(Copyright: Screens Magazine. Date unknown)

Intense could be Gary Oldman's middle name. It's the word most often associated with the British actor both on screen and off, and it's probably the word which could easily describe both his character in this month's powerful prison drama Murder In The First and the role he played in last month's period romance The Scarlet Letter. Until he turned Dracula into a lovestruck bloodsucker Oldman seemed to be the top of everyone's list when it came to casting lunatics and misfits, but his roles in Dracula and The Scarlet Letter and his off - screen love affair with his Immortal Beloved co - star Isabella Rossellini proved he could play the romantic (if unconventional) leading man. A viewing of Murder In The First however, will dispel any thoughts that Oldman is going soft on us, he's back playing edgy and nasty as a vicious prison warden. We're also waiting with bated breath to see the fruits as film director, the highly personal drama, Nil By Mouth.

Age: 39

Why him? As Hollywood’s Master Of Morph, this stage trained British thespian can transform from Sid Vicious to Lee Harvey Oswald to Ludwig van Beethoven with an alchemy that’s so complete it renders the actor invisible. Sure, Oldman’s a wizard with accents - Manhattan Irish in State Of Grace, Transylvanian in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Russian in this summer’s Air Force One, and a chicken fried drawl that he calls "Ross Perot meets Bugs Bunny" in The Fifth Element - but he’s magical with his own body: The very muscles in Oldman’s face seem to shape shift with each role. And now for his latest metamorphosis, Oldman turns into . . . a director. His first trick behind the camera, the grimy and harrowing London drama Nil By Mouth, won kudos in Cannes.

What inspires him: While writing the script for Nil By Mouth, Oldman admits he was driven by very personal demons - namely, the memories of a turbulent childhood in a working - class London, where he grew up in the shadow of an alcoholic and abusive father. As Oldman explained in Cannes, "Anything you do - whether you sculpt, paint or act - is in part autobiographical." As a result, putting Nil By Mouth on paper became an intense experience for Oldman. "The first draft took about five weeks," he says. "Early day, early in the morning. If it was buzzing around in my head, I’d get up at 5. While I was writing it, it was totally obsessive. I was always writing in my head, desperate to get back to the computer." But obsession aside, Oldman says his acting choices are just as often fuelled by the realities of the marketing place: "Why do I always play bad guys? I guess those are the scripts that come through the letterbox. I would love to do a romantic comedy, but I don’t get offered those roles.

Creative crutch: Making Nil By Mouth, he carried around little scraps of paper to write down bursts of dialogue or plot. - Entertainment Weekly: July 1997 (Copyright: Entertainment Weekly)

"I'm an ordinary fellow but for a long while, when they needed an a actor for a weird role, the first name that came to mind was mine. One of my most outrageous parts was in Prick Up Your Ears, in which I played gay, flamboyant playwright Joe Orton. I took my trousers off three or four times. And when I didn't, others were taking them off for me. Worse things have happened - in films and real life." - GARY OLDMAN (Magazine and date unknown)

He stubs out his cigarette and makes his way the lavatory. A minute later, Oldman the man and Oldman the actor come together. He puts his head round the door with a maverick look in his eyes. "Behind this door is my balaclava and my Kalashnikov," he says in hushed, conspiratorial tones. "We’re going to hold up the train. . ." - GQ, July 1997 (Copyright: GQ)

"There was a weeping scene," he recalls. "Crying I can cope with, I can handle that one. Weeping is 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 years. I have no point of reference. . ." he pauses and half a smile ghosts across his face. . ."surprisingly enough." - GQ, July 1997 (Copyright: GQ)

"I do my homework, I learn my lines and I turn up. I do what my kid does, but I get paid for it. He paints his face and wears his costumes and runs around the house and he’s Superman. That’s all I’m doing really. I dress up in a funny costume and have my face painted. Then I go on set and pretend I’m someone else." - GQ, July 1997 (Copyright: GQ)

