Gary Oldman comments on Ben Affleck in the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman in DC/WB’s upcoming Man of Steel follow-up, providing some support.
Gary Oldman turned in a pretty great performance as Commissioner James Gordon in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. Unfortunately, I feel like he doesn’t get nearly enough credit, as he’s always being overshadowed by the likes of Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, and Michael Caine. Regardless, it seems all the Hollywood rags are just clawing at any actor who had any ties to a Batman movie for comment on one of the most controversial casting in the past few years. Though the cries of the Batfleck opponents have slowly down to a more soft-spoken protest, the derision remains.
Not for Oldman, however. Like many Dark Knight fans, Oldman remains loyal to Bale’s Bats, he, however, does not doubt Affleck’s abilities. E! Online caught up with Oldman at the premiere of the Robocop remake to ask him his opinion on Batfleck.
“He’s got a hard cowl to climb into because I thought Christian had made such a signature on it. But Ben is a wonderful actor, so I’m intrigued to see what he does. If you listen to the fans all the time we wouldn’t have remade Robocop, no one would have made Batman. Ben will do fine. I think he’ll do fine.”
There’s no real analysis there. It’s a pretty straightforward statement. He’s cautiously optimistic, but his strong ties to Bale makes it so that it’d be difficult for him to accept a new actor in that role or to accept a new take on that character that would stand apart from Bale.
Though I’m sure that if you didn’t like Batfleck, Oldman’s opinion isn’t going to change that. His opinion holds very little weight, but it helps to reinforce my own optimism (especially since I’m not quite sold on Bale’s Batman).
Source – E! Online