Gary Oldman’s nuanced fan-favorite portrayal of Sirius Black in the Harry Potter film franchise will remain imprinted for a lifetime in the minds of its enthusiasts. Although his rendezvous with the series was shorter than the movies’ frequenters, he still had several memorable and intriguing experiences to take home. Some he reflected on while attending Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast.
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During the interview, the subject of his Harry Potter stint surfaced when Horowitz questioned the Darkest Hour alum about the stage directions the actor dreads to see on the script pages. Oldman humored that he had his fair share of covered-in-blood adventures. However, the most strenuous and punishing thing he has had to do as an actor involved the star lying on a studio-built frozen lake during The Prisoner of Azkaban filming!
At times, his body parts would hurt, his kidneys would feel cold, and the production would run to the actor’s rescue to bring hot water bottles and pillows!
The Hardest Scene For Gary Oldman In Harry Potter Involved A Frozen Lake
Making an appearance on Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast, Oscar-winning actor Gary Oldman touched on various subjects, spanning the vast enormity of his decorated filmography and the recently released Season 3 of Slow Horses. One endeavor and role quintessential to Oldman is his portrayal of Sirius Black in Harry Potter films. Since it’s among his most celebrated, critically-praised works, the topic of his brief but memorable stint eventually emerged.
Explaining the most inconvenient and arduous scene he had to film for the franchise—an answer that none of us would’ve expected—the Léon alum stated:
“The most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do, oddly enough, was, um, in one of the … Harry Potters, I had to lay by that lake. There was a frozen lake, and I’m sort of dead, and my soul is leaving my body. And then, it appears.”
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The actor is referencing a sequence from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the 2004 movie in which he made his series debut. It’s the scene where Sirius Black’s soul is sucked out by dementors chasing him near a frozen lake, and Harry is compelled to cast a Patronus charm.
Although the actor’s follow-up reasoning makes ample sense, most of us likely did not anticipate this scene to be Oldman’s most challenging in the series. The Dark Knight alum described how, amid the discomfort of spending a week lying on a frozen lake constructed in a studio, the staff would always rush to his aid.
Production Ran To The Rescue Of Gary Oldman’s Kidneys
Gary Oldman emphasized how Harry Potter shoots would take forever, even for a sequence as simple as lying on a frozen lake, which would take weeks to film. This posed the most burdensome challenge. The actor revealed that he would have to spend days and nights on the frozen lake without doing anything else. Following was his statement:
“It was just me, lying down. But, Harry Potter, it took forever. It was slow, and we’d be on a scene for weeks. You know what I mean? Normally, we can shoot this in two days! Anyway, I was on that—what they did was they built this lake inside the studio, and they cooled it down, and they froze this lake.”
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The Slow Horses star affirmed that having to lie on the lake in one specific position would entail getting his kidneys cold and his neck hurt:
“And I had to lie there for a week, day in, day out—doing nothing. But then, [you’d be like] ‘Could someone get—I think my kidneys, they’re getting a bit cold.’ And then, they put the little hot water bottle under you, and you lie there like that. Then, on day three, you’d go, ‘‘My neck is killing me in this position.’ And they’d put a little pillow underneath you!”
Amid the inconvenience, the staff would make it as comfortable for the actor as possible. However, despite that, laying on a chilly, frozen lake for a week sounds like an obscure nightmare.
Irrespective of such troubling sequences, Gary Oldman’s performance as Sirius Black remains the most convincing and unforgettable. In the podcast, the actor commented that his work in the series was “mediocre.” But for thousands of fans, it continues to hold the utmost significance.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) is available for streaming on Max.
