Be cool, Potterheads, Gary Oldman has walked back his comments on Sirius Black performance

Imagine being in the rarified air of the Cannes Film Festival to promote a prestigious new film and having to answer questions about the children’s movie you made 20 years ago? Gary Oldman, like many of his co-stars, is stuck in that Harry Potter purgatory; no matter how many awards he wins, critically acclaimed series he stars in, or Cannes-worthy movies he promotes, he’ll still always get asked about ol’ HP. Oldman made the mistake late last year of saying he thought his performance in the franchise was “mediocre.” Now, during the press conference for his new film Parthenope, the actor was forced to clarify.

Asked about his remarks on playing Sirius Black, Oldman was quick to say his comment was “Not to disparage anyone out there who are fans of Harry Potter and the films and the character who I think is much beloved.” He explained, “What I meant by that is, as any artist or any 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 to me. If I watched a performance of myself and thought, ‘My God, I’m fantastic in this,’ that would be a sad day.”

Oldman already said in the original interview that he wished he’d had a fuller view of Sirius’ story when playing the character, but he reiterated as much at Cannes. “There was such secrecy that was shrouded around the novels, they were under lock and key. And had I known from the very beginning, if I had read the five books and I had seen the arc of the character, I might have approached it differently. I may have looked at it differently and painted in a different color,” he said. “So when I started Harry Potter, all I had was the book, The Prisoner Of Azkaban, and that one representation of that man. One book in the library of Sirius Black. And that’s kind of what I meant by it. It’s not me looking at the movie and saying it’s a terrible film or I’m terrible, I just wish it had been under different circumstances.”

(If we’re going to be a little pedantic, the conclusion of Sirius’ arc, The Order Of The Phoenix, came out in the middle of filming his first movie, Prisoner Of Azkaban. So while it’s probably true he didn’t have the full picture of the character when he signed on, he did actually have two books in the library of Sirius Black to draw from at that point.)

Anyway, Oldman concluded by saying, “That’s what I meant, not to be rude to any of the people out there who like that film.” It’s a bit of deference and perhaps caution towards the Potterheads that is not shared by co-star Miriam Margolyes, whose most recent press tour included a lot of telling Harry Potter fans to grow the hell up. But no one can blame Oldman for trying to keep the peace, particularly when he’s in the middle of trying to promote an entirely different movie. We can probably move on from this Sirius Black non-controversy now!