Gary Oldman Slams "Political Correctness," Calls Dark Knight Movies "Work"

[Sniper Team 4]

Wow...people like that kind of scare me. I'm not going to lie.

 

[Ticklefist]

I've enjoyed his work. Don't care about any of this other stuff. Doesn't matter if his stuff was taken out of context or not, he's a powerless actor. People far more important and influential than him feel the same way. I'd rather worry about them.

 

[faefrost]

Well, I disagree with him on a lot of things then, but once again we see the controversy machine firing up and that's what I don't like. Whatever his opinions may be I hope this doesn't impact his job prospects or anything like that, although I doubt it will. For some reason while an opera singer can be forced out of a production over a homophobic post, actors still get work no matter what they say, which is how it should be.

That's just it. he was ranting about the controversy machine and its double standards. He wasn't going off on any racist or bigoted rants. Beyond saying that people are getting excoriated for saying the little evil things that cross everyone's mind of mouth at a moment of pique or outrage. He is asking more why some get a complete pass for it while others get cast out as leppers. I think his position is more he is a total and open free speech advocate than he has any particular non pc views (beyond apparently loathing the concept of "political correctness".)

As far as his views on movies like the Dark Knight or Harry Potter. Remember he is an actor. What he views as a fun or challenging part to play may not always jive with what fans enjoy on screen. He was wonderful as Jim Gordon in the Dark Knight movies. And as always he brought his professional A game. But Gordon is not exactly a character any of us would define as "fun" to play. (Really how many Commissioner Gordon Cosplayers you see out there?). This is pretty typical of actors. (heck Harrison Ford famously dislikes Han Solo, finding him a rather one note character to play, whereas he finds Indiana Jones much more challenging and nuanced.) We all do "Just Work" in order to allow us to afford to do the things we enjoy.

 

[SnakeoilSage]

Well I'm gonna have to be honest and say I respect Gary himself a bit less now. Talented, certainly, but taking a closed-minded position in a debate reeks of willful ignorance, of a general fear of change. The kind of thing that makes gamers hate women, for example. "Nuuu, they're touching my special area!"

 

[Callate]

Read the interview. Taken as a whole, it really isn't that bad, and it really does seem like he's more defending the right to have an unpopular view than actually clinging to those views himself.

(I'll agree that the "Mel Gibson is in this town run by Jews" thing was ill-spoken, though.)

 

[Mahorfeus]

I'm glad that I actually decided to read the article. I was about to dismiss this as another case of a good actor just so happening to be a douche.

But he seems to be a pretty down-to-earth kind of guy, who is just fed up with the industry (and a lot of other things). Gods know I couldn't deal with all of that.

 

[BlumiereBleck]

But Nancy Pelosi is a fucking useless ****. Also I do not blame him for saying what he said. Marlon Brando said the same thing (about Hollywood being run by the Jews).

 

[Adamantium93]

You know, if this article was copy and pasted onto Fox News, the same people defending it here would be attacking it there. Turn off your ideological blinders and fanboyism and read the article. You don't have to agree with what Mr. Oldman says (I don't agree with all of it myself) but you do have to agree that Mr. Chipman is grossly misrepresenting the facts here.

Mr. Oldman is simply talking about the controversy machine and double standards inherent in the system. Agree or disagree, he is not being anti-Semitic, he is not defending Mel Gibson's views, and he is not advocating creationism be taught in our schools. What he is criticizing is the knee-jerk reaction that people have towards conservative thought and conservative people (especially when compared to their liberal counterparts) and the hunger that the country has for controversy. We yearn for it, and when we smell blood in the water we descend upon people like sharks. We treat unpopular opinions as if they are crimes. The teacher who advocates creationism may be in the wrong, but he does not deserve to have his career, image, and life ruined for it. Similarly, the sword doesn't cut both ways: Jon Stewart can insult any Republican on national TV and its a big joke. If a conservative figurehead were to do the same to a liberal politician, it would spark massive outrage. Saying as much doesn't make him bigoted or evil.

The man has an opinion. I don't see any true malice, bigotry, nor intent towards harm in what Mr. Oldman said. Disagree with him. Call him ignorant. Say he's just plain wrong. But disagree with what he says, not with a straw-man facsimile created by a liberal writer with an agenda. Especially when said straw-man exists solely to create website traffic and to harm the image/career of a person who holds ideals that are different from those of said author. Ironically, this is exactly the sort of thing he is speaking against: a conservative person has an opinion (not even an unpopular one at that), and suddenly the big "Wheel O' Controversy" starts spinning out misrepresentations, sound bites, and out-of-context statements in order to cash in on an easily manipulated public.





