Interview: Gary Oldman

Serious author. Serious book. Serious film.

There were those who doubted whether John le Carré’s seminal Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy would ever make it to the big screen, and few of those thought any resultant movie could do it justice.

It was an epic of Cold War fiction – 400 pages of murky double-dealing, lies, betrayal and assassination in the cause of patriotism. In 1979 it became a magnificent seven-part BBC television miniseries starring Alec Guinness. And who would dare to don his raincoat?

Step forward Gary Oldman. But, wait a minute; is this the same Gary Oldman whose oeuvre has included football hooligans, punks, dreadlocked pimps, hijackers, mad scientists and wizards? Indeed it is. And underplaying the inward-looking, anonymous, coldly calm George Smiley could be the apex of an already impressive career. Characters are Oldman’s trade. He doesn’t do the same thing twice. Portraying Smiley was a challenge – not least because of the impressively long shadow cast by Alec Guinness.

“I approached it rather like an actor would a classical role. So if you play Hamlet you’ve got the ghosts of [John] Gielgud, Laurence Olivier and Richard Burton but you can’t really let that get in the way. That’s how I kind of looked at it,” he said at the film’s premiere on Tuesday.

David Cornwell felt the same. The 79-year-old bestselling writer, better known as John le Carré, had his own misgivings when it was announced that a new film adaptation was going into production.

After all, le Carré had been burned before. Between The Spy Who Came in from the Cold in 1965 and The Constant Gardener in 2005, there had been multiple film versions of his books. Very few had made the grade.

Le Carré was anxious to keep the film at arm’s length. By his own admission he approached it “with misgivings”.

“George Smiley was Alec Guinness. Alec was George: period. How could another actor equal let alone surpass him?” said le Carré. His concerns must surely have been echoed by thousands of others. Yet there came a moment when his anxieties were assuaged. Partly it was witnessing the acting of Oldman. Partly it was the sure hand of Swedish director Tomas Alfredson. Le Carré changed his mind.

“Gary Oldman’s Smiley pays full honour to the genius of Guinness,” he said on seeing the completed film for the first time back in July. “He evokes the same solitude, inwardness, pain and intelligence that his predecessor brought to the part – even the same elegance.

“Oldman’s Smiley, from the moment he appears, is a man waiting patiently to explode. The danger, the pressed-down fury and the humanity that almost doesn’t manage to keep its head above the parapet of despair, are Oldman’s own.

“If I were to meet the Smiley of Alec Guinness on a dark night, my instinct would be to go to his protection. If I met Oldman’s, I think I just might make a run for it.”

Oldman doesn’t raise his voice in the movie, except once. Everything is controlled, calm, under wraps. He’s a solitary, lonely, melancholy man with a hint of cruelty. He’s ruthless – a bruised idealist. And he can blend into the woodwork, watching and listening. Low-key and subtle are his watchwords.

The 53-year-old Londoner says: “I was very flattered to be asked to play George. Smiley is drawn from a world of John le Carré’s personal experience; all of his complex characters are so fully realised.

“Britain has a long espionage tradition, and I’d say we’ve spied quite well. But we have also held a rather romantic view of it, and le Carré showed the reality.”

Oldman describes Smiley as “a wonderful role for an actor”. He is mild-mannered, sagacious, and perspicacious. He is a student of espionage, and a great manipulator of bureaucracy who works on his wits. Smiley has a prodigious memory, like a steel trap. He has an innate sense of the foibles, the weaknesses, and the fallibilities of the human condition.

Adds Oldman: “He possesses a strong moral sense, even though he recognises and understands the dark, unethical, and ugly side of what he does.

“One of the reviews for the book said that ‘Smiley is a great spy but an inadequate man’.

“Le Carré describes Smiley as a rather short guy, unattractive, overweight; yet he told me, ‘It’s yours now. Make it what you will.’

“[I] took a few little things from watching le Carré – which I think Alec Guinness may have done as well. I also ate a lot – custard, treacle sponge… I put on a bit of weight, a paunch.”

The man who has played everyone from Sid Vicious to Lee Harvey Oswald by way of Beethoven reflects quietly on his gallery of heroes and villains.

“I’ve played many an extroverted character, so I loved portraying someone so still, so quiet.

“Smiley doesn’t act out. In Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, he’s part of a high-stakes chess game, one where everyone is intently watching how – or, if – another person is going to move.”

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is being strongly tipped for Oscars. In the coming months Smiley’s knack for watching and waiting may serve Mr Oldman well.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (15) is on general release from today.