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" I did have a knack for playing weirdos. There's still sort of this perception of me out there as being this crazy guy. "
Gary Oldman
Crazy
Guy
Me
Related Quotes:
" Wanting to be a good actor is not good enough. You must want to be a great actor. You just have to have that. "
Gary Oldman
Not Good Enough
Good
You
" And of course I've got kids of my own now, and they love me being in the Harry Potter films. I'm now part of a phenomenon. You become incredibly cool to your kids, and you get a young fan base. So you became the cool dad at school. You're suddenly hip. "
Gary Oldman
School
Love Me
Cool
" Reality TV to me is the museum of social decay. "
Gary Oldman
Me
Museum
Reality
" I was never really that interested in the punk movement. I was a blues guy: I liked Motown, James Brown. "
Gary Oldman
Never
Punk
Movement
" Your own barometer is all you have to go by, and often what makes a good director is knowing when not to say something. On occasions you can find yourself on a film set where the person who is wearing the director's hat is only trying to justify his position. "
Gary Oldman
Trying
Yourself
Hat
" That's what sets apart one actor from another, and that you can't teach. You can't give someone that. When you're working, putting a character together, or in a scene, that's where things will happen that you have to have the intuition to notice them, and to register them. "
Gary Oldman
You
Together
Character
" I drank for about 25 years getting over the loss of my father and I took the anger out on myself. I did a good job at beating myself up at sometimes. I don't drink anymore but my alcoholic head occasionally says different. 'Nil By Mouth' was a love letter to my father because I needed to resolve some issues in order to be able to forgive him. "
Gary Oldman
Anger
Love
Father
" Political correctness has become a straightjacket. "
Gary Oldman
Political
Political Correctness
Become
" People who know me, they know I have a sense of humor, I'm a bit of a joker, a bit of a clown really, and I would love someone to exploit that side of me and send me a romantic comedy. "
Gary Oldman
People
Humor
Me
" On set I keep myself to myself; I'd rather the director speak up. I'm not gonna direct a younger actor. I think the power of example works best, actually. "
Gary Oldman
Actor
Best
Think
" Change is vital to any actor. If you keep playing lead after lead, you're really gonna dry up. Because all those vehicles wean you away from the truths of human behaviour. "
Gary Oldman
Actor
You
Playing
" People imagine that actors are being offered everything and you are not. So things come in and sometimes there are things that I want and can't get a meeting on, or go to a different actors. "
Gary Oldman
You
People
Sometimes
" I'm probably a Libertarian, if I had to put myself in any category. But you don't come out and talk about these things, for obvious reasons. "
Gary Oldman
Libertarian
Things
Talk
" When I decided that I might want to do acting for a living - I don't know where it really came from, since there was no school play or any of that - my mom gave me her blessing. I had to get a scholarship - that was the only way I could have gone to drama school. "
Gary Oldman
Blessing
School
Mom
" I have three kids who like Harry Potter so I was sort of aware of it. You can't really move from it: it's on buses, in stores, it's everywhere. One of my kids has read the books; the other two are too small but they like the movies. "
Gary Oldman
Three
Small
Movies
" The building of America has had its fair share of mistakes, but it's a constitution that's the jewel of democracy, the envy of many, and it's the most generous nation in the world. "
Gary Oldman
Constitution
Democracy
Mistakes
" What's fascinating is that when you write a script, it's almost a stream of consciousness. You have an idea that it means something, but you're not always sure what. Then when you get on the set, the actors teach you. "
Gary Oldman
Always
Write
Idea
" I enjoy playing characters where the silence is loud. "
Gary Oldman
Silence
Where
Enjoy
" So Harry Potter came in and it is nice that I have kids of the right age. I took them to London and they walked around the set and met Harry Potter and that is thrilling. "
Gary Oldman
Age
Around
Kids
" I wanted to play Dracula because I wanted to say: 'I've crossed oceans of time to find you.' It was worth playing the role just to say that line. "
Gary Oldman
Say
Find
You
" I didn't do drugs. It wasn't my thing. But the drink was terrible. Today when I look back, it's like I was another person. You could call it a coping mechanism, but that would be an excuse. I just drank too much. "
Gary Oldman
You
Too Much
Today
" I grew up in Deptford in south London, and at that time I used to wear toppers, loon pants and tonic suits from shops like Take 6 and Topman. I was a bit of a soul boy, but I had a very eclectic taste in music - I was into James Brown and Bowie; and I was the only kid in the neighbourhood who would also be listening to Chopin. "
Gary Oldman
Soul
Suits
Time
" I had what AA calls 'a convincer' - which made me realize that I couldn't do it any more. I went out drinking for about 70 hours here in London. At the end I knew I was done. "
Gary Oldman
Me
Realize
More
" There's no handbook for parenting. So you walk a very fine line as a parent because you are civilizing these raw things. They will tip the coffee over and finger-paint on the table. At some point, you have to say, 'We're gonna have to clean that up because you don't paint with coffee on a table.' "
Gary Oldman
Walk
Parent
Coffee
" A lazy man works twice as hard. My mother told that to me, and now I say it to my kids. If you're writing an essay, keep it in the lines and in the margins so you don't have to do it over. "
Gary Oldman
Me
You
Mother
" I love the simple poetry of theater, where you can stand in a spotlight on a stage and wrap a coat around you, and say, 'It was 1860 and it was winter...' "
Gary Oldman
Simple
Stand
Winter
" What other people think of me is none of my business. "
Gary Oldman
None
Me
Business
" I applaud anything that can take a kid away from a PlayStation or a Gameboy. That is a miracle in itself. "
Gary Oldman
Away
Kid
Miracle
" I don't think Hollywood knows what to do with me. I would imagine that when it comes to romantic comedies, my name would be pretty low down on the list. "
Gary Oldman
Pretty
Think
Romantic
" It's funny: I'm a lifelong musician, but because I principally play the piano it's been a solitary thing. "
Gary Oldman
Play
Piano
Thing