Gary Oldman made his American debut to audiences as punk rocker Sid Vicious in the film Sid and Nancy, way back in 1986. Now, the British actor is starring in the new movie RoboCop and we sat down for a chat.
Photo credit: Sony
Gary Oldman plays Dr. Dennett Norton, a bionic engineer and pioneer of cutting-edge technology in RoboCop. We asked him why we should see this remake of a film that came out in 1987.
“If you don’t know the original — even if you do know the original — it is thought-provoking, action-packed and a real, I think, touching human story.”
Old RoboCop vs. new: How are they different? >>
In the film, his character is faced with removing a man’s humanity and turning him into a human/machine hybrid. Certainly, Dr. Norton was faced with a difficult moral task and we wanted to know if there was ever a point in Oldman’s own life where he felt similarly conflicted.
“I had to fire someone once. It’s a long story and it was really, really, really hard. I had to let them go. And it was a tough one. I’ve never really had the thing that Norton has, you know, the stakes are that high, messing with someone’s personality the way he does.”
The Dark Knight actor admits he still feels torn about the firing, saying, “It didn’t feel good, though I needed to do it. That’s the closest I’ve come to that.”
We asked the Brit if he was jealous he didn’t get to wear a fancy costume like his co-star, Joel Kinnaman. He gave us a flat-out “no.”
“I didn’t want to put the suit on. I have become the wise old man, you see. [Kinnaman] is the jowl-less, young, handsome athletic man running around; I’ve worn my cup, my costumes and armor in my time. I know how uncomfortable that suit is. I would just sit there with the air conditioning blowing on me, drinking my hot tea.”
Fair enough. Watch our interview with Oldman to get his take on Joel Kinnaman’s work ethic.
RoboCop opens Feb. 12.
Leave a Comment