As part of his press tour for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Gary Oldman stopped by Playboy for an interview and it won’t be the movie people are talking about after they read this one, but hey, controversy is just as good of press as anything else, just as Dimension Films.
I’ll offer a few snippets here and there, but over the course of a five-page interview piece Oldman defends Mel Gibson and Alec Baldwin for their use of what he determines to be simply politically incorrect language, he makes a bit of a strange comparison using Bill Maher and Jon Stewart that doesn’t quite wash and he isn’t exactly kind when it comes to the awards race, the Golden Globes specifically.
Let’s begin…
PLAYBOY: What do you think about what [Mel Gibson has] 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 nigger 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.
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?
It’s almost amazing how that entire rant is pretty much thrown off the rails by one line: “The policeman who arrested him has never used the word nigger or that fucking Jew?” Does Oldman think those are just words people throw around? Yes, I think political correctness has gone overboard in a lot of ways, but I don’t think we’re talking about political correctness necessarily in this case.
The situation with Alec Baldwin and similarly the recent situation with Jonah Hill, where they’re being harassed by paparazzi, use a word they shouldn’t have and are then vilified while the person tormenting them is left free to go torment others is a problem. We can’t allow people to instigate a situation to the point someone loses their shit and then point the finger at the person that lost their shit and not the nuisance poking them in the first place.
Oldman doesn’t necessarily help himself, in my eyes, when he says, “A voice I particularly like is Charles Krauthammer. I think he’s incredibly smart,” but the statement certainly suggests which way Oldman isn’t necessarily leaning, but has fallen over. Next comes the Stewart and Maher chatter:
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 cunt–and I’ll go one better, a fucking useless cunt–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.
Well, so I guess it’s now all out on the table, anyone else you’d like to mention Gary?
PLAYBOY: Would it mean something to you to win an Oscar?
OLDMAN: I suppose, yeah. But who knows? Does it mean anything to win a Laurence Olivier Award or a Tony? I guess it’s peers or people acknowledging you in some way. I know it certainly doesn’t mean anything to win a Golden Globe, that’s for sure.
PLAYBOY: Why not?
OLDMAN: It’s a meaningless event. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is kidding you that something’s happening. They’re fucking ridiculous. There’s nothing going on at all. It’s 90 nobodies having a wank. Everybody’s getting drunk, and everybody’s sucking up to everybody. Boycott the fucking thing. Just say we’re not going to play this silly game with you anymore. The Oscars are different. But it’s showbiz. It’s all showbiz. That makes me sound like I’ve got sour grapes or something, doesn’t it?
I’d say that pretty much wraps that up, go see Dawn of the Planet of the Apes of which Oldman says he signed on because, “I love the franchise. I was a fan, as we all were, of the original films. I thought the script was very good.”
See Gary, now that’s being nice. That’s all the studio and your agent wanted you to say. Then again, considering you said more you brought the film a whole lot more attention, can’t complain with that… right Fox?