As to him calling his most famous movies "work": Actors live by periods of feast and famine. A newbie to the business might pledge to only take roles that he has a genuine interest in, but finding work as an actor is tough. After starving for a while, you learn to take whatever comes down the pipe. If you get the chance to be in something that you like, you're either extremely luck or extremely famous. I can guarantee you that every successful actor has taken roles they hated because they needed the money. Actors like to be auteurs when they can, but more often they're just trying to make a living.

 

[bravetoaster]

So basically, Gary Oldman is kind of an asshole. Okay, I gotcha. Guess that makes Zorg getting his has blown up funnier now.

Minus the kind of. He beats women and is a genuinely shitty human being. Excellent actor, but unfortunately that's just pretend.

 

[NeutralDrow]

This SJW movement has some solid points underneath it's shouting messages, but they won't come out and make change while people actively shut out any disagreement and create an echo chamber.

Which is exactly what the Internet SJWism is. An Echo Chamber, you are with them, or against them.

And it must disappear to get real pro action started.

Why, though? Depending on which cause championed, "pro action" has been going on for centuries (in the case of feminism, civil right regarding race, and anti-colonialism), or decades at the least (LGBTQ rights). Whatever this internet "SJW" movement (which I've never seen, except to hear people complain about it) is doing, it sounds perfectly indistinguishable from any other loud group on the internet, full of sound and fury signifying nothing, comparable more to a group of non-hacking trolls than something tangibly harmful like the Occupy or Tea Party Movements.

Whatever's genuinely going on regarding social justice hasn't stopped. The worst that can happen from a bunch of alleged loudmouths is a drop-in-the-bucket hit to the reputation of legitimate actors...because if there's one thing people fighting against sexism, segregation, marriage equality, and the like have never dealt with, it's having their reputations questioned.

 

[NeutralDrow]

I know this may be hard for people to wrap their heads around, but there are, in fact, parts of this country where liberalism has become so entrenched that it has devolved into its own kind of conservatism - dogmatic, self-justified, and intolerant/dismissive of anyone who fails to tow the party line. As someone who grew up in litigious, left-leaning California, I can tell you personally that it can be really insidious, especially if you actually uphold liberal principles on a personal level but feel alienated from the indoctrinated mainstream.

...I want to move to where you live. San Diego would be so much nicer with some actual liberalism.

 

[The Material Sheep]

This SJW movement has some solid points underneath it's shouting messages, but they won't come out and make change while people actively shut out any disagreement and create an echo chamber.

Which is exactly what the Internet SJWism is. An Echo Chamber, you are with them, or against them.

And it must disappear to get real pro action started.

Why, though? Depending on which cause championed, "pro action" has been going on for centuries (in the case of feminism, civil right regarding race, and anti-colonialism), or decades at the least (LGBTQ rights). Whatever this internet "SJW" movement (which I've never seen, except to hear people complain about it) is doing, it sounds perfectly indistinguishable from any other loud group on the internet, full of sound and fury signifying nothing, comparable more to a group of non-hacking trolls than something tangibly harmful like the Occupy or Tea Party Movements.

Whatever's genuinely going on regarding social justice hasn't stopped. The worst that can happen from a bunch of alleged loudmouths is a drop-in-the-bucket hit to the reputation of legitimate actors...because if there's one thing people fighting against sexism, segregation, marriage equality, and the like have never dealt with, it's having their reputations questioned.

People like Suey Park are popular in SJW groups. They do effect society and politics. To dismiss the crazy people like Suey Park who say "Whiteness is a disease" who are popular, as harmless drops in the bucket, I think is naive and denies the kind of harm these kind of people taking over the voice of Social Justice can do.

 

[NeutralDrow]

This SJW movement has some solid points underneath it's shouting messages, but they won't come out and make change while people actively shut out any disagreement and create an echo chamber.

Which is exactly what the Internet SJWism is. An Echo Chamber, you are with them, or against them.

And it must disappear to get real pro action started.

Why, though? Depending on which cause championed, "pro action" has been going on for centuries (in the case of feminism, civil right regarding race, and anti-colonialism), or decades at the least (LGBTQ rights). Whatever this internet "SJW" movement (which I've never seen, except to hear people complain about it) is doing, it sounds perfectly indistinguishable from any other loud group on the internet, full of sound and fury signifying nothing, comparable more to a group of non-hacking trolls than something tangibly harmful like the Occupy or Tea Party Movements.

Whatever's genuinely going on regarding social justice hasn't stopped. The worst that can happen from a bunch of alleged loudmouths is a drop-in-the-bucket hit to the reputation of legitimate actors...because if there's one thing people fighting against sexism, segregation, marriage equality, and the like have never dealt with, it's having their reputations questioned.

