and you care about people as opposed to cinema where you've seen a body count of about a thousand who you don't give a fuck about. I want to be moved and involved. I'm not particularly interested in entertainment." - Gary Oldman (Empire interview, August 1997)
CONCLUSION
Dear Gary, You have inspired me greatly over the past few years. I have always admired your intense preparation and determination. You have been the inspiation for many things that I have written and hopefully, one day, the inspiation behind the movies I make. I also know that you have been an inspiration to so many other people. I'm touched by the fact that you are a kind and caring person even though you have a disguisting and degrading reputation. It hurts me when the press and gossip coloumists put you down, make up stories or twist the truth. I hope that this thesis shows you in a truthful light. It is all my own words although I have adapted pieces and included quotes. Thank you.
Yours, Rachael Gilliver, Spring 1998
I decided to do my conclusion as a letter to Gary. I want him to know that he is appreciated and that the thesis was written from my heart and not just as a piece for my college course.
STAGE CAREER
1980 - Massacre at Paris.
1980 - Chinchilla.
1980 - Desperado Corner.
1980 - A Waste of Time.
1982 - Summit Conference.
1983 - Entertaining Mr Sloane.
1984 - Saved.
1984 - Rat in the Skull.
1984 - The Pope's Wedding.
1985 - The War Plays.
1985 - Abel and Caine.
1985 - The Desert Air.
1986 - Women Beware Women
1986 - Real Dreams.
1987 - The Country Wife.
1987 - Serious Money.
???? - Minnesota Moon.
FILMOGRAPHY
1983 - Meantime.
Oldman plays South London skinhead, Coxy.
1986 - Sid and Nancy.
Oldman plays punk star Sid Vicious.
1987 - Prick Up Your Ears.
Oldman plays gay playwright Joe Orton.
1988 - We Think The World Of You.
Oldman plays Johnny, a guy in prison.
1988 - Track 29.
Oldman plays Martin, an English man up turns up in the US.
1989 - Criminal Law.
Oldman plays American lawyer, Ben Chase.
1990 - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
Oldman plays Rosencrantz.
1990 - Chattahooche.
Oldman plays a Korean War vet in a mental asylum.
1990 - State Of Grace.
Oldman plays gangster Jackie Flannery.
1991 - JFK.
Oldman plays Lee Harvey Oswald.
1992 - Bram Stoker's Dracula.
Oldman plays Dracula.
1993 - Romeo Is Bleeding.
Oldman plays corrupt cop Jack Grimaldi.
1993 - True Romance.
Oldman plays white Rasta pimp, Drexl Spivey.
1994 - Leon.
Oldman plays corrupt cop Norman Stansfield.
1994 - Immortal Beloved.
Oldman plays composer Ludwig Van Beethoven.
1995 - Murder In The First.
Oldman plays sadistic Alcatraz warden, Assiociate Warden Milton Glenn.
1995 - The Scarlet Letter.
Oldman plays would be Puritan, Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale.
1997 - Basquiat.
Oldman plays fictional artist, Julian Schnabel.
1997 - The Fifth Element.
Oldman plays corrupt arms dealer, Zorg.
1997 - Air Force One
Oldman plays Russian terrorist.
1997 - Nil By Mouth
Gary's directorial debut.
1998 - The Quest for Camelot
Oldman does the voice of the Baron.
1998 - Lost In Space
Oldman plays Dr Smith in the big screen remake of the TV series.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’d like to thank the following people for their help with my thesis:
Renee Lea Dutcher, another Gary fan.
Lorrain Allen for sending me a bunch of interviews I didn’t have.
Giso, for his most excellent web site.
Debbie for her Gary Oldman links page on the Internet.
Melia for her website.
Kay McAfee for the Gary Oldman mailing list and for signing me up it.
Rowena Stubbs for lending me the title of her website for my thesis.
Everyone who lent me their computers! With or without Internet hook ups!
Thanks all! You’ve been a great help!
BIBLOGRAPHY
MAGAZINES:
Empire (Jan 1993, August 1997)
Premiere (May 1994)
Detour (March 1994)
Entertainment Weekly (20/11/92, July 97 (U.S. editions)
The Face (Feb 1992)
Loaded (May 1994)
GQ (Feb 1992, July 1997)
Esquire (Feb 1993)
"I'm still a mystery to you. . ." quoted from True Romance written by Quentin Tarantino.
FILMS:
State Of Grace (1990)
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990)
JFK (1991)
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
True Romance (1993)
Leon (1994)
Immortal Beloved (1994)
Murder In The First (1995)
The Scarlet Letter (1995)
The Fifth Element (1997)
Air Force One (1997)
DOCUMENTRIES:
Bloodlines: The Making of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
Searching for The Fifth Element (1997)
Moviewatch (Nil By Mouth interview 1997)
This Morning (Nil By Mouth interview 1997)
The South Bank Show (A profile of Gary Oldman 1998)
WEBSITES
The Dark Side of Gary Oldman -
http://home.worldonline.nl/~giso/oldman.htm
(Webmaster - Giso)
Halles Gary Oldman Site -
http://www.csh.rit.edu/~halle/oldman.html
(Webmaster - Halle)
SooJin's Beautiful Gary Oldman Site -
http://thunder.temple.edu/~dcho/soojin.htm
(Webmaster - SooJin Cho)
Debbie's Gary Oldman Page -
http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/8214/go.html
(Webmaster - Debbie)
These were the main websites that information was extracted from. Thanks to the owners of all the websites (Credited here as 'Webmasters'.)