JFK
Oliver Stone's JFK
The Cast: In Their Own Words
Gary Oldman (Lee Harvey Oswald)
"I think [the critics are] trying to discredit Oliver because he's done it with a movie. There are a lot of people who would never read the books, but they can go to a movie."
"[Oliver] can stir the s***, he's not scared of anything, and he never tires. You could plug Oliver into New York and he could power the city for two weeks."(1)
"I could have said, 'No, this role's too small, I'm gonna do Libra [the film of Don DeLillo's novel about Oswald] instead.' But I didn't do it for the size of the part. I did it because of a speech that Kevin makes at the end of the movie, and because there's a fantasy sequence where I, as Oswald, talk straight to the camera and say I'm innocent. [This sequence was cut from the completed film.]
"I had to do a lot of research on this one because there was only ten percent of the part [on] the page. Oliver said, 'You're just going to have to improvise it.'"(2)
"For instance, the script would just say, 'Lee and Marina have a fight.' No lines, no clue as to what they're fighting about. Beata and I would talk to people and sit down together and figure it out, then we'd meet with Oliver and he'd say, 'Okay, tell me what this scene's about.' It was like jumping out of an airplane without a parachute and free-falling, and trusting that there's a big air bag underneath the clouds to catch you."(3)
"[So I read books, met Lee's widow Marina Oswald, visited various scenes of the crime and talked to conspiracy researchers. In the process, I became something of a conspiracy buff myself.] The subject is so vast, you get completely sucked in. A friend of mine said that it was better than a relationship. I did about three months on it, I became a detective. It's like you have your own investigation going on. You're trying to piece together this man who's a complete enigma."(4)
"And where he died, I died. Right on the spot. The corridor was the real corridor. The elevator was the real elevator. The landlady's house was the real landlady's house. We even found his furniture, his bed and his wardrobe." (5)
"I was always under the impression that Oswald had killed the president. That was just taken as read, you know . . . it's [written] in tablets of stone."(6)
"He was a very dark, lonely figure.(7) You believe him, you look at that guy, 'I didn't shoot anyone,' he keeps repeating, you know, 'I don't know what dispatches you people have been given, but I emphatically deny these charges.' (8) He was innocent. He was the patsy, the fall guy. Exactly what he said he was."(9)
"I mean, even when I was [working the rifle], the adrenalin . . . plus the fact the gun he was using, was a very old gun, I mean a piece of s***. Something like 120 marksmen have tried to recreate what he did that day; they've not been able to do it. Why would he use ammunition that hadn't been used since, like, 1947? The gun cost, you know, twenty-five dollars. The telescopic sight on it, which was supposedly misaligned, was like a dollar-fifty. You can't do it. You can't do it. You can't do it."(10)
Others disagree."[The whole experience has convinced me that Oswald's finger wasn't on the trigger.] He was a foot soldier, basically. He was involved in the plot, but he was a tiny pawn in the whole game. He didn't realize the immensity of it all until it was too late. Like he said, he was a patsy."(11)
"[As an actor, I had real trouble with Oswald's voice.] He had the most unusual speaking pattern I've ever heard. It's disjointed, there's no consistency of pronunciation, no rhythm, no real accent. I didn't know where to start. But it made it even interesting, that, of all people, he would have to sound like that."(12)
"Oliver was possessed. He brought a sense of urgency and aggression to it. I likened it to being in the Army. When we were rehearsing it was like, 'Let's synchronize our watches.'" (13)
"Someone said to me last night, 'I love the bits where they intercut you and the real Oswald, and I said, 'There is no real Oswald -- it's all me,' and they went, 'My God, you are him.' That's what you set out to achieve."(14)
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You may wish to see:
Who's Who in the Jim Garrison Case
Jim Garrison's New Orleans Photo Gallery
Articles and resources on the JFK assassination
1. Jim McClellan, "The Face Interview."
2. Jim McClellan, "The Face Interview."
3. "Double Impact: Pozniak-Oldman," Harper's Bazaar, December 1991.
4. Jim McClellan, "The Face Interview."
5. James Riordan, Stone (New York: Hyperion, 1995), p. 388.
6. Beyond JFK: The Question of Conspiracy (1992), Warner Video, directed by Danny Schechter and Barbara Kopple. Thanks to Michael A Bull.
7. James Riordan, Stone (New York: Hyperion, 1995), p. 388.
8. Beyond JFK: The Question of Conspiracy (video documentary). Thanks to Michael A Bull.
9. James Riordan, Stone (New York: Hyperion, 1995), p. 388. 10. Beyond JFK: The Question of Conspiracy (video documentary). Thanks to Michael A Bull.
11. Jim McClellan, "The Face Interview."
12. Jim McClellan, "The Face Interview."
13. James Riordan, Stone (New York: Hyperion, 1995), p. 389.
14. Jim McClellan, "The Face Interview."