Gary Oldman takes on John Le Carre’s iconic spy

He is, of course, stepping into very large shoes -- George Smiley is synonymous with the late Sir Alec Guinness, who brought the character to the small screen in the late 1970s and early 1980s with two highly successful long-form BBC serials, Tinker, Tailor and Smiley’s People. Oldman, however, as one might expect, has found something more nuanced in Le Carre’s very British spy.

“This is a little darker, a little crueller than what people might remember,” begins Oldman. “It is not such a cosy English affair and it is a bit sexier. The TV series was 30 years ago and was somewhat nostalgic even then. The Cold War was close and you were closer to the Commie watchers and all of that, which is in the mists of time now.

“So we have tried to update the character and the atmosphere in that sense. I love it. [But] it is still very low tech. It is the polar opposite of James Bond and it is not The Bourne Identity. It is an intellectual thriller. You have to focus and listen.”

That particular mantra is well used by Oldman’s character. George Smiley is the epitome of the believable spy -- always focused, always listening. Le Carre worked for many years inside the Secret Intelligence Service, and while the author has never claimed to recreate a world that is totally genuine, his realm of MI6, or the Circus as it’s known in Tinker, Tailor, rings with authenticity.

As with the novel, the film unfolds in the early 1970s with Smiley an MI6 agent forced into retirement but then charged by those in power with arguably the greatest challenge of his illustrious career: tracking down a Russian mole buried deep within the heart of the Circus. Smiley must investigate former friends and colleagues using the subtlest of methods.

“With Smiley you have to remember he is a character who doesn’t do very much,” says Tim Bevan, the co-chairman of British filmmakers Working Title, a producer on Tinker, Tailor and the man who gave Oldman his breakthrough gig in Sid And Nancy more than a quarter of a century ago. “You needed a screen actor who had the ability to do nothing in a completely compelling manner. And Gary is one of those people. He can look at you or clean his glasses and it’s as mesmeric as somebody blowing something up. Of his generation he’s probably the finest, and that’s who you want in your movie.”

The supporting cast -- which includes established players and rising stars, from John Hurt, Colin Firth and Kathy Burke to Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hardy -- is robust, although Tinker, Tailor is very much Oldman’s movie. Like Bevan, the director of the film, Tomas Alfredson, the Swede who made an international splash with his beautifully rendered vampire movie Let The Right One In, wanted Oldman and Oldman alone for the central role.

“The character is described as the perfect spy, in the sense that he is someone you would immediately forget if you saw him on the street,” explains Alfredson. “He is never expressing anything. He asks questions. He never judges anyone. He never gives anything away so you might think he’s not a very cinematic character -- but he is. And I think Gary Oldman does this fantastically. At one moment he raises his voice in the film, in the final scene, and that little thing, the effect is enormous. He is a consummate performer and I’m so pleased he was on our journey.”

Oldman’s journey began in New Cross Gate, London, in 1958. His father left when his son was just seven years old, and Oldman was raised by his mother and two older sisters, he says, to be respectful and loyal (one of his sisters is Laila Morse, best known for playing Mo Harris in EastEnders). In person he comes across as humble and considered, a “quiet talker” in Larry David parlance. “My dad left when I was still very young,” Oldman tells me, “so I guess it was my mum who instilled my work ethic. And now I try to do the same with my kids.”

Oldman’s work ethic found an ideal outlet when he entered stage school at Rose Bruford College in Sidcup, Kent, after being rejected by the Royal Academy Of Dramatic Art. He was inspired partly by the insurrectionary roles played by actor Malcolm McDowell in such films as A Clockwork Orange and If …, and even at this early stage he revelled in playing acerbic characters. It was during one of these swirling performances that producer Eric Fellner and director Alex Cox spotted the young actor. They were casting Sid And Nancy, a biopic of the Sex Pistols’ bass player.

“I wasn’t punkish in my attitude, I just took on the job,” he says of his 1986 breakthrough. “I liked blues, Motown, Rod Stewart, and to this day I still think he has a fantastic voice. I liked Elton John, and of course The Beatles. I can recognise why punk came along, and why it had to come along, and why it had to happen. But I probably have a better appreciation of it now than I did when I made Sid And Nancy.

“And now [Sex Pistols guitarist] Steve Jones has got this radio show in LA; God knows what they make of him. I’ve been on the show a couple of times. He had me doing Bruce Forsyth impressions.”

In the wake of Sid And Nancy, Oldman dazzled critics with a string of notable performances -- in The Firm, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, State Of Grace -- and by the time he played Lee Harvey Oswald in Oliver Stone’s JFK in 1991 his star had well and truly risen.

The 1990s saw the likes of Dracula, True Romance, Leon and The Fifth Element. “I think I was a late starter,” he says. Oldman was 32 when JFK hit cinemas. “There were people around me who were far more confident than me. I was a little slow out of the gate, but I enjoyed it and was told I had a flair for it, and I’ve got a good work ethic. I’m committed. When I do things I like to see them through.”

Oldman tries to live his life the same way. “I’m loyal, to people and passions,” he says. “I have a small social circle, and very few acquaintances. I have a small and tight group of friends. And I don’t mean tight in that we see each other a lot -- some of them are in LA, where I live, and some are here in London -- but I have friends I’ve known for 30 years.”

He says he has always been a quiet person. “When I was growing up I had two mates, and we liked the same things -- we were into football and David Bowie. But I’m not incredibly social, and I never liked going out to lots of parties. I’m quite solitary, and I can go months without seeing people. I like being in the house with the kids, and it suits me.”

The actor has been married four times -- to Lesley Manville (1987-1990), Uma Thurman (1990-1992), Donya Fiorentino (1997-2001) and Alexandra Edenborough, whom he married in 2008. He has four sons: Alfie, from his first marriage; Roberto, adopted with ex-girlfriend Isabella Rossellini; and Gulliver and Charlie from his marriage to Fiorentino.

During the 1990s, Oldman suffered from well-publicised drinking problems and there have also been allegations of drug abuse. He now lives a teetotal lifestyle and has publicly lauded Alcoholics Anonymous for helping him overcome his problems. After a bitter divorce, Oldman was granted custody of his children with Fiorentino, whom he raises in his Los Angeles home. He has lived in California since the 1990s.

“I’m not a bully or a disciplinarian, but I want my kids raised in the right way,” he tells me. “I try to encourage variety, because young boys’ leisure time is all game-based and driven by violence in a way -- because if it isn’t video games it’s paintball.

“There are things they want which they can’t have. I draw the line up to a point but they are 12 and 14 and all their friends are going paintballing, which is fun, but it is still a gun and you have to monitor their time on the games machine. I like them to swim or skateboard, play basketball and join the baseball league, so they have these extracurricular things. And the funny thing is, you do hear your own parents.

“You start to hear yourself as your parents. You become square. You’re not, but you are, if you know what I mean.”

Still, he enjoys being a parent. “It’s been interesting,” Oldman says, “but the kids have turned out polite and respectful, and that’s the big achievement. When you sit down at the end of the year and you talk to the children, and when they say they contribute to the class and are where they should be, that’s what I’ve been doing mostly since I made Nil By Mouth. That’s been my project.”

His one and only stab at directing, 1997’s Bafta- and Palme d’Or-winning Nil By Mouth is a brilliant if harrowing portrait of turbulent domestic life, featuring memorable performances from Ray Winstone and Kathy Burke. The latter stars in Tinker, Tailor, sharing poignant scenes with Oldman.

“It is interesting,” he says, “because people wanted Nil By Mouth to be more about me than it really was. It is a little bit autobiographical -- and yet people see it as that was my dad on screen and that was my situation. So no matter what I say, people think it’s all about me. It’s actually mostly fiction. The likes of Ray or Kathy, those characters were composites.”

Some critics have suggested that since that seminal movie, Oldman’s work has been prompted by the size of the pay cheque rather than the quality of the material. He hasn’t strayed behind the camera since and, instead, has become something of a blockbusting movie star, signing on for roles in the likes of the Harry Potter series, Chris Nolan’s Batman franchise, and the well-paid likes of The Book Of Eli and Red Riding Hood. He does not, however, feel as though he has comprised his artistic integrity.

“I’ve been raising the kids for the last 15 years, and that’s not been easy,” he says. “People see you doing Sirius Black in Harry Potter and think you’re taking it easier but it’s all relative. Work is work and when you are working you are in the consciousness of people, and my fan base has certainly changed. With all the kids at my children’s school, do you know what I am most famous for?” Harry Potter, I’d presume. “No, for doing the voice in Call Of Duty.”

Oldman has lent his voice to eight computer games, including the last two incarnations of the multimillion-selling Call Of Duty. “The games are so popular, and it makes me a little cooler with my kids’ friends,” he says. “Really, it’s all the same -- it’s what I do for a living. It is imagination. Some of it is comical, some of it is dramatic. And I feel very lucky and privileged to have been part of Harry Potter.”

The actor smiles. “That is set in the fantasy world, though, so with something like Tinker, Tailor, it is nice to come and do something proper. George Smiley is a wonderful role, and I must say it is nice to come back and play an Englishman.” And he does it in style: no matter how dark and cruel the brush strokes, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is Gary Oldman’s masterpiece.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (15) is out on September 16.