The “amazing” Anthony Hopkins performance Gary Oldman stole from: “We all borrow”

Posted On August 26, 2024August 26, 2024

Not many actors have completely changed the face of the profession, which, by extension, means the majority of thespians are happy to cherrypick certain elements they admire from their peers. Gary Oldman is undoubtedly one of the best around, but he’ll also hold his hands up and admit he’s a thief.

Like many British performers, Oldman cut his teeth treading the boards before graduating to the screen, wasting little time in showing himself to be a talent with an incredibly bright future. Capable of disappearing into just about any role, the star has refused to be pigeonholed or typecast, and that versatility has been key to keeping him in demand for well over 40 years.

If a movie needs a bloodthirsty villain, Oldman can do it. If a film requires a mentor or father figure to dispense kindly words of wisdom, he can do that, too. He can plumb the emotional depths and ham it up for the cheap seats with equal aplomb, with the Academy Award winner repeatedly outlining that there’s no character he won’t play and none he can’t play to the best of his abilities.

Now that he’s a veteran, Oldman has evolved into an inspiration for those who follow in his wake, placing him onto the pedestal he once reserved for Anthony Hopkins. started out as a stage performer before becoming an acclaimed actor, segueing into character parts, and ending up as a movie star when The Silence of the Lambs won him his first Oscar.

It wasn’t a silver screen turn that Oldman saw as one worth stealing from, though, with the theatregoer in him left enraptured by Hopkins returning to the London stage in the mid-1980s for David Hare and Howard Brenton’s satirical Pravda.

Playing the part of Lambert Le Roux, the play was a scathing assessment of the newspaper industry at the height of the Thatcher years, also passing judgment on the unstoppable ascent of Rupert Murdoch and the onslaught of tawdry tabloids that irrevocably altered the complexion of print journalism.

It may not be one of Hopkins’ best-known performances, but for Oldman, it was influential. “We all borrow or lend,” he told Phil Joanou. “I remember seeing Anthony Hopkins in Pravda, and I thought it was such an amazing performance I thought, ‘Right, I’m going to nick that and make it my own.’”

Hopkins would receive an Olivier Award for ‘Outstanding Achievement’ for his contributions to Pravda, but the effects of his work lingered long after the production had been performed for the final time and he moved onto fresh performative pastures, with Oldman seeking to take the best of what his fellow actor had done and work it into his own oeuvre.

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