LOS ANGELES — In some earlier parallel universe of Batman’s Gotham City, it might have been Gary Oldman instead of Heath Ledger cackling and conniving as the maniacal Joker.
Nowadays, Oldman is dogged, upright cop Jim Gordon in the Batman world or the solicitous Sirius Black, the surrogate father to boy wizard Harry Potter.
This is not your father’s Gary Oldman, the actor who built his reputation on such characters as prince of punk-rock anarchy Sid Vicious, presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald or Dracula himself.
In fact, Oldman has kind of become your father — a pillar of paternalism, a symbol of saintliness. The man you want covering your back, rather than the one you would never turn your back on.
With his second turn as Batman ally Gordon in “The Dark Knight,” Oldman, 50, feels as though he has finally broken ranks with the bad boys and put to rest his typecasting as a go-to guy when filmmakers needed a villain.
“In the past, I’ve had my share of good reviews, but it’s always the crazy, scary, weirdo guy. I don’t even know how it happened. Look at me. I mean, when I’m naked, I look like a bald chicken. How did I get to be a scary bad guy?”
It started as Oldman moved from stage roles to film in the mid-1980s and landed the lead in “Sid and Nancy,” a portrait of the self-destructive romance between Sex Pistols bass player Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen.
Oldman followed with “Prick Up Your Ears.” Then as Oswald in “JFK.” The vampire in “Bram Stoker’s Dracula.” An Irish gangster in “State of Grace.” An evil overlord in “The Fifth Element.” A brutal pimp in “True Romance.” A corrupt cop in “The Professional.” The saboteur stowaway Dr. Smith in “Lost in Space.” The terrorist mastermind in “Air Force One.”
Oldman mostly played the heavy until he was cast as Sirius in 2004’s “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.”
A year after “Prisoner of Azkaban,” Oldman co-starred in “Batman Begins” as even-keeled policeman Gordon.
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