The list of incredible actors long deserving of an Academy Award that haven’t found their way to Hollywood’s most exclusive club is almost embarrassing. Sigourney Weaver, Ian McKellen, Glenn Close, Ralph Fiennes and Amy Adams, just to name a few. This year one of the most prominent names on that list, Gary Oldman, may finally get his due.
In Joe Wright’s “Darkest Hour“ Oldman takes on the challenge of portraying one of the most important men of the 20th Century, Winston Churchill. In my review I referred to Oldman’s performance as a “force of nature” and “transformative.” Having now seen the film twice that might have been something of an understatement. Like Viola Davis‘ work in “Fences” a year ago, Oldman commands the screen not just when Churchill needs to charismatically charm parliament, but in the most subtle conversations with a skeptical king (Ben Mendelsohn) or a shy and inexperienced secretary (Lily James). Frankly, as in Davis’ case, some truly extraordinary circumstances would have to transpire for him not to join Oscar’s winners circle this March.
Last week Oldman took some time before the holiday to go into detail about his makeup collaboration with Kazhurio Tsuji, that impressive FDR phone call scene and much more.
READ MORE: ‘Darkest Hour’: Gary Oldman Is Simply A Force Of Nature As Winston Churchill [Review]
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The Playlist: Hey there. How are you doing, sir?
Gary Oldman: I’m all right, thank you. Yeah.
I was watching some of your other interviews you’ve done so far and you’ve mentioned you had some fears taking on this role. What was your biggest fear? Was it playing someone as iconic as Churchill? Was it nailing the physical transformation?
It was all of those things. I think it was playing one who is so well known, so famous, to so many generations. I guess everybody has their idea of who he was. And that might be influenced by people that have played him. Also, I knew was what ahead of me. Makeup was obviously the only option. I mean, I would have to gain 80 lbs to play the man and I was not going to do that. And so the makeup and all of that ahead of me, I wondered if I would have stamina. Including the makeup tests, I wore the makeup 61 times. And I worked 48 consecutive days. And you’re coming in, you know, and you’re obviously the motor. You’re in almost every scene, you’re the locomotive for the train. And I just wondered if I’d have stamina, really.
I’ve also read that you had dinner with makeup artist…I’m going to pronounce his name wrong…Kazuhiro Tsuji?
Yeah. Kazuhiro Tsuji. Yeah.
Thank you. What did you say at that dinner to convince him to come out of retirement?
To convince him? I think I said that he’s the only man on Earth who could do it. And maybe that played. But [he was indispensable for] a lot of the anatomy. The structure of the face. How close the eyes are. How wide apart the eyes are. What the forehead’s doing and the jawline. And then he does these sort of overlays. So, it’s quite sort of anatomical. It’s quite technical, where he begins. And I think had his doubts too. But he put together an early sculpt and it was amazingly good. And then we worked together, finessing versions, variations on the makeup. Really where the stars all aligned Kazu lives in LA and it was only a 25-minute ride from my house. Had it been somewhere in Europe it may have been doable, but it certainly would have been a more complex process. So, it was good that not only was he the right man for the job, but he was local, which was just a miracle.
Just a quick follow-up on that. The idea that you were here, being able to finesse it. Was there one specific aspect of the makeup you were trying to finesse? Was there one piece that was the reason why you guys kept going and doing multiple variations?
Yeah. I think what happened was we sort of did what I refer to as a full Churchill. And that was a forehead piece. He had a very deep, deep scar on his forehead, which he received from an accident. He was actually run over by a car, getting out of a taxi in New York.
That is not something most people are aware of actually.
Yeah, I mean, we was very lucky to have lived, it really, really knocked him around. He had a head injury. And it broke his nose. And he had a scar, I think, above his left eye. But what we found is the lower face was all working beautifully, but once you added the forehead, you lost “me.” And it looked more like a mask. And so we took the forehead away. So I was free, for my expression and it was a sort of hybrid. Capturing the spirit of Churchill, but without going sort of full-on, with sort of a look-alike mask.