People like Suey Park are popular in SJW groups. They do effect society and politics. To dismiss the crazy people like Suey Park who say "Whiteness is a disease" who are popular, as harmless drops in the bucket, I think is naive and denies the kind of harm these kind of people taking over the voice of Social Justice can do.

Harm of what sort? Enacting laws discriminating against white people? Convincing every Asian-American/European to rise in violent revolt? Removing all paternity rights? Other things existing only in the zero-sum paranoid fantasies of the populist zeitgeist?

If people like Suey Park had some measure of political clout or a portion of the status quo going for them, maybe I'd be worried. After all, I live a country where <url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_behind>Christian Sci-fi has dictated actual government policy. But someone going around and claiming that "whiteness is a disease" is someone who should probably be watched for serial killer tendencies, and won't otherwise be taken seriously on a grand scale (whereas someone claiming, say, that Mexicans are the source of all societal ills could probably get six states' worth of people to agree with them).

Like I said, the worst I can see happening until it runs its course is a reputation thing, maybe some concepts being trivialized in the meantime...an annoyance, yes, but outside the internet still very much business as usual. We haven't moved that far forward as a society yet.

 

[FalloutJack]

So basically, Gary Oldman is kind of an asshole. Okay, I gotcha. Guess that makes Zorg getting his has blown up funnier now.

Minus the kind of. He beats women and is a genuinely shitty human being. Excellent actor, but unfortunately that's just pretend.

Oh, so he IS Zorg. Well, that makes him a liar, then, if he says that part was 'work'.

 

[Imp_Emissary]

PLAYBOY: What?s your view of the future? Are you optimistic about where society is heading?

OLDMAN: [Pauses] You?re asking Gary?

PLAYBOY: Yes.

Okaaay...... a little odd....

They're in the middle of talking about the upcoming Planet of the Apes film in which he plays the leader of a band of human survivors. I guess he wanted to clarify whether the interviewer was asking "What's your character's view of future society?" or "What's your view of future society?".

What Grouchy said. It was still a bit awkward. xD Could have said; "Are you asking about my character, or me?", but eh. Actors. ;p

You know, I read the interview, it was neat, and I was kind of warming up to the guy before the 4th page.

Went way down hill from there, but I guess it could have been worse. Though, such is true of almost anything.

Bob's taken the entire article out of context. Anybody with 5 minutes to spare can easily verify this.

Also is it just me or does Bob take every chance he can get at knocking off DC movies? I mean really, out of all the things Oldman said in the interview, he picks "Dark Knight movies were work" as the title? As if that was some kind of negative comment on the movies themselves? Christ, EVERY movie is "work".

Eh, not really. Like I said the interview was pretty nice until page 4. After words, adding more of what he said doesn't really help.

Spoiler: Whole thing about the buddhist kid.

PLAYBOY: Mel Gibson?

OLDMAN: Yeah.

PLAYBOY: What do you think about what he's gone through these past few years?

OLDMAN: [Fidgets in his seat] I just think political correctness is crap. That's what I think about it. I think it's like, take a fucking joke. Get over it. I heard about a science teacher who was teaching that God made the earth and God made everything and that if you believe anything else you're stupid. A Buddhist kid in the class got very upset about this, so the parents went in and are suing the school! The school is changing its curriculum! I thought, All right, go to the school and complain about it and then that's the end of it. But they're going to sue! No one can take a joke anymore.

I don't know about Mel. He got drunk and said a few things, but we've all said those things. We're all fucking hypocrites. That's what I think about it. The policeman who arrested him has never used the word ****** or that fucking Jew? I'm being brutally honest here. It's the hypocrisy of it that drives me crazy. Or maybe I should strike that and say "the N word" and "the F word," though there are two F words now.

Spoiler: What he then said about Mel.

PLAYBOY: The three-letter one?

OLDMAN: Alec calling someone an F-A-G in the street while he's pissed off coming out of his building because they won't leave him alone. I don't blame him. So they persecute. Mel Gibson is in a town that's run by Jews and he said the wrong thing because he's actually bitten the hand that I guess has fed him?and doesn't need to feed him anymore because he's got enough dough. He's like an outcast, a leper, you know? But some Jewish guy in his office somewhere hasn't turned and said, "That fucking kraut" or "Fuck those Germans," whatever it is? We all hide and try to be so politically correct. That's what gets me. It's just the sheer hypocrisy of everyone, that we all stand on this thing going, "Isn't that shocking?" [smiles wryly] All right. Shall I stop talking now? What else can we discuss?

PLAYBOY: What do you think of the pope?

OLDMAN: Oh, fuck the pope! [laughs and puts head in hands] So this interview has gone very badly. You have to edit and cut half of what I've said, because it's going to make me sound like a bigot.

That all said, the thing about Pelosi, like that last bit about the Pope, could be either serious or a joke.
Without hearing him say what he said, it's a bit hard to tell.

Spoiler: Thing about Pelosi and the satire thing.

PLAYBOY: Go for it. You're on a roll.

OLDMAN: More and more, people in this culture are able to hide behind comedy and satire to say things we can't ordinarily say, because it's all too politically correct.

PLAYBOY: Do you have something in mind?

OLDMAN: Well, if I called Nancy Pelosi a ****-and I'll go one better, a fucking useless ****?I can't really say that. But Bill Maher and Jon Stewart can, and nobody's going to stop them from working because of it. Bill Maher could call someone a fag and get away with it. He said to Seth MacFarlane this year, "I thought you were going to do the Oscars again. Instead they got a lesbian." He can say something like that. Is that more or less offensive than Alec Baldwin saying to someone in the street, "You fag"? I don't get it.

PLAYBOY: You see it as a double standard.

OLDMAN: It's our culture now, absolutely. At the Oscars, if you didn't vote for 12 Years a Slave you were a racist. You have to be very careful about what you say. I do have particular views and opinions that most of this town doesn?t share, but it?s not like I'm a fascist or a racist. There's nothing like that in my history.

PLAYBOY: How would you describe your politics?

OLDMAN: I would say that I'm probably a libertarian if I had to put myself in any category. But you don't come out and talk about these things, for obvious reasons.

PLAYBOY: But there are a ton of conservatives in Hollywood, and libertarians too. Bill Maher has called himself a libertarian.

OLDMAN: I think he would fail the test. Anyway, unlike Bill Maher, conservatives in Hollywood don't have a podium.

Personally, I'm pretty sure he wasn't really saying "Fuck the Pope".
As for what he said about Nancy, I'd have to hear how he said it to be sure, but I'm guessing he was voicing some feelings about her.

As for his defence of Mel and attacks on Jon/Bill. I'd say they're both pretty weak. Saying that they could just go out and say very terrible things [sub](even though they don't really. Well maybe Bill does, don't watch him as much)[/sub], doesn't really give you reason to do the same.

With the stuff about the teacher and Mel. His arguments seems to be, first; "it's just jokes, chill out". I fail to see the jokes he's seeing. Then for Mel, it's; "Well we're all using those racist words and even some different ones, so who cares?" It sounds like he's projecting a bit there.
Also, the "the town Jews run" thing. Not sure you can give that "good" context.

Yeah, more context doesn't really seem to help.

As for the movie stuff,[sub][sub]besides what he said about 12 years a slave[/sub][/sub], I don't really care.
It's all work. Maybe he's just more of a Marvel fan? ;p

P.S.[sub][sub] Just so you know. I have to replace all the 's, -s, and "s in those spoiler quotes. Because I guess the Escapist doesn't like the font other site use for them and replaces them with ?s.
Having to do that has made me Grouchy. ;p[/sub][/sub]

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

"...in a town that's run by Jews and he said the wrong thing because he's actually bitten the hand that I guess has fed him."

I always love it when this kind of thing is called "political correctness". It furthers my opinion that PC is code word for "acting like a jerk", and that a bunch of angry privileged men are mad at being called out on it.

In my experience, most of the people who complain about "political correctness" really mean "Why can't I voice my opinion without people voicing their opinion on my opinion?".

 

[Rozalia1]

Read the source and didn't see the big issue, it was interesting and accurate in its context (hypocrites). The Jew line is the only thing even slightly hot, everything else has to be taken out of context to be deemed offensive.
I've read the thread and like that others have called this out, and not all are slaves to what Gary Oldman spoke of.

It is kind of ironic that someone like Moviebob who is from what I gather the type of person Gary Oldman is referring to is the one who posted the article.

Heck people have ragged on how it was written, but the picture itself seems loaded. Why Zorg? Why not his character in Batman (it is in the title after all), or just a picture of the man in "real life"?
People will likely attack me for this, but what picture is put up can say a lot in itself. Say here in Britain, you a paper more left leaning? Have pictures of Cameron looking like an idiot when there is an article on something him, or his party did.

I'm not discounting everything said against the man, but some fairness is needed from certain folk.

As for the movie stuff,[sub][sub]besides what he said about 12 years a slave[/sub][/sub], I don't really care.
It's all work. Maybe he's just more of a Marvel fan? ;p

Okay I'll bite, what is the issue you take about what he said about 12 years a slave.

 

[Manni]

Of course Gary Oldman says something like "political corectness is bullshit!" and "you have the right to use racial/homophobic slurs when you're mad!" everyone cheers to that "yeah show them Gary!".