Making a first film is difficult, making the second one is even harder!
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In any case, it is the experience that Gary Oldman has. The Oscar-winning actor for his role as Churchill, who made his directorial debut with 1997's Don't Swallow, revealed on the Happy Sad Confused podcast that he had been trying to get his second feature film off the ground for years.
“It’s not for lack of trying. “There have been a number of scripts over the years and there is one in particular that I would like to direct, but it has been 11 years since I wrote it,” he said. I had a piece that wasn't like “Don't Swallow,” but I think it had the same honesty and intensity. »
Gary Oldman, now 65, said he used a lot of his own money on “Don't Swallow,” co-produced with Luc Besson and Douglas Urbanski. The film, which he also wrote and is based on his family story, opened the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. The music for this two-hour dramatic film is by Eric Clapton. Don't Swallow won numerous awards, including the BAFTA Awards for Original Screenplay for Gary Oldman and Best British Film. However, a new project has still not been set up!
Now the Harry Potter star thinks he should find completely external financing for his second feature film. “I spent a lot of my own money making Don't Swallow and I'll never do it again… that's the cardinal rule: never do it,” he said.
But here too it is not easy. Investors have requirements that do not necessarily match those of the director. He loses control of his creative vision by receiving funding from other people. “I tried to do other things but it's a very difficult game. You have to go to the people who have money and they make casting suggestions that are absolutely ridiculous,” he said. He complained. We’re always faced with things like this.”
On this topic, he referred to producer Harvey Weinstein, who was nicknamed “Harvey Scissors” in the cinema industry because he was notorious for his extensive retouching of films produced by his company. “I did not [le producteur] Harvey Weinstein at the end of the film who wants to recut it, rewrite a scene, reshoot it and everything else. There can be a lot of people at the table and there can really be too many cooks in the kitchen,” he believes. But it's not there!
Fortunately, Gary Oldman's acting career was successful.