Gary Oldman Grades His 'Harry Potter' Performance as 'Mediocre,' Jokes About Hardest Scene to Film

Gary Oldman is looking back on his experience playing Sirius Black in the Harry Potter movies.

The 64-year-old actor made his debut playing Harry Potter’s imprisoned godfather in 2004′s Prisoner of Azkaban and died on screen in 2007′s Order of the Phoenix before making a cameo in the final movie in 2011.

Years after he hung up his cape and wand, he revisited his performance in the franchise while on the Happy Sad Confused podcast and deemed it lacking. Gary also jokingly reflected on what he deemed to be one of his hardest scenes to film.

Read more about Gary Oldman’s Harry Potter experience…

“I think my work is mediocre in it,” Gary admitted during the interview, comparing his performance to Professor Snape actor Alan Rickman‘s. “No, I do. Maybe if I had read the books like Alan, if I had got ahead of the curve, if I had known what’s coming, I honestly think I would have played it differently.”

He added that his critique of himself was not to diss fans of his work in the franchise or any of his other work. However, “If I sat and watched myself in something and said, ‘My god, I’m amazing’ that would be a very sad day because you want to make the next thing better. It’s so subjective,” he explained.

In the interview, Gary also said that “the most difficult thing I ever had to do” was filming a scene in Prisoner of Azkaban when dementors (the prison guards of Azkaban) were sucking his soul out of his body.

What made it difficult was how long filming took and the location. The scene took place alongside a frozen lake and was filmed in the studio over the course of a week.

“I had to just lie there for a week. Day in, day out, doing nothing,” he recalled, adding that his various body parts started hurting while filming. “The hardest thing I had to do was lie next to a frozen lake.”

If you missed it, the actor recently revealed how Harry Potter and another major franchise “saved” his life.

Press play on Gary Oldman’s interview below…