Gary Oldman believes that his performance in Harry Potter movies was just meh.
Oldman played the role of Sirius Black, the outlaw godfather of the titular character. He debuted in the third film, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in 2004, returning for the subsequent movies Goblet of Fire in 2005 and Order of the Phoenix in 2007, where his character met his demise. Oldman made a concluding cameo appearance in the seventh and final film, Deathly Hallows — Part 2.
During a conversation on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Oldman discussed his time as part of the ensemble cast in the widely popular Harry Potter film franchise.
“I think my work is mediocre in it,” says Oldman. “No, I do. Maybe if I had read the books like Alan, if I had got ahead of the curve, if I had known what’s coming, I honestly think I would have played it differently.”
Oldman went on to explain that his self-critique isn’t limited to his character Sirius; he revealed that he often identifies flaws in many of his other performance.
“I’ll tell you what it is. It’s like anything. If I sat and watched myself in something and said, ‘My god, I’m amazing,’ that would be a very sad day because you want to make the next thing better.”
Currently, Gary Oldman’s Slow Horses is available for streaming on Apple TV+.
