BB Exclusive: Gary Oldman Discusses Making Winston Churchill His Own & The Challenges Of Playing Him

BeautifulBallad had the amazing opportunity to chat with Gary Oldman while he was out promoting his new film Darkest Hour. In this new creation from director, Joe Wright, Gary takes on the role of Winston Churchill as he struggles with exploring a negotiation for a peace treaty with Nazi, Germany or standing form on freedom. Our interview with him is below.

On how he made his version of Winston Churchill original: “When the film takes place, it a very specific period of time. It takes place over five weeks at Britain’s most perilous time. We were on the knife’s edge of capitulating to Adolf Hitler. So I didn’t have a whole life to throw. I just had this very specific time. What I did was I went to the reading materials. I also watched a lot of videos of him, news reel videos of him from the time. What I saw was a man who was 65 years old, but had the energy of a young man. Skipping around, constantly moving through space with a purpose. A cherubic kind of face, twinkle in the eye. However, you have to wonder, was he always in a bad mood, shuffling around with a cigar and whiskey. I felt that the Churchill of 1940s was dynamo and a force to be reckoned with. So it allows me to move away from the other older images.”

On seeing himself in costume for the first time: “The reflection back at me was everything I hoped it would be.”

On the challenges of wearing the costume: “It wasn’t uncomfortable. It was hot. The worse thing was the cigars. I got nicotine poisoning and had a very bad stomach for three months. It was at times terrible. However, he was known for his cigars, so what was I to do. You can’t play Winston without his cigar. It comes with the territory.”

Darkest Hour is out in select theaters now and will be out nationwide on December 22!

Forgive my camera skills. It’s almost as though I couldn’t control my inner fangirl.