Gary Oldman greatly endeared himself to fans with his portrayal of Jim Gordon in the Dark Knight films. In fact, this role of the veteran actor remains one of his best and he is fondly remembered for his great performances as this character. Batman’s Confidant and Gotham City’s police commissioner, Jim Gordon was played by Oldman in all the films in the franchise, including Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises.
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He did an amazing job as Gotham city’s top cop. However, initially, Oldman was supposed to play another role in these films. That of the villain, Scarecrow. We take a closer look at this, in this article.
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Gary Oldman was originally supposed to play the role of Scarecrow
As aforementioned, Gary Oldman was originally supposed to play the role of the chemical-wielding, Scarecrow who had a bag-mask on his face. This was owing to the fact that he had played several villain roles before and was typecast as such. Nevertheless, Scarecrow was played by Cillian Murphy and Oldman got the role of Gordon.
In an interview with BBC Radio 1, Oldman has this to say about the character of Jim Gordon: “It’s that thing of turning up, and Batman’s already got there first. You’re a detective, but you don’t really get a chance to do any detecting because Batman’s done it all for you.”
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On him being typecast as a villain in the film industry, he said: “I think that the villain thing really came out of the work I had done with Besson.”. Oldman has indeed played the villain in many films. This includes Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK and Dracula in Bram Stoker’s Dracula among many others. What do you think of Oldman being initially cast as Scarecrow and not as Jim Gordon? Let us know your opinion in the comments section below.
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