Gary Oldman repeatedly turned down Churchill role... then his wife intervened

Telegraph

29-04-2025

Gary Oldman has revealed he turned down the role of Winston Churchill 'half a dozen times' before his wife intervened.
The 67-year-old actor, who won an Oscar, Bafta and Golden Globe for his performance as the wartime prime minister in Darkest Hour, said he was partly convinced to accept the part by Alexandra Edenborough, his now former wife.
The singer and actress, who was married to Oldman from 2008 until 2015, encouraged him to 'walk on the wire', he said.
Speaking to Radio Times, the Slow Horses actor said portraying Churchill in the 2017 film, directed by Joe Wright, was his 'riskiest role' to date.
He said: 'It worked out OK, but I'd turned it down half a dozen times.
'It was partly my wife [Edenborough] who said: 'Go out there and walk on the wire. It could be great, but even if you fall and it's no good, you've got to stand on the set and say 'We shall fight you on the beaches'.' And I thought, 'You've got a point there'.'
The film ended with Oldman delivering Churchill's renowned 'We shall fight on the beaches' speech in the House of Commons in 1940 to rally the nation against the Nazis.
The actor has previously said he first declined to play the former prime minister in part because of the 'physicality' of the role, which required him to wear a 6kg fat suit and silicon mask.
Elsewhere in the interview, Oldman admitted he found playing historical figures more exciting than some of the fictional characters – and villains – he has become famed for portraying.
'I find the biographical stuff thrilling,' he said, adding: 'I love being a detective and researching. It makes it tactile. You can go in and touch the history, rather than it just being all imagination. I enjoy the process.'
Oldman has received critical acclaim for his portrayal of other historical figures, including an Academy Award for his role as Herman J Mankiewicz, the American screenwriter, in the black-and-white biographical drama Mank.
The veteran actor also revealed he had turned down roles that resulted in critical acclaim for others in the industry, saying: 'I won't mention which, but I've passed on things that have given people their careers.
'I passed on something someone won an Oscar for… But I might not have won the Oscar. It would have been a different film, you never know.'
He also criticised Netflix for cancelling popular shows after a single season, something the streaming giant has previously come under fire for from fans.
Asked if he was 'keen to continue' after four seasons of the Apple TV+ hit Slow Horses, Oldman said: 'Obviously, if they want to keep us on the air and we've got an audience. It's Apple writing the cheques.'
He added: 'Speaking of disappointment, have you noticed that some of the streamers can really disappoint their audiences? Like Netflix will give you a season of something or other, and they just go, 'We're pulling it.'
'Apple will not do that. We're working on writing number six. Now, I don't know whether we'll eventually end up doing it, but we've filmed five and there's eight books altogether.'