Gary Oldman, Hollywood's go-to bad guy, on facing typecast in film industry

Actor Gary Oldman opened up about facing typecasting in the entertainment industry in the past, saying that he once was the go-to guy for the casting directors who needed a bad guy.

While discussing his performance as Dr Zachary Smith in Lost in Space during a recent interview with Variety, the actor said that there was a point in his career when he was the primary choice of the makers for villain roles in movies.

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"I got sort of typecast for a while. I became kind of like the poster boy for the 'rent-a-villain.' Sort of, 'Oh, we need a villain and we'll get Gary.' I don't know how that happened, but it happened," Oldman was quoted as saying.

"And it was fun for a while, but eventually, I just put a stop to it. It got a little old. But they are fun to play."

Oldman likened the character of Dr Zachary Smith to another one of his iconic villain roles, Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg from The Fifth Element, which was directed by Luc Besson and was released in 1997.

"[Lost in Space] was fun, great cast. I thought the story, it was a lot to put in. It was a lot of movie in two hours. But [Dr. Zachary Smith] was fun to play because it's a villain with a tongue in the cheek or a little twinkle in the eye," Oldman said.

One of Oldman's first major switches from villain to hero was when he joined Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy as Commissioner Gordon.

David S Goyer, who wrote Batman Begins and The Dark Knight for Nolan, recently recalled on the Happy Sad Confused podcast that he was "very surprised" to hear Oldman had landed the role, given his villain status.

"Now that I'm a more experienced filmmaker, I realised that it's really exciting to cast against type," Goyer was quoted as saying by Variety. "It's exciting for filmmakers, and it's also exciting for the actors."

Oldman will be seen in the fifth season of the Slow Horses series. The actor has been playing the lead role in this web series since season one. The fifth season is set to premiere this year.