Getting sober was one of the three pivotal events in my life, along with becoming an actor and having a child. Of the three, finding my sobriety was the hardest thing.
Interpretation
Sobriety is a major, challenging life change that can lead to personal transformation.
In this quote, Gary Oldman emphasizes the profound impact that achieving sobriety had on his life, placing it alongside two other significant milestones: becoming an actor and having a child. He acknowledges that the journey to sobriety was the most difficult of the three, highlighting the struggle and courage required to overcome addiction and achieve personal growth.
In practice
During a motivational speech on recovery and personal challenges.
I drank for about 25 years getting over the loss of my father and I took the anger out on myself. I did a good job at beating myself up at sometimes. I don't drink anymore but my alcoholic head occasionally says different. 'Nil By Mouth' was a love letter to my father because I needed to resolve some issues in order to be able to forgive him.
The thing a drama school can't give you is instinct. It can sharpen instinct but that can't be taught, and you have to have intuition. It's an essential ingredient.
There's no handbook for parenting. So you walk a very fine line as a parent because you are civilizing these raw things. They will tip the coffee over and finger-paint on the table. At some point, you have to say, 'We're gonna have to clean that up because you don't paint with coffee on a table.'
I wanted to play Dracula because I wanted to say: 'I've crossed oceans of time to find you.' It was worth playing the role just to say that line.
Change is vital to any actor. If you keep playing lead after lead, you're really gonna dry up. Because all those vehicles wean you away from the truths of human behaviour.
I didn't want people to know me as a victim.
We must ride this strange torpedo out until the end.
Valor grows by daring, fear by holding back.
I'm William Wallace, and the rest of you will be spared. Go back to England and tell them... Scotland is free!
I was as afraid as the next man in my time and maybe more so. But with the years, fear had come to be regarded as a form of stupidity to be classed with overdrafts, acquiring a venereal disease or eating candies. Fear is a child's vice and while I loved to feel it approach, as one does with any vice, it was not for grown men and the only thing to be afraid of was the presence of true and imminent danger in a form that you should be aware of and not be a fool if you were responsible for others.
Moral courage is the highest expression of humanity.
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