The Oscar-winning actor meets the boys in Giffoni: «You pursue dreams but the cinema is full of sharks. I look for invisibility through the characters I play “
«You have to develop a tough skin, whether you want to become actors, authors, directors, photographers … The world of cinema is a hard world, which reserves you many nos. It is as if you want to dive into a swimming pool full of sharks ». Gary Oldman talks to the boys about Giffoni. The English actor, great Hollywood chameleon is the star of the day at the Festival. Among the other guests: the protagonists of the “One Wish” series; the director of the Corriere della Sera Luciano Fontana who talks about journalism and fake news (“Publishing is the only sector in which one is legally accountable for everything … On social media there is no accountability. Something should be done to change this system”); the actor Gianmarco Saurino, the director Gabriele Mainetti.
At Giffoni Oldman he receives the François Truffaut 2022 award. He is a fan of Italian cinema. Posters of some masterpieces hang in his Los Angeles home: Beggar by Pier Paolo Pasolini and a portrait of Monica Vitti directed by Michelangelo Antonioni in The adventure. «My career has been influenced by the great Italian directors: Pasolini, Rossellini, Antonioni». An actor with a thousand faces: he was Dracula, Beethoven, Pontius Pilate, the right arm of Batman, Sid Vicious, Sirus Black in the Harry Potter saga. He was the man who killed Kennedy in JFK, an open case and won the Oscar in 2018 for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in The darkest hour. “I always try to make myself invisible behind the character, with Churchill I have succeeded.”
The theme of the festival this year is invisibility, that of the last ones. “I feel I have told it in Prick Up – The Importance of Being Joe, who spoke of homosexuality when it was illegal. Even when I played Sid Vicious. We were talking about a subculture, that of the punk-rock musical undergrowth, which for a long time remained on the margins ». Some time ago he stated that he was still very insecure about his profession. “Maybe this is no longer the case, lately I have gained confidence, a lot has happened in recent years. But I still have my moments of weakness, days of doubt, but it is right to have them, it is good. It is better to think that next time I will have to do better than to believe that I have already given everything possible ».
He confesses to the boys who ask him what was the worst experience of his life. “Undoubtedly the most tragic thing was when my father left our family. At 7 I thought that if he had loved me more he would have stayed and I suffered to death. But then with the experiences of my life I realized that he no longer loved my mother and not me. I have often reused this dramatic experience in my career. I thought about this when Francis Ford Coppola asked me not only to cry but to flood the screen with tears on the set of Dracula. Not an easy thing to do, I went back to being a 7-year-old child to do it. To be an artist you have to marry experiences with imagination, that’s what you need ». L’Hollywood Reporter identified him as the actor who did best at the box office. “For a while, thanks to Harry Potter and Batman, I held the record. Not that I could see any of that money, unfortunately. ‘
He says to the boys: “People of a certain age like me will sooner or later retire and give way to you who are new blood and new strength.. You are the future, we need you ». But is it really possible for a great actor like you to leave cinema? They ask him. «I used to spend my life only following the trajectory of cinema. I was always there with my black bag ready to go like a rock star. Now that I’m 64 something is starting to change, I begin to see, do and enjoy things in life that I didn’t have time for before. I am happy to wake up in my bed, to spend time with my family, to enjoy my dogs. Of course he then calls me Christopher Nolan … ». In fact he will act in Oppenheimer, next film by the visionary director. And on TV, on Apple +, with Slow Horses. “I was offered this series about slightly clumsy spies, based on a series of very good novels. Somehow I felt like I had completed the tour of my career. The series is set in London, I’m a Londoner and in that role it’s me. There is no accent, there is no makeup, there is no prosthesis. I feel like I’ve been around the world and then back home. It was the right thing to do at the right time. ‘
July 28, 2022 (change July 29, 2022 | 07:36)
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