"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 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, gold teeth, and the whole thing. I was doing Romeo Is Bleeding, finished on a Sunday, we drove back to Los Angles, and Monday morning, I went in and played Drexl. No rehersal, no nothing. Tony hadn't heard a word of it. I stood there in the costume and he said, 'That's the wig, that's the eye, OK, alright. Now, you sit here, you sit there. Do it.' And we did it and he said, 'Now, Gary, that's good. Give me something else on that line. All right, 20 minutes, we'll light it, and we'll do it.' So, you see, I had done all of that research on my lunch hours while working on Romeo, and this is an example where it really could have gone badly. It was the luck of the gods, the roll of the dice." - talking about True Romance, Detour Magazine, March 1994 (Copyright: Detour Magazine)

"This is the point of acting," he says, torching the snout. "You can cadge other people’s cigarettes and you never have to give them back." - Empire (Copyright: Empire)

Suddenly, Oldman grabs my tape recorder, climbs inside the coffin and closes the lid above him. Later, when I play back the tape, I can hear his ghostly voice echoing. "What. . .is. . .it. . .like? To. . .be. . .undead? - Empire (Copyright: Empire)

"I read somewhere that I was quoted as saying that I spent most of my time as Dracula with my clothes off. I don’t know where they got that from." - The Face (Copyright: The Face)

"That’s the dark side of the glamour and success - I don’t know how you keep your life together." - The Face (Copyright: The Face)

"I’ve got these jockey shorts! Ooooooh! I think Lester Piggott’s still in them!" - Premiere, May 1994 (Copyright: Premiere)

"I’m in the lobby," he explains, "looking at a video screen telling me to have a pleasant day." - Premiere, May 1994 (Copyright: Premiere)

"Fiddly dee," he sings, "an actor’s life for me!" Then he lets rip a roar: "Waaah!" Sorry? "Coffee, man!" he chuckles. "Too much coffee." - Premiere, May 1994 (Copyright: Premiere)

"He turned us all into Hula Hoop junkies," he says. "I’m a grown man, and I eat them like Alfie - off my fingers." Oldman goes quiet. "They’re amazing," he eventually murmurs. Hula Hoops? I say. "No," he says. "Kids." - Premiere, May 1994 (Copyright: Premiere)

"It’s a fairy tale for adults. It just sounded a lot of fun. When I read it, I laughed my leg off. I loved the whole cocktail of it, and playing a part like Drexl, I thought I could exercise my tool. Drexl is very high energy. It’s a firework display - just light the fuse and I’m a rocket." - talking about True Romance. Premiere, May 1994 (Copyright: Premiere)

"I loved doing that. It looked like I was having fun, didn’t it? he laughs. "I just took that part on spec; I hadn’t even read the script. I met Tony Scott at the Four Seasons hotel, and I hadn’t read the script. He said, ‘The story is about. . .Oh, I don’t know, I’m terrible at telling a story. I don’t know what it’s about. I can’t describe it to you. He’s a pimp who’s white, but thinks he’s black.’ I said, ‘OK I’ll do it.’ I had a lot of fun doing that. There would have been more of that character, but in order to get the rating down, I suffered a bit of the scissors. I really went for it. I though, I’ve only got two scenes, I might as well make my mark. Good days, happy memories." - Premiere, May 1994 (Copyright: Premiere)

"Hopefully," he says, "Alfie is coming out here soon. I phone him every other day. I’ve been recording Winnie The Pooh on cassettes that I send to him. It can be sad and painful." He says: "Of course I want Dracula to be fucking good. I spent six months away from Alfie." He’s a star, and it costs him. - Esquire, February 1993 (Copyright: Esquire)

"The first time I was Dracula, it was at a Butlin’s holiday camp and my mother made me a cape out of crepe paper. I was five and I came dead last." - Esquire, February 1993 (Copyright: Esquire)

"RADA told me to find some other way to make a living. I remember someone knitting while I did my speeches." - Esquire, February 1993 (Copyright: Esquire)

"I’m fed up with being famous and being skint," Oldman says. "It’s really boring. It’s my turn to earn some money." - Esquire, February 1993 (Copyright: Esquire)

"I’m not a bad boy," he says. "I’m not roaring boy Gary Oldman. I could sit here and tell you I was in a fight last week down in the Village, but I’m a little sick of it. I don’t go out to bars. I don’t go to nightclubs." He pauses for breath. "Getting drunk with Kiefer Sutherland is one millionth a part of what I am." - Esquire, February 1993 (Copyright: Esquire)