Gary Oldman says his retirement is “on the horizon”
Even with several projects in production, the Slow Horses actor seems like he's preparing to call it quits
Aux News Gary Oldman
For Gary Oldman it appears that “retirement is on the horizon.” In a recent interview with Deadline, the actor—who can currently be seen in Apple TV+’s Slow Horses—admits that the end of his onscreen career is approaching. However, at the same time, Oldman also states that he wants to go out “with a bang.”
Slow Horses finds Gary Oldman stepping into the shoes of the fictional Jackson Lamb, a slovenly spy who has appeared in eleven novels by British author Mick Herron. Lamb leads a team of exiled MI5 agents, and Slow Horses adapts Herron’s 2010 novel of the same name.
Though Oldman is considering retirement, a second season of the show—based on Herron’s novel Dead Lions—has already completed filming, per Deadline.
But Oldman doesn’t appear to be trying to rush to the finish line. In fact, he embraces the idea of returning to the role of Jackson Lamb.
“It’s up to all the big people upstairs and the audience and obviously the viewership and what Apple what they say. But, yeah, I could see myself playing Jackson for the next how many years,” Oldman expresses. “Absolutely. I mean, for those that love the books and that were Mick Herron devotees as it were, he is already an iconic character. So, if it were to go out with a bang, I mean, retirement is on the horizon. Yeah. I can see it.”
“The actors and the crew on both Slow Horses and Dead Lions have been wonderful. And should we come back, it really is reconnecting with your family,” he says before adding, “To be able to sort of wrap it all up playing Jackson Lamb, I would consider myself very honored and very lucky to be able to do that. I would never say never.”
Oldman is no stranger to portraying iconic characters. The actor made his breakthrough performance as Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious in 1986’s Sid & Nancy and has since taken on notable roles as Lee Harvey Oswald, Count Dracula, and Commissioner Gordon amongst others. Come summer of 2023, Oldman will appear in Christopher Nolan’s historical drama about the invention of the atom bomb, Oppenheimer, and has two video game projects in production.
Slow Horses is now streaming on Apple TV+
55 Comments
One of the greatsHe deserves to retire if & when he wants but his trademark intensity makes that somewhat difficult to imagine
Yep I’ve enjoyed his roles thoroughly and if he wants to retire I hope he loves it!
Gary Oldman retired and he won 4 awards for it
Perhaps if he’d been less intense with the beatings he gave his ex-wife and other women he abused I’d think better of him.
He could very well transition into ultraconservative politics.
Understandable, he’s not the Gary Youngman he used to be
Take my star… please.
Per this comment, you may be the Henny Youngman we all need.
Reminds me of one of my favourite pieces of idle trivia:80’s UK synthpop star Gary Numan is two weeks older than Gary Oldman
What’s next for Gary? DEATH
There should have been a sequel to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Perfect movie. Well reviewed and fairly successful.
If you’re interested in Tinkers, Tailors or even Oleg Gordievsky, this anecdote may be of interest. John le Carré described Ben Macintyre’s fact based novel, The Spy and The Traitor, as “the best true spy story I have ever read”. It was about Kim Philby’s Russian counterpart, a KGB Colonel named Oleg Gordievsky, codename Sunbeam. In 1974 Gordievsky became a double agent working for MI6 in Copenhagen which was when Bill Fairclough aka Edward Burlington unwittingly launched his career as a secret agent for MI6. Fairclough and le Carré knew of each other: le Carré had even rejected Fairclough’s suggestion in 2014 that they collaborate on a book. As le Carré said at the time, “Why should I? I’ve got by so far without collaboration so why bother now?” A realistic response from a famous expert in fiction in his eighties!
Gordievsky never met Fairclough, but he did know Fairclough’s handler, Colonel Alan McKenzie aka Colonel Alan Pemberton. It is little wonder therefore that in Beyond Enkription, the first fact based novel in The Burlington Files espionage series, genuine double agents, disinformation and deception weave wondrously within the relentless twists and turns of evolving events. Beyond Enkription is set in 1974 in London, Nassau and Port au Prince. Edward Burlington, a far from boring accountant, unwittingly started working for Alan McKenzie in MI6 and later worked eyes wide open for the CIA. What happens is so exhilarating and bone chilling it makes one wonder why bother reading espionage fiction when facts are so much more breathtaking.
Len Deighton and Mick Herron could be forgiven for thinking they co-wrote the raw noir anti-Bond narrative, Beyond Enkription. Atmospherically it’s reminiscent of Ted Lewis’ Get Carter of Michael Caine fame. If anyone ever makes a film based on Beyond Enkription they’ll only have themselves to blame if it doesn’t go down in history as a classic espionage thriller.
Favorite role? For me, Tinker Tailor, or The Firm. He’s fantastic in Slow Horses as well. Looking forward to next season.
The Professional: “EVE-RY-ONNNNNE!”
“Do you like life, sweetheart?”
“Yes.”
“That’s good. Because… I take no pleasure in taking life… if it’s from a person who doesn’t care about it.”
That scene is pure tension. And YMMV, but what fascinates me the most in it is that Oldman seems to almost hint at a sliver of humanity left in Stanfield in the way he speaks to Matilda – but then that line drops aaand nope, he’s just a monster. Any possible nuance is just in the acting. Brilliant stuff.
That’s how many will be at his retirement party.
Dracula or Fifth Element
The make up obviously helped, but I’ll forever be impressed with Oldman (34 at the time, I believe) nailing so perfectly the physicality of old Dracula and then effortlessly switching to sexy mode as the rejuvenated Count.
Zorg, making me all the more DIS-AP-POINT-ED that he hates The Fifth Element.
There’s an embarrassment of riches in his filmography, but my first instinct is to go with Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, particularly for playing against type.
Still one of my favorite films 32 years later, and Oldman’s comic timing in it was masterful. And Tim Roth was one of the best comic straight men I’ve ever seen.
It aint white boy day
Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg. Just so much fun.
Tiptoes
It was a shame that they never made the follow up to Tinker, Smiley’s People, as was rumoured; I heard it was because the director made a huge bomb in the interim (Snowman) and lost his backing.
Agreed, I would have loved to see that. Snowman was fucking awful. Not sure how that happened. Fassbender had a terrible run there for a while.
Sate of Grace
FIFTH ELEMENT
Oldman’s a chameleon, who can completely vanish into his role. When I saw Dark Knight in the theatre, I couldn’t remember who was playing Jim Gordon and had to wait for the credits to realize who it was.
But Gary, you’re not an old man yet!
Now, see we’re sittin’ down here, ready to negotiate, and you’ve already given up your sh*t. I’m still a mystery to you.
Must have thought it was White Boy Day.
His presence has lifted more than a few movies from “unwatchable dreck” to “watchable trash.” The Fifth Element and Book of Eli come first to mind.
Obviously, Oldman needs to get Matthew Bright back into the industry and together with Matthew McConaughey and Peter Dinklage create Tiptoes 2: The Shortening, a sequel to his 2003 masterpiece.
He’s my favorite actor, no contest. I don’t think there’s a performance of his I don’t appreciate on some level – even in otherwise poor movies, like Sin, he can make scenes memorable. I even enjoyed him in Tiptoes, despite the film bordering on being plain offensive (and I’m sure someone’s regretting not casting Dinklage in the lead, come on).
Oldman in his prime was so effortlessly charismatic and intense, that it’s hard for me to pick just one favorite performance – I’ve read the suggestions in the comments and they’re all fantastic contenders (except maybe Jim Gordon – I think Oldman was a great pick – I was hyped – but I also feel he was a bit wasted due to the script. I wish he got to play Gordon the way he’s written in The Batman).
I wanted to single out one performance that was not mentioned yet (while I’m writing this post, at least): Jackie Flannery in State of Grace. Oldman’s a scene stealer there, and it’s movie that also stars Sean Penn, Robin Wright, Ed Harris, John Turturro and John C. Reilly (all bringing their A game). There’s so much energy in that performance, so much character work done with physical acting – simply mesmerizing! I highly recommend this movie (which also has a great score by the late Ennio Morricone).
“I can’t remember shit, that’s the way I like it. Only problem is I need Maalox, but I can buy Maalox.”
Sounds good. Haven’t liked him in decades.
He’s not even that, well, old. He’s 64. There are plenty of actors who retire much later or, like Christopher Plummer, never retire at all. But it’s his call.
Hate to break it to you, but Plummer retired last year. Or at least was retired, to use the Blade Runner phrase.
But my point was he worked up until days before his death. It was just the first person who came to mind, since he’s someone who specifically said he wasn’t going to retire. Should I have said Dick Van Dyke?
Great actor but not one of the popular pleasure models.
Are we OK with him now? Felt like we weren’t for a while. I’ve always been OK with him.
Eh, he’s an anti-semite. Bye bye, bud.
“Even with several projects in production, the Slow Horses actor seems like he’s preparing to call it quits”I mean, you read the interview, right? He specifically mentions retiring AFTER potentially doing the ENTIRE series of Mick Herron books (of which there are NINE novels and two novels and of which they have shot two of the books) before retiring, so it’s not like he’s implying ANYWHERE that he would be dropping out of the projects he has in front of him.
Slow Horses is SO GOOD (though it completely WASTES Olivia Cook), I hope he gives us at least 4-5 good seasons of that first.And I think it’s pretty obvious his “bang” should be as a Bond villain.
It seemed pretty clear to me that she’ll be back from how it ended, but I could be wrong. I’m not familiar with the books at all
They left it open, but it also felt vaguely like they had to write her out of the show. Maybe due to her also being in the new GoT show.
He literally tells Cartwright that she succumbed to her gunshot injuries in the hospital. Or was I hearing voices?
It seemed like it was a ruse MI5 was putting on. At the end of the episode, Roddy tells River that for some reason there was no record of Sid Baker ever being in the hospital and that all traces of her had been removed for as far as he could tell, which indicated there was something more going on there and for some reason MI5 was covering up her actual whereabouts
God I hope you’re right. I love Olivia Cook. I fell in love with her as the dying girl. And of course Ready Player One.
See the radarSee you laterWell, that’s how I remembered the lyrics all these decades right up to just looking them up to check just now.
“OLDMAN TO RETIRE SOON” – The Onion