Gary Oldman spent over 200 hours transforming into Winston Churchill

Gary Oldman sat in the make-up chair for over 200 hours to transform into Winston Churchill for his new film Darkest Hour.
The 59-year-old actor plays the infamous former British Prime Minister in director Joe Wright’s upcoming movie, which focuses on how the politician ran the country and fought against Adolf Hitler at the beginning of the Second World War.
At an event unveiling the trailer for the film at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Wednesday (29Mar17), Oldman revealed to guests that preparation for the part involved spending endless hours sat in a chair while make-up artists and prosthetics experts turned him into Churchill. The Batman Begins star also had to wear a bodysuit to gain his alter ego’s portly physique, and noted it was so heavy that he ended up carrying around half of his body weight on set.
Oldman had to capture Churchill’s distinct dialect too, with Deadline reporting viewers “gasped” at how convincing he looked and sounded in the teaser clip.
Discussing the plot of the feature, the actor explained: “We see how very, very close we came to Nazi tyranny. Had it not been for Winston, our world might be very different. That, in itself, to come in and play those things is a wonderful gift for an actor.”
The role wasn’t without its challenges though as Oldman admitted it was a lot for him to “wrap his arms around”. But despite finding it daunting at first, the Oscar nominee quickly got into the swing of things and was thrilled to play someone he sees as “the greatest Brit who ever lived”.
“Once I started to find out who the man was, it was… Well, I never enjoyed anything so much in my life. I couldn’t wait to get to work and be him,” he smiled.
Darkest Hour, which also features Lily James, Kristin Scott Thomas and John Hurt in his last cinematic performance following his death in January (17), hits cinemas this winter.