Gary Oldman (Actor)

"... basically, directing is like bending backwards, trying to stick your head in your own behind." - Oldman to Time Out New York, Feb. 5-12, 1998

"Gary Oldman is the best actor in the world. There are a lot of excellent actors, but very cerebral. They need six months to get the sense of the thing. If the guy has to be a garbage collector, he [the actor] has to be a garbage collector for half a year and all that bullshit. With Gary, if you say you've got to play a garbage collector he'll ask what time we start shooting tomorrow and can he play it. Right away. No other actor in the world can do that." - director, Luc Besson to Empire Magazine, July 1997

"Geting sober was one of the three pivotal events in my life, along with becoming an actor and having a child. Of the three, finding my sobriety was the hardest thing." - Oldman to Cindy Pearlman of the Chicago Sun-Times, April 5, 1998

"I was quiet, a loner. I was one of those children where, if you put me in a room and gave me some crayons and a pencils, you wouldn't hear from me for nine straight hours. And I was always drawing racing cars and rockets and spaceships and planes, things that were very fast that would take me away." - Oldman to Newsday, March 29, 1998

"I've been bored with acting for years. I did 10 years of theater [most notably at London's Royal Court]. I loved rehearsing, first night, maybe the first week. Then I wanted to move on. What's the big deal in being annointed the Hamlet of your generation, of waiting for [theater critics] to come along and say, 'OK, he can hang in the hall of fame?'

"All I've done with films is take myself out of the game. I'm not chasing an Oscar anymore. I've turned down movies in which people have become stars or won Oscars. Because at the time I'd just finished another movie. Or I didn't want 20 weeks filming in Poland in the winter." - Oldman quoted in The Los Angeles Times, Feb. 3, 1998

"In the past, I've had my share of good reviews, but it's always the crazy, scary, weirdo guy. I don't even know how it happened. Look at me. I mean, when I'm naked, I look like a bald chicken. How did I get to be a scary bad guy?" - Oldman to CNN.com, July 21, 2008

"There's this perception of me, this thing the tabloids have got a hold of. This wild man. There is not one paparazzi picture of me coming out of a nightclub, not one picture of me punching someone while drunk. I got nicked once for drunken driving, but I've never done drugs and yet the reputation" - Oldman to Empire Magazine, November 1997

"When I cry in a movie, they're my tears. If you're stirring up emotions inside of you all day, it affects your mood. You come home and it's not easy to have a beer, put your feet up and watch TV. It can wear you out. It's a nightmare on relationships." - Oldman quoted in Us Weekly, October 1993

In 2001, former wife Donya Fiorentino claimed that Oldman had a drug habit and subjected her to domestic abuse, a claim which was investigated by the family courts, child custody evaluator, the police, and Los Angeles city attorney—Oldman was awarded legal custody of their children; Fiorentino was granted short court-monitored visits.

Oldman was known for his problems with alcohol during the 1990s and in 1991, he was arrested for drunk driving along with friend and fellow actor Kiefer Sutherland. After a string of alcohol-fuelled debacles Oldman checked himself into Marworth treatment facility in Waverly, Pennsylvania for alcoholism treatment in 1993.