By Sometimes in life, you have to compromise. You have to do what’s done to make a dollar. Wear a polo shirt, be on call, respect the irredeemable. There are just too many shades of grey to stay true to yourself one hundred percent of the time in the rat race of our modern condition.
Nah… forget all that junk. But rather than practice the unseemly art of not showing up, I recommend the more satisfying approach of doing everything with an undercurrent of irreverence. For the actor, potential embarrassment comes in the form of press tours. They shake hands with an empathetic touch and hop from country to country being interviewed, often by people who don’t know anything about them, often for a movie that is absolute crap. But they do it with a smile because… well actually I don’t know. I suppose it’s in their contracts but Christian Bale’s probably says something about not threatening to kill people and that never stops him.
As thespians go, Gary Oldman is one of the best and will soon collect numerous Best Actor awards for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. His voice-over turn as the Kung Fu Panda 2 villain was beneath him, regardless of its position on the scale of children’s entertainment. Thankfully, the squirrely thespian is a good sport, and had a bit of fun while he was pushing Panda, if this video is any indication.