Gary Oldman clarifies comment about acting in “Harry Potter”: “Hypercritical”

Gary Oldman 66, clarified his comment about having had a “mediocre” performance as Sirius Black in the “Harry Potter” saga during a press conference at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, where he is about to premiere his new film, “Parthenope”.

“What I meant by that is that, like any artist, actor or painter, you are always hypercritical of your own work. If you're not and you're satisfied with what you're doing, that would be death for me. If I watched one of my performances and thought, 'Oh my God, I'm fantastic at this,' that would be a sad day,” he explained.

The actor stated that the comment was not a way of criticizing the film and that he did not want to offend fans of the franchise.

“If I had read the five books and seen the character’s arc, I could have approached it differently. I may have looked at it differently and painted it a different color. So when I started 'Harry Potter', all I had was the book 'The Prisoner of Azkaban' and that depiction of that man. A book in Sirius Black's library. And that's what I meant by that. It’s not me looking at the film and saying it’s a terrible film or that I’m terrible, I just wish it had been under different circumstances,” he said.

In December 2023, Oldman participated in the podcast Happy Sad Confusewhere he said he could have played Sirius Black in a different way today.

“I think my work is mediocre at this. Maybe if I had read the books like Alan [Rickman, que interpreta Severus Snape]if I had been ahead of myself, if I had known what was coming, I honestly think I would have interpreted it differently.”

The actor played Sirius Black, Harry Potter's godfather who was a wrongly framed prisoner. His appearances occur in “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” (2004) and “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” (2007).

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