(Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Sat 19 April 2025 17:15, UK
Film and television acting is different from theatre acting in a myriad of ways, but primary among them has got to be the live, one-and-done nature of theatre. While on stage, there is no such thing as a second take. If an actor flubs their lines or fails to hit their mark, the director can’t just yell “Cut!” and start the scene again. This means theatre is not often known for being open to improvisation, because the medium simply doesn’t lend itself to that performance style. It’s unsurprising, then, that some actors feel a certain liberation in trying different things on different takes while shooting a film – and sometimes magic can come from it, as it did in one of Gary Oldman’s most iconic scenes.
In the 1990s, Oldman became – as he eloquently put it – “the poster boy for villains.” In that decade alone, he played Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK, Count Dracula in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the pimp Drexl Spivey in True Romance, intergalactic tyrant Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg in The Fifth Element, the terrorist Egor Korshunov in Air Force One, and mad scientist Dr Zachary Smith in Lost in Space.
In fact, Oldman wound up playing so many evil, dangerous characters that he eventually told his agent to stop sending him villain roles to consider – and for the odd role that did make its way to his desk, he resolved to increase his price tag. “They are more expensive, villains,” he told Stephen Colbert with a grin. “I charge more for a villain. At a discount, I’ll gladly be the hero.”
Before he instituted this veto on villain duties, though, Oldman played arguably his most infamous bad guy in Luc Besson’s Léon: The Professional. In that 1994 action thriller, Oldman portrayed Norman Stansfield, a corrupt and likely insane DEA agent. The movie was a hit at the time, but went on to attract an even bigger cult following over the years. Audiences loved Jean Reno’s soulful performance as the titular assassin, while Natalie Portman’s portrayal of the 12-year-old assassin protege, Mathilda Lando, belied her tender years.
Oldman’s truly unhinged take on Stansfield lived long in the memory as well, though, and most fans tend to remember one of the actor’s line deliveries above all others. In a pivotal scene, Stansfield is talking to a SWAT team leader after many of his men have been mowed down by Léon. He calmly says, “I told you, Benny. Bring me everyone,” but when he is met with the response, “What do you mean ‘everyone?’” Stansfield screams in his face, “EVERYONE!”
It’s a moment that is simultaneously terrifying and ridiculous, shocking and hilarious – and that’s exactly what Oldman wanted. You see, it wasn’t scripted for Stansfield to scream the word, his eyes bulging out of his head and his teeth gnashing with ferocity. But after a few takes of delivering the line normally, Oldman wanted to experiment.
“I did a couple of takes, ‘Bring me everyone, everyone,’” Oldman chuckled to Colbert on The Late Show. “And to make Luc Besson laugh as a joke, I went to the sound guys and I said, ‘I’m going to be really, really loud.’” After warning the sound technician to slip off his headphones for this specific take, Oldman yelled “Everyone!” in as loud and over-the-top a manner as he could muster.
To Oldman’s surprise, though, not only did it make Besson laugh, but he later realised that this was the take Besson had used in the film. Oldman’s funny improv had been immortalised forever in the movie – and it’s now an indelible part of his cinematic legacy. A surprised-but-happy Oldman smiled, “That was just an outtake. It was just me having a laugh.”
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