Gary Oldman's career is a significant achievement, even by Hollywood standards: over the past three decades he has taken on iconic characters - fictional, real and somewhere in-between - such as Sid Vicious, Count Dracula, Ludwig van Beethoven and Lee Harvey Oswald, bringing each to the screen with obsessive attention to detail.
Though I liked Bowie, I was never into the glam thing - it was all a bit much. I was never a punk either, though I got to play Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy. Looking back, I suppose the role I had in Meantime - Coxy the skinhead - was closer to my personal style. That bomber jacket he wears was my own, out of the cupboard, and those knee-high Dr Martens were Tim Roth's. He loaned them to me because we were looking for a pair that was worn.
As a drama student I got into Thirties and Forties suits. There was this place in Holborn called something like Blax, where this guy had these second-hand suits and boxes of these vintage shirts that were still in their polythene wrappers.
When I first went there, you wore a shirt and tie with a pin through the collar under the tie, with an old, smart single- or double-breasted suit. The trousers hung beautifully as they had a turn-up that was weighted with a little piece of leather. Then, of course, you had to get the shoes: shiny brogues and Oxfords. It was another uniform, I suppose, but I remember being the only one who dressed like that.
more:
Telegraph
