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Is it possible to be too good at your job? It is if you're a character actor. Sure, you get the respect of your peers and the adulation of a small group of slavishly devoted fans, but you don't get the magazine covers or hugely inflated salaries of your generally less talented non-character-actor colleagues -- and, for some actors, that's probably a bitter pill to swallow. It was bitter enough for Kevin Spacey to engineer a complete career makeover, vaulting him from interesting but small supporting roles in movies like The Usual Suspects to the leading-man slot in American Beauty. But is his career path typical? Is it the path that other character actors really, in their heart of hearts, want to take?
Consider the case of Gary Oldman, who seems to have moved effortlessly between leading and supporting roles throughout the fifteen years that span the meat of his career. Hard-core Oldman fans still point to his title role in Sid and Nancy as his greatest performance yet, and in many ways, it remains emblematic of the choices he continues to make -- playing a compelling character who either leads or drives the plot, in edgy films destined to become cult classics. In fact, his CV reads like the shelf of a particularly snooty video store: Prick Up Your Ears, Henry & June, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, True Romance, Romeo Is Bleeding, The Professional, Basquiat, and so on. Crowd pleasers, are they? That depends who you ask. And the rest of his CV is filled out with nearly as many dogs as "prestige" projects: Bram Stoker's Dracula, Murder in the First, The Scarlet Letter, The Fifth Element, Air Force One, Lost in Space, Quest for Camelot, and the current Hannibal.
Quite a range, right? The Professional: beloved launching pad of Natalie Portman. Bram Stoker's Dracula: early '90s evidence of the continuing disintegration of Francis Ford Coppola's career. Common denominator: Oldman.
So, Oldman is a whore. On this we can probably all agree. One does not contract to play Arthur Dimmesdale to Demi Moore's Hester Prynne without spending a little time on Hollywood's street corner. But the thing about whores is that they do come across. Does Oldman always turn up in respected films you are anxious to see? Clearly not. But when you happen to see one of those shitty movies on an airplane, there is no denying that Gary Oldman is probably the only thing that makes it watchable. The claims that he's among the greatest actors of his generation are not unwarranted. The question is whether it's worth Oldman's putting those gifts to work in the service of the TV movie Jesus.
In fact, there are very few commercial and critical hits among Oldman's credits. Air Force One qualifies on the former count, but not the latter. Rosencrantz has a loyal following, but it's no Swingers. One could argue that The Contender, Hannibal, and JFK qualify as middling critical and commercial hits, but the fact that one would have to argue the point indicates that public opinion on the subject isn't exactly unanimous.
So how has character actor Gary Oldman avoided the Hey! It's That Guy! ghetto? Partly, it's by playing leading roles in smaller films (Immortal Beloved, anyone?). Mostly, it's by squiring around famously beautiful women -- first marrying Uma Thurman, and then dating Isabella Rossellini. Evidently, one must not underestimate the importance of paparazzi photos when one wishes to remain in the public eye.
What of Gary Oldman's fame? He's so famous that he's actually famous for being so frequently unrecognizable. And his name has come to be shorthand for the mark of thespianic quality. To maintain one's public standing by being a good actor in bad movies is a rare feat indeed, and this commentator feels it's reason enough not to begrudge him the fame he has, even if we don't judge him worthy of more than he already has. The porridge of Gary Oldman's fame is neither too hot nor too cold. It's just right.
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