Gary Oldman: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

2. Norman Stansfield €“ Léon: The Professional (1994)

Now this is unhinged Gary Oldman at his best. In later years his performance as Norman Stansfield, corrupt DEA agent and psychopath extraordinaire, would become a meme thanks to that one bit where he politely requests that one of his cronies perhaps call in some reinforcements. When the hapless SWAT team member asks for confirmation? He gets a spittle-flecked €œEEEEEVVERRYYYYYOOOONEEEEE€ in the face. Luc Besson's 1994 thriller is mainly remembered for its starring double act of Jean Reno, in a career-making role (which lead him to such greatness as that nineties Godzilla flick) as the eponymous hitman, and an early appearance by a then 12-year-old Natalie Portman as the Mathilda, the young girl orphaned by Oldman's character. It's Oldman as Stansfield that's the real draw, however, from his introduction where the drug-addled agent murders Mathilda's entire family one by one. It's a truly disturbing episode of violence in an film full of action, and Oldman never really lets up after. He might chew the scenery a little, but it's a character that requires it, and he does it with some insane aplomb.