When going through the live-action Batman movies in order, Batman Begins especially stands out from the pack given that it rebooted DC Comics’ Dark Knight for the big screen following the commercially-disappointing and critically-maligned Batman & Robin. One of the highlights of the 2005 superhero movie is Gary Oldman’s performance as Jim Gordon, who becomes a key ally to Christian Bale’s Batman. Oldman, who believes he was originally eyed for Scarecrow, had a particularly hectic shooting schedule on Batman Begins, but this ended up aiding his performance as Gordon.
While being interviewed on Happy Sad Confused, Oldman first noted to interviewer Josh Horowitz about how there’s a “world-weariness” to Jim Gordon in Batman Begins because he’s surrounded by corrupt cops and, despite his best efforts, “can’t corral the chaos.” The actor then recollected how he was frequently flying between Los Angeles, where he lived, and London, where Batman Begins was shooting, so he wouldn’t be away from his children for too long. As he remembers it:
I think I ended up doing 27 round trips on the first Batman… So I’d go home for two days, see the kids, fly back, work three days, go home, be home for three days, I’d fly to London and do one shot, and then get on the plane the next morning and come back.
Christopher Nolan he would turn back around on his way to the airport if there ended up being “anything wrong with the dailies” that required him to reshoot one of more of his scenes.
Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Cillian Murphy, Gary Oldman stuck around for the entirety of the Dark Knight trilogy, and he remains my favorite depiction of James Gordon. These days, Oldman can be seen playing Jackson Lamb in the British spy thriller series Slow Horses, available to stream with an Apple TV+ subscription.