Gary Oldman Says He Was ‘Mediocre’ in ‘Harry Potter’ Movies

Sirius Black’s got that dog in him, so we guess it makes sense that he’d be a daunting character to play. Gary Oldman certainly seems to feel like he didn’t do the character justice in the Harry Potter movie franchise. “I think my work is mediocre in it. No, I do,” Oldman said in a recent interview for the Happy Sad Confused podcast. He went on to compare himself to his late co-star Alan Rickman, who studied the books. Last year’s Return to Hogwarts reunion special preivously also revealed that Rickman learned directly from J.K. Rowling what would happen to Severus Snape — even before director Chris Columbus knew. In the special, Oldman said he wished he could’ve had the “full picture” while filming. And he expanded on that sentiment to Happy Sad Confused, reflecting, “I dunno… maybe if I had read the books like Alan, if I’d got ahead of the curve […] if I had known what’s coming, I honestly think I would have played it differently.” Alas, unless Oldman stumbles upon a Time Turner, he’ll have to make his peace with his past performance. And that doesn’t just apply to his time in the wizarding world. The actor noted that he would put “tons of” his work “all on a fire and burn it and do it all again.” While that sounds a bit bleak, he managed to give it a motivational spin: “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.”