Entertainment

Happier than ever, Gary Oldman isn’t ready to quit ‘Slow Horses’ anytime soon

Published

3 weeks ago

June 1, 2026

Happier than ever, Gary Oldman isn’t ready to quit ‘Slow Horses’ anytime soon

Two years ago, Gary Oldman found himself in Yorkshire for the wedding of his oldest son, Alfie. As Oldman’s other sons, Gulliver and Charlie, were there too, along with his wife, Gisele Schmidt, and his stepson, William, Oldman thought it’d be a lark to make the hourlong drive through the countryside to the York Theatre Royal, where he began his acting career in 1979.

The boys were intrigued, as they had heard stories over the years. Before Oldman burst on the film scene in the 1980s playing punk rocker Sid Vicious in “Sid & Nancy” and British playwright Joe Orton in Stephen Frears’ “Prick Up Your Ears,” he had turned heads in a run of plays throughout England. Then he was, as he puts it, “kidnapped by cinema.” Wanting to see their father’s career origin story, the family piled into a couple of cars and headed out.

“It was a lovely kind of homecoming, a debt paid, really,” Oldman tells me in a Zoom conversation from London. We’ve talked a great many times over the years, and while I wouldn’t call him nostalgic, Oldman most definitely is a sentimental man, especially when it comes to family.

That day, walking around the York Theatre Royal, thinking he needed to pinch himself because, really, how could it be 45 years since he first took that stage (“It all feels last week,” he thought), Oldman met Paul Crewes, the theater’s chief executive. “Do you think you might want to ever return to the stage,” Crewes asked Oldman, “and if so, where might that be?” Oldman thought for a moment and replied: “I think I’m standing on it.”

Sure enough, last year, in between filming seasons of his acclaimed Apple TV spy series “Slow Horses,” Oldman starred in Samuel Beckett’s “Krapp’s Last Tape,” playing a 69-year-old man who sits alone and listens to the recorded memories of his younger self. Everyone was so happy with it that Oldman was asked to reprise the role at London’s Royal Court Theatre this May, which is why he stayed in England after wrapping the seventh season of “Slow Horses.”

Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb in “Slow Horses.”

(Jack English / Apple TV)

“It all fell into place,” Oldman says of his return to the theater, “and once we started, I was really champing at the bit to have the first preview. I was that wound-up. And it was a very nice thing for the family to come and see their papa up there onstage. It all feels quite harmonic.”

Having just celebrated his 68th birthday, Oldman is only a year removed from Krapp, though unlike Beckett’s character he isn’t disillusioned or lonely.

“I don’t know if I’ve worked out who I am, but I feel a little easier in my skin and happier than I’ve ever been,” he says. He attributes much of that bliss to his marriage to Schmidt, an art curator, writer and photographer whom he wed in 2017. “At this point in my life, I’m with someone who gets me and understands what I do. You have to incubate, and Gisele doesn’t take it personally. It’s a big part of who I am, the quiet and isolation needed to work on a character. I’m very lucky to have found someone.”

Musing about couples who have been together for decades, Oldman brings up Kevin Bacon and his long marriage to Kyra Sedgwick. “That’s a fantastic love story,” he marvels.

Everyone’s journey is different, I offer. For Oldman, sober since 1997 and married five times (“Maybe I’m a romantic or an optimist or just ‘never say never,’” he once told me), he found his own love story. And the feeling appears mutual.

“I might be the fifth one, but I am the one,” Schmidt says playfully off-camera. Oldman smiles and repeats it in case I didn’t hear her. “It’s a lovely thing,” he adds.

Oldman feels the same way about “Slow Horses,” which has broken through at the Emmys the last two years, winning awards for writing and directing. Its fifth season aired in the fall. Two more seasons are in the can. And as author Mick Herron continues to write new books in the Slough House series, there’s no immediate end in sight.

“I mean, if I go to Book 10, 11 or 12, I’ll have to be in a walker,” Oldman jokes. “They’ll have to get a stair lift.”

He’s still sporting the facial scruff we associate with “Slow Horses’” unkempt master spy, Jackson Lamb, and as he noted last year at a SAG-AFTRA Foundation event I moderated, he still carries a few extra pounds around the midsection, the consequence of having to portray Lamb’s greasy, takeaway-container diet onscreen.

“I hadn’t seen Gary — I’d seen him on the telly — and it happened that we were filming around the same time, and I went into the makeup trailer and I [said], ‘Bloody hell!’” jokes Oldman’s “Slow Horses” co-star, Jonathan Pryce. “I thought he had a fat suit on. I didn’t realize his dedication to his craft.”

“You have to realize it’s five seasons, and it’s murderous,” Oldman answers. “It’s French fries and hot dogs and hamburgers and ice cream. It’s disgusting, isn’t it?”

The menu hasn’t changed, and neither has Lamb, still cynical and lazy, but also brilliant when he puts his mind to it, abrasive and cruel to his team, but also loyal and protective of the “losers” in his charge. Yes, outwardly, Lamb is, as Herron writes, a “sentient grease stain,” but Oldman believes he possesses a “strong moral and ethical compass.”

Over the years, Oldman has compiled what he calls a “small bible,” a journal of things that he believes may have happened to Lamb that aren’t found in Herron’s books. In fact, the most memorable scene in Season 5, where Lamb recalls a harrowing story of one of his “joes” being tortured by the East German secret police, alongside a pregnant woman, wasn’t in the book. Lamb later insists he made the whole thing up, though we learn at least some of what he said was true in the season finale.

“When you do something like that, I have to decide whether it’s true or false and then just play the scene with enough sincerity,” Oldman says. “Remember, Lamb’s a spy and a very good liar. The thing that struck me about it came at the very end. He says, ‘Well, they never got any information out of him. They wanted a name. But he never knew the f— name.’ That always struck me as an honest declamation.”

Oldman loves returning to “Slow Horses” every year and says that as long as Apple is willing to “keep writing those checks, I’m not ready to hang up my dirty raincoat just yet.”

“Most people I meet, including one of the royals, ask me, ‘Are you going to be doing more?’” he says. “They can’t get enough of it.”

One of the royals?

Oldman pauses. “Her majesty Queen Camilla is a keen viewer.”

How do you know this?

Another pause. “She … told me,” Oldman offers. “Long story for another time, perhaps.” Schmidt then fills in the blanks. They met the queen two years ago when Oldman performed at a Shakespeare celebration for the Queen’s Reading Room charity.

So perhaps there will be a Season 8, though with two unaired seasons still to come later this year and next, asking for more feels greedy. In the meantime, there are grandchildren to dote on. Last week, Oldman and Schmidt spent the day with their 18-month-old granddaughter, Ottilie.

“I do miss the baby stage, their character developing,” Oldman says. “Ottilie is already such a character. We just had a day of laughing with this innocent little soul.”

“But it’s that old story,” Oldman adds, smiling. “As a grandparent, you know you can love them and spoil them and then give them back.” He laughs. “It’s a good gig.”

The Envelope digital cover featuring Gary Oldman

Entertainment

Puppets, performers and politics filled the streets at LACMA’s first-ever Art Parade

Published

1 hour ago

June 22, 2026

Press Room

Puppets, performers and politics filled the streets at LACMA’s first-ever Art Parade

Instead of the usual phalanx of cars and buses, Saturday evening traffic on Wilshire Boulevard was replaced by massive balloons, mobile sculptures, gaggles of gallerists and an endless array of elaborate costumes.

The first-ever Los Angeles Art Parade, a collaboration between the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and famed gallerist Jeffrey Deitch, transformed the stretch of Wilshire known as Museum Row into a human-powered exhibition of the city’s dynamic art scene.

About 146 groups, made up of more than 1,400 participants, marched in the parade, with projects ranging from larger-than-life marionette dolls to squads of children in do-it-yourself costumes to mobile re-creations of LACMA’s most iconic art pieces.

The parade followed an all-day block party thrown by LACMA as part of its Grand Opening Weekend, celebrating the new David Geffen Galleries and the completion of the 20-year-long, $724-million campus construction project. Together, the block party and art parade attracted an estimated 60,000 attendees, who swarmed the galleries, danced to explosive DJ sets, and lined the streets to watch the eclectic procession of artists.

People dance during Flying Lotus’ DJ set at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) in Los Angeles.

(Ariana Drehsler/For The Times)

According to LACMA Director and Chief Executive Michael Govan, the event was a long time coming and “just the beginning” of how his team plans to use the campus space, which he previously called the city’s “living room.”

“We’re not gonna close Wilshire every weekend, but it’s an example of what we can do,” Govan said. “It’s really exciting to see the building work.”

Following a crowd-drawing DJ set from electronic low-fi hip-hop artist Flying Lotus, Govan introduced L.A. County District 2 Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell. She said the event made her “proud to represent LACMA” and to be a Metro board member, referencing the recently-opened Metro D-line extension, which dropped attendees off a quick stroll from LACMA’s entrance.

“Just seeing you all at this amazing public facility does my heart good,” she said. “This is your local government at work.”

1 Silhouettes of people watching the parade.

2 A man and woman wearing tulle over them walk in the parade.

3 The crowd at the Los Angeles County Museum of History, Science, and Art (LACMA) Block Party.

1. Silhouettes of people watching the parade. 2. A man and woman wearing tulle over them walk in the parade. 3. The crowd at the Los Angeles County Museum of History, Science, and Art (LACMA) Block Party. (Ariana Drehsler/For The Times)

As the party raged on LACMA’s campus, hundreds of parade participants hurriedly prepared for their debuts in the corners of nearby streets and parking lots. One group inflated a giant disco ball, while another smeared themselves with body paint next to a line of rehearsing dancers. Elsewhere, a megaphone-wielding leader herded dozens of black cats in the style of artist Gary Baseman into some semblance of order.

Deitch originally staged the first Art Parades in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood between 2005 and 2008. While those took a more art-world-exclusive approach, Deitch said the Los Angeles version was designed with inclusion in mind. The call for parade proposals was open to “emerging and established artists and creatives of all ages and backgrounds,” according to guidelines, as long as the work was appropriate for all ages and didn’t require a motorized element.

“The New York one was much more oriented toward people in the art community. We didn’t put out this kind of open call,” Deitch explained. “This is very different in its openness and its diversity. There are some famous artists and famous choreographers, L.A. legends. But there are also mothers from the San Fernando Valley with their children. I really love that.”

“It’s just a very open platform, so you don’t have to have an M.F.A. to express yourself as an artist,” he added.

The procession was dizzying in its variety and scale. While many projects leaned into beauty and whimsy, others took a more overtly political approach, displaying anti-ICE messages on T-shirts and signs, sporting trans pride flags, or, in the case of performance artist Amy Kaps, wearing an unraveling U.S. constitution.

Some even referenced local causes, such as the “Boo Boo Bandage Brigade for Safe Streets,” which advocated for fixing sidewalks and increasing accessibility downtown. One particularly moving display by the Pali-Altadena Collective featured participants carrying miniature models of buildings and landmarks lost in the 2025 fires.

Chicana artist Nao Bustamante and Track 16 Gallery brought “Brown Disco” to the streets, which featured a giant gold disco ball and figures from decades of L.A. queer nightlife.

The crowd at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) Art Parade.

“As a brown, queer person, I think that this really brought a light into our community, and now its presence [creates] an intergenerational conversation,” said Track 16 Assistant Director Steve Galindo. “The nightlife scene is how we come out as queer people, so it’s really special to be in the parade.”

For Joie Mitchell, volunteer coordinator for the Bob Baker Marionette Theater, which recently purchased its permanent Highland Park home, the parade was an opportunity to “show up for L.A. and be involved in the art history of this city.”

“Puppetry has been part of the arts for so many years,” added Daisy Hernandez, the theater’s production manager. “It’s a way that people express themselves, just like every other art form. So that’s what we’re here to do: express ourselves through puppetry.”

Movie Reviews

Film reviews: ‘Toy Story 5’ and ‘The Death of Robin Hood’

Published

10 hours ago

June 21, 2026

Press Room

‘Toy Story 5’

Toy Story 5 arrives this week as further proof that “there’s no animated franchise that’s ever plumbed the human condition so deftly,” said Nick Schager in The Daily Beast. As “unnecessary and charming” as 2019’s Toy Story 4, it’s “a cute and funny sequel” that once again seamlessly weaves big ideas about the terrors of loss, abandonment, and mortality with suspenseful action, a heart-tugging message, and plenty of “good-natured goofiness.” The best thing about seeing the once-perfect Toy Story catalog expand again is that Jessie, the cowgirl doll voiced by Joan Cusack, “finally gets to take center stage,” said David Fear in Rolling Stone.

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Entertainment

‘Toy Story 5’ goes to infinity and beyond at the box office

Published

11 hours ago

June 21, 2026

Press Room

‘Toy Story 5’ goes to infinity and beyond at the box office

“Toy Story 5,” the latest installment to one of Disney Pixar’s longest-running franchises, topped the box office this weekend.

The tech-fueled tale, led by fan favorite characters Woody, Buzz Lightyear and Jessie, earned $160 million for its opening weekend at the domestic box office and a global total of $312 million, according to Rentrak Data. The animated feature now holds the biggest box office opening of the year, further signaling what could be a massive summer for theaters.

Steven Spielberg’s “Disclosure Day” came in second at the box office with a domestic haul of $17 million. “Obession,” “Backrooms” and “Scary Movie” rounded out the top five.

“Toy Story 5” features the original cast, including Tom Hanks as Woody, Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear and Joan Cusack as Jessie. The story follows the beloved band of toys as they grapple with the introduction of technology into their home, with a tablet named Lilypad. The production budget for “Toy Story 5” is about $150 million to $200 million, and a crew of about 300 people worked on the film at Pixar’s Emeryville, Calif., headquarters.

“Tech versus toys is a very easy concept for families and parents to grasp. Every family goes through that to some degree,” said Andrew Cripps, head of theatrical distribution for Walt Disney Studios.

With the successes of “Inside Out 2” and “Zootopia 2,” sequels have proved to be dependable releases for Disney and Pixar in recent years. But “Toy Story” has been a steadfast juggernaut for the entertainment giant. This new release marks a new debut weekend record for the 31-year-long franchise, beating the nearly $121-million opening of 2019’s “Toy Story 4.” The original opened with $29 million in 1995, 1999’s “Toy Story 2” hit $57 million, and the third installment from 2010 received $110 million.

“The franchise is just so big,” Cripps added. “It’s in the theme parks. The consumer products keep it alive. It’s been 31 years with five movies, so it’s not like it’s overstayed its welcome. They’re very good at Pixar. They tell a story when they have a story worthwhile telling, and it feels like this one was worthwhile.”

Across the franchise’s lifetime, “Toy Story” has grossed more than $3 billion worldwide. The new movie also landed the second-highest animated opening weekend of all-time, behind only “Incredibles 2,” which earned $182 million.

Building off the surprise successes of budget horror films like “Obsession” and “Backrooms,” “Toy Story 5” brings yet another major boost to this year’s box office. Domestic ticket sales are up over last year, and Roth Capital Partners forecasts the second quarter will climb 6.5% to $2.8 billion.

With this uptick, there’s a chance the box office could climb back to pre-pandemic numbers. The 2026 box office is tracking 1.1% behind the summer of 2019 and 16% ahead of last year, according to Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Rentrak data.

“The industry’s on a roll,” Dergarabedian said. “There’s some unpredictable things that have happened so far this year, with the holdover strength of ‘Project Hail Mary,’ ‘Michael’ and ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2.’ Their worldwide grosses are incredibly impressive. It’s a phenomenon.”

“Toy Story 5” is just the first of several theatrical tentpoles hitting the big screen later this summer. Rentrak predicts this could be another $4-billion summer season domestically, following in the steps of the 2023 “Barbenheimer” summer.

Warner Bros.’ DC Studios has “Supergirl” landing later this month. Universal Pictures and Illumination’s “Minions & Monsters,” Disney’s live-action “Moana,” Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” and Sony Pictures’ “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” are all lined up for releases in July.

Times staff writer Samantha Masunaga contributed to this report.