Gary Oldman Hated The Fifth Element

Gary Oldman appears in The Fifth Element as the memorable sci-fi villain Zorg, but as it turns out he hated the movie, so why did he film it?

Summary

• Gary Oldman's controversial comments in a 2014 interview sparked outrage, but he quickly apologized for his remarks.
• Oldman starred as Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg in The Fifth Element as a favor to director Luc Besson.
• While Oldman may not be a fan of his own performance in Sid and Nancy, both films remain cult classics.

Out of the many characters Gary Oldman has played in his career, Zorg from The Fifth Element may be one of the most memorable. Gary Oldman's long and vaunted movie career has earned him three Academy Award nominations with one win, one Emmy nomination, and three Golden Globe nominations with one win. A true chameleon, Oldman disappears into his roles, sometimes putting on a heavy disguise and transforming into a real person like in Darkest Hour, and sometimes just changing his movements and voice like in Léon: The Professional. It's hard to argue the actor's considerable talent, though that doesn't mean Oldman has escaped all controversy.

In a 2014 interview with Playboy, Oldman railed against PC culture, "I just think political correctness is crap," via AV Club. He then went on to defend Mel Gibson for his racist remarks and Alec Baldwin for his homophobic ones. Thankfully, Oldman immediately apologized for his remarks, going on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to say, "Words have meaning, and they carry weight long after you’ve said them," via CNN Entertainment. He also wrote to the ADL who amended their condemnation of him to thank him for his honest apology, via ADL. Lost in his shocking comments to Playboy was an offhanded dig at The Fifth Element, of all things.

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Gary Oldman Starred In The Fifth Element As A Favor To Director Luc Besson

In the Playboy interview, Oldman was asked what he thought about The Fifth Element​​​​​​, to which he responded, "Oh no, I can’t bear it," via AV Club. The Fifth Element is a beloved underrated sci-fi movie, so Oldman's words were bound to provoke some outrage. However, it begs the question of why he was in the movie at all. As it turns out, Oldman played the role of Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg, the southern-sounding villain, as a favor to director Luc Besson, via Far Out Magazine. He says, "I was directing a film, and Luc Besson was one of the producers and had initially helped me with raising financing."

His memorable performance as the swaggering villain was thanks to Besson producing Oldman's Nil By Mouth in 1997. Oldman says of the work, "I was singing for my supper. [Luc] called. He said, ‘I need you to do a movie.’ I didn’t read the script – it was a favor." Clearly, there was not much to interest Oldman in the role beyond appeasing his producer. In Hollywood, the phrase "one for me, one for them" is often used by creatives to describe how they do a project for the money so that they can do something for themselves later. Rarely is there such a one-to-one trade as in this situation.

Oldman Also Didn't Like His Performance In Sid & Nancy

The Fifth Element isn't the only movie Oldman has an issue with. Oldman's second feature film performance, Sid and Nancy, sees the actor starring as Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious. However, Oldman's thoughts on his performance are not particularly generous, "I don't think I'm very good in it," via Slash Film. He even goes further saying,

"If ['Sid And Nancy'] comes on TV and I'm channel surfing and I see a second of it I want to just throw the television out the window. I had no interest in the Sex Pistols. I looked at it and thought, 'Why? Why would you make a movie about these people?' But it's got its charms, [there's] great things in it. It's Roger Deakins cinematography, one of his early films. But it's just old stuff now, to me."

Despite Gary Oldman appearing in cult classics like The Fifth Element and Sid and Nancy, Oldman doesn't always have rose-tinted glasses on when looking back at those performances. They did come earlier in his career, so it may just be a case of Oldman being embarrassed about what he considers immature acting. Either way, Oldman doesn't decide how his fans feel about those films and they both remain movie classics.

The Fifth Element

Release Date

May 9, 1997

Rating

PG-13

Watch on Amazon Prime Video