Gary Oldman had to apologise to Demi Moore while filming The Scarlet Letter for 'being unprofessional' and 'drinking too much' on set

Daily Mail​

28-04-2025

Gary Oldman has played a fair few drunks in his time, from Churchill to Jackson Lamb.
But the Oscar winner has now admitted to once having a drinking problem which resulted in him being 'destructive' on the set of A Scarlet Letter with Demi Moore.
The Oscar winner, 67, played Arthur Dimmesdale in the 1995 Romance film alongside Demi Moore, now 62.
Now talking about his experience whilst filming on set, he revealed he had to appologise to Demi at the time.
Speaking to this week's Radio Times, he said: 'I think the worst thing you can do is inspire disappointment.
'I was in The Scarlet Letter with Demi Moore, and I had intermittent bouts of boozing during filming. It was towards the end of [my drinking] where I thought, 'If I carry on like this…'.
'I was in a very dark place. I drank too much in the lunch hour. It was such a destructive thing. I got back on the set to do quite a big scene and I got through it.
'You wouldn't really know but I was quite tipsy. And the next day, I said to her, 'I'm so sorry, you must hate me.'
'I was mortified that I'd been so unprofessional. And she said to me, 'I don't hate you. It's OK. I'm just disappointed'.'
Gary was arrested in 1991 for drunk driving and in 1994 checked himself into rehab.
In recent years whilst talking about his addiction he has admitted to 'sweating vodka' and that he would drink so much that his tounge turned black.
He has now been sober for 27 years and has previously credited Alcoholics Anonymous for helping him with his addiction.
Oldman won an Oscar for his role in Darkest Hour, where he portrayed Winston Churchill.
Telling the Radio Times he revealed the role was the 'riskiest' he had ever taken on and that his perception of Churchill changed afterwards.
'It worked out OK, but I'd turned it down half a dozen times,' he said.
'He wrote more words than Shakespeare and Charles Dickens put together. He wrote about 50 books, all those famous speeches. And not only did he write all those, but he wrote all the day-to-day stuff, like memos and letters.
'The achievement of one guy who could write all that, paint those pictures, take on the Nazis, smoke that many cigars, drink that much in his life – I had great admiration for him.'
Having most recently played the role of Jackson Lamb, a drunk, unkept, failed MI5 agent, in the last three seasons of Apple TV's Slow Horses, Oldman said they're now talking about season six with season five to be released this summer.
'Obviously, if they want to keep us on the air and we've got an audience,' he said.
'It's Apple writing the cheques. We're working on writing number six.
'Now, I don't know whether we'll eventually end up doing it, but we've filmed five and there's eight books altogether.'
It comes after Gary recently praised his former co-star Demi for her recent success.
'I've not really been in touch with her, but I just reconnected with her because I saw her recently. She is such a wonderful person, Demi,' Gary told The Post earlier this year, 'She really is very special.'
He continued: 'I couldn't be happier for her in this moment with this film and this role.
'I think it's such a wonderful thing. And she's loving it and really riding the wave.'
Demi has been dominating this year's awards season for her role in The Substance, winning both a Golden Globe and a SAG Award for Best Actress for her performance as Elisabeth Sparkle in the horror film.
Gary was also nominated at the 2025 SAG Awards for best actor in a drama series for his role in the Apple TV+ thriller Slow Horses.
However, Japanese actor Hiroyuki Sanada took home the prize for his incredible performance in the TV series Shōgun.