Gary Oldman's acting credits in recent years may have had him playing more subdued roles than in the past, but the actor was once known as playing villainous role after villainous role. These weren't just normal bad guys though; Oldman's chracters were almost always mentally unhinged sociopaths, terrorists, megalomaniacs or all of the above. The Fifth Element, Air Force One and True Romance are all examples of Oldman's old habits of playing deranged individuals and he's even dabbled in returning to such roles, most notably in The Book of Eli, released in 2010. Perhaps the most deranged role of them all though, is Oldman's performance of the horrifically disfigured Mason Verger in Hannibal. The Typecast-Breaking Roles: Commissioner Gordon, George Smiley and Sirius Black: three characters that Oldman has played in recent years that have gained him significant praise. For anyone who had never read the Harry Potter books, the casting of Oldman to play Sirius was a genius one in retrospect. With his past acting credits, many would have been forgiven for thinking Sirius Black was going to be another example of Oldman up to his old tricks again, but when Black turns out to be a loving, caring uncle with a bit of a dark side, Oldman's performance was sure to have surprised many.
Joe is a freelance games journalist who, while not spending every waking minute selling himself to websites around the world, spends his free time writing. Most of it makes no sense, but when it does, he treats each article as if it were his Magnum Opus - with varying results.
