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If I had to guess the hardest scenes for Gary Oldman to shoot in the Harry Potter movies as Sirus Black, I would have said his death or the showdown in the Shrieking Shack, not necessarily the scene where Harry Potter casts his patronus at the frozen lake to save the Prisoner of Azkaban. However, despite not having to do much in the scene, that one was the hardest for the Oscar winner to shoot, and his explanation as to why is both hilarious and understandable.
Gary Oldman joined the Harry Potter cast during Prisoner of Azkaban as fan-favorite Sirus Black, and during that movie, he almost dies at the hands of the dementors who are trying to catch him. Harry saves him by casting a patronus charm while they’re on a frozen lake, and Sirus is so injured he’s simply lying on the lake. While on the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast, Oldman explained that this seemingly simple scene to film for him was actually the hardest to shoot. He said:
Actually, [laughs] this is the most difficult thing I ever had to do, oddly enough, was in one of the, I can’t remember in which one, in one of the Harry Potter [movies] I had to lie by that lake. There was like a frozen lake, and I’m sort of dead and my soul is leaving my body, and then it appears.
Now, you’d think playing Winston Churchill in The Darkest Hour or Gordon in The Dark Knight or even Sirus in Order of the Phoenix would be harder than this one scene in Prisoner of Azkaban. However, Oldman explained that this was a long shoot, and lying on a frozen lake can be quite uncomfortable. He said:
It was just me, lying down. But, Harry Potter, it took forever. It was slow, and we’d be on a scene for weeks. You know what I mean? Normally, we can shoot this in two days. Anyway, I was lying. What they did was they built that lake inside the studio and they cooled it down and they froze this lake. And I had to just lie there for a week, day in, day out doing nothing.
I totally get where he’s coming from. When all you have to do is sit still and not move for days, that actually sounds quite hard. Then, you add that he was on a man-made frozen lake, and it becomes even tougher. Continuing to explain what it was like shooting this pivotal moment in one of the best movies of the 2000s, the actor said:
[I was] doing nothing, but…I’d be like ‘Could someone get, I think my kidneys, they’re getting a bit cold.’ Then they put the little hot water bottle under you and you lie there like that. And then day three you go ‘My neck is killing me in this position.’ Then they’d put a little pillow underneath you.
Well, even though it was cold and odd work, at least Gary Oldman was being treated