Gary Oldman slams his acting in Harry Potter and reveals reason why he was 'mediocre'

If you’re a well-known British actor, there’s a running gag that you’ve been in this one film franchise at one point or another.

That’s because it was a powerhouse of big-screen magic.

One of those stars was renowned actor Gary Oldman who has been in projects such as The Dark Knight, The Fifth Element and Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

But if you’re a fan of the Harry Potter franchise, you’ll also know that Oldman was a prominent character throughout the films.

Well, at least up until the fifth instalment…

Warner Bros.

However, those films may have saved his career as his performance as the great Sirius Black was an emotional journey.

No matter how much fans praise his work in the franchise, Oldman doesn’t think about it the same way and certainly doesn’t give himself credit for his portrayal of the tortured wizard.

After debuting the character in 2004’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (one of the best, I might add), his fanbase grew exponentially.

But in a recent interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, he went on to call his acting in the films ‘mediocre’.

He said: “I think my work is mediocre in it.”

Host Josh Horowitz was baffled at the statement, but the Oscar winner went on to explain why he believes that his acting wasn’t as good as it could have been.

YouTube/ Josh Horowitz

Oldman continued: “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.”

He added: “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.”

But the actor is thankful for the franchise and his role in Batman for saving his career and his personal life after he was dealing with a lot of stress at the time.

He talked on The Drew Barrymore Show about how he wasn’t getting as many opportunities before being cast at Sirius Black and James Gordon.

He said: “At 42 years old, I woke up divorced and I had custody of [my] boys.”

“That, in itself, was… that was hard because there was a shift in the industry where a lot of productions were being [filmed in] Hungary, Budapest, Prague, Australia, you know, all of these places. So, I turned down a lot of work.”

He continued: “Thank God for Harry Potter.

“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.”