Gary Oldman says Batman and Harry Potter roles ‘saved me’

Oscar winner noted he was glad to ‘do the least amount of work for the most amount of money’

Gary Oldman has said that his casting in the Harry Potter and Dark Knight film franchises “saved him”, both professionally and personally.

During an appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, Oldman reflected on the fact that his career was slowing down around the turn of the century, at the same time he was going through a divorce from his third wife Donya Fiorentino, with whom he has two sons.

“At 42 years old, I woke up divorced and I had custody of [my] boys,” Oldman said. “That, in itself, was… that was hard because there was a shift in the industry where a lot of productions were being [filmed in] Hungary, Budapest, Prague, Australia, you know, all of these places. So, I turned down a lot of work.”

Things changed when he was cast as wizard Sirius Black in 2004’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the third film in the Harry Potter series. He reprised the role in 2005’s Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, 2007’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and 2011’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.

A year after joining that franchise, he was also cast as police officer Jim Gordon in Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins (2005). He reprised that role in 2008’sThe Dark Knight and 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises.

“Thank God for Harry Potter,” Oldman told Barrymore. “Thank God for Harry Potter. I tell you, the two, Batman and Harry Potter, really, they saved me, because it meant that I could do the least amount of work for the most amount of money and then be home with the kids.”

Oldman with fellow ‘Batman Begins’ cast members Sir Michael Caine, Christian Bale, Katie Holmes, Morgan Freeman and Liam Neeson in 2005. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

While filming Batman Begins, Oldman flew back and forth between his home in Los Angeles and the movie’s set in London several times each week to be closer to his children.

“When we did the first Batman... London doubled for Gotham. I did 27 round trips of flying back from LA,” said Oldman. “I’d fly in for a day. I’d do a shoot a day. To Chris Nolan’s credit... he stayed on schedule. I would go home for three days. Come back for two. Go home for a weekend. Come back for a day… otherwise, I just felt my kids are being brought up by a nanny.”

Earlier this week, Oldman was announced among the nominees for the 2024 Golden Globes.

Oldman is nominated in the ‘Best Performance by a Male Actor on Television – Drama Series’ category for his role as spymaster Jackson Lamb in the Apple TV+ thriller series Slow Horses.