Gary Oldman believes he'd be ‘dead or institutionalized' if he didn't give up booze 28 years ago

New York Post

2 days ago

Gary Oldman is getting candid about his sobriety.
The 'Slow Horses' star opened up about his battle with alcoholism and getting sober 28 years ago during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published Monday, Aug. 18.
'I'm in a very good place at the moment, and a lot of that is to do with sobriety,' Oldman, 67, began. 'It's been 28 years. There was a point when I didn't think I could've gone 28 seconds without a drink.'
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9 Gary Oldman at the National Theatre in London, England, on July 18, 2024.9 Gary Oldman at the Ham Yard Hotel in London, England, on February 7, 2025.for Apple
Although the 'Harry Potter' actor did not pass the buck regarding his fight with addiction, he did acknowledge that many of his 'heroes' were 'all sorts of drunks and drug addicts,' which played a part in his own decision to start drinking.
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'They were all tortured poets and artists,' Oldman shared. 'You look up to them and you romanticize and want to emulate them.'
'It was a social norm, and at some point, it got out of control,' he continued. 'And that's nothing to do with anyone other than me. But you do glamorize it, that sort of crazy behavior.'
9 Gary Oldman at the Meryl Streep Center for Performing Artists in Los Angeles, California, on June 06, 2025.
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9 Gary Oldman at the TV Academy's Televerse Festival in Los Angeles, California, on August 14, 2025.
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One hero in particular was Richard Burton, who allegedly got drunk every night before he was set to go on stage to perform Shakespeare.
'You read about Richard Burton, who I think did 136 performances of Hamlet, eight shows a week on Broadway,' Oldman said. 'He'd drink a whole bottle of vodka and then play the whole part completely drunk.'
However, the 'Dark Knight' actor eventually realized that his life was better without alcohol, and he gave it up for good in 1997.
9 Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter and Gary Oldman as Sirius Black in 2007's 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.'
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9 Gary Oldman as Lt. James Gordon in 2008's 'The Dark Knight.'
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'It's just an excuse, really, and you're just kidding yourself,' he explained. 'My own life, my personal life, is immeasurably better from just not living in a fog. But I think the work is good, too.'
'Going at the rate I was going, I wouldn't be sitting here with you by now,' Oldman added. 'I'd either be dead or institutionalized.'
This wouldn't be the first time that the Academy Award winner opened up about his battle with alcoholism.
9 Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb in the AppleTV+ series 'Slow Horses.'
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9 Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb in 'Slow Horses.'
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Back in 2021, after starring as alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz in the 2020 biopic 'Mank,' Oldman told the Los Angeles Times how his drinking was once so bad that he 'used to sweat vodka.'
'It becomes such a part of you,' he shared at the time. 'My tongue would be black in the morning. I blamed it on the shampoo.'
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'I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy to be in the grip of it,' Oldman added. 'It's hell. And that self-effacing humor? That's just there to mask the inadequacy.'
9 Gary Oldman as Herman Mankiewicz in 2020's 'Mank.'
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Unlike Mankiewicz, who passed away from uremic poisoning in 1953 at 55, Oldman was able to get sober after two stints in rehab – even if he was a functioning alcoholic for the first 20 years of his adult life.
'When I was drinking, I was working and I was remembering lines, so you feel you're getting away with it, though, deep down, beneath the denial, you know,' Oldman concluded.