'I Was Broke': Gary Oldman Gets Honest About Starring In 1 Of The Most Hated Films Ever

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19-06-2025

Sir Gary Oldman has opened up about how he came to star in a film that's widely considered one of the worst in history.
Back in 2003, the newly-knighted British actor starred alongside Matthew McConaughey, Patricia Arquette and Kate Beckinsale in Tiptoes (two of whom have gone on to win Academy Awards, as has Sir Gary).
The film centred around a young man, played by Matthew, who gets his girlfriend pregnant, having concealed from her that every member of his family, including his twin brother, has a form of dwarfism.
Sir Gary played Matthew's brother in the movie, for which he donned prosthetics and spent much of the shoot on his knees.
During a new interview with the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Sir Gary admitted that he's never actually seen Tiptoes, and revealed that it came along at a difficult time in both his personal and professional life.
'I'll be very honest with you,' Sir Gary began. 'I had gone through a divorce and a nasty thing with a contractor.'
He continued 'I ended up in California, in LA, at 42 years old, a single dad, and I was broke. And, ironically, I was living under the Hollywood sign, living in this rental. We had no furniture – thank God for Ikea.'
Sir Gary said that when the offer for Tiptoes came along, he'd not worked for just shy of two years, and had been affected by an actors' strike.
'It was a bit of a rough time, and I needed to pay some bills, and I needed some money, and it was an actors' strike ontop of it all, which was a double whammy,' he admitted, noting the situation was a 'terrible time' for everyone in Hollywood.
'And then this film came along, this crazy idea, from this director, that I would play a little person. And I would play Matthew McConaughey's brother.
'There were several [issues]. First of all, I got locked in to doing a voice like that, because I had to sound like Matthew. We were brothers, so somehow, I had to sound like Matthew. So that was that. And then, I'm on my knees… desperate measures, desperate times.'
'I needed to work,' he insisted. 'And it was a crazy idea. But, would I do it now? No.'
He said that if one good thing came out of the film, it's that several actors with dwarfism – including a pre- Game Of Thrones Peter Dinklage – were able to get work at a time when many performers were struggling.
'It was a good thing in that regard, because they were all going through the same thing I was going through, with no work,' Sir Gary said, insisting: 'But it's a misfire, to be sure. Not one I talk about, I'm so glad you brought it up.'
Elsewhere in the interview, Sir Gary was also asked about another of the films he hasn't held in an especially high regard, The Fifth Element.
He explained that his wife of eight years, Gisele Schmidt, has helped to 'convince me that it's a better film than I think it is'.
Sir Gary explained: 'I'm contaminated, because I was the one who had that haircut. And I was the one who was wearing rubber. So, others can experience it in a different way. I get a little triggered when I see it, and I go back to that place of Jean-Paul Gaultier and rubber.'
He added: 'Bruce [Willis] didn't like [that] either – you know that orange vest that he wears? He hated it.'
A year after Tiptoes hit cinemas, Sir Gary made his debut as Sirius Black in the third Harry Potter film – a role with which he's still synonymous to many today.
Since then, he also won an Oscar for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour.
Over the weekend, it was announced that Sir Gary had been bestowed with a knighthood by King Charles for his services to drama.