This week’s guest is Gary Oldman.
Right now, he’s starring in Apple TV+ series Slow Horses‘ as Jackson Lamb, leader of a group of MI5 rejects exiled to a rundown London building known as Slough House. As Oldman describes it, “It’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy meets The Office.”
Having just wrapped Season 3, the cast are headed into production on Season 4, and Oldman, an Oscar-winning 40-year veteran of stage and screen, says he’s loving playing Jackson Lamb—a flatulent, unwashed genius of espionage. He also hints at what we can expect from Slow Horses‘ next season: He and co-star Saskia Reeves will have “a real scorcher of a scene”.
Next up, Oldman will reunite with Harry Truman in Christopher Nolan’s film Oppenheimer
During this chat, Oldman also recalls how he first began spontaneously practicing monologues at age 13, before working as a hospital porter “mopping up blood”. His love of movies may have begun at age five, when his sister took him to see The Beatles’ film A Hard Day’s Night, and one early hero included John Hurt, whom he worked with in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
Listen as Oldman recounts a favorite story Hurt told him, and the tale of perhaps one of the most epic dinner parties in living memory. Plus, you’ll hear a tidbit of marital advice and what Oldman thinks he’d be doing if acting hadn’t worked out.
Click above to listen to Gary Oldman, and to hear more episodes of 20 Questions on Deadline, listen and subscribe on Spotify and Apple podcasts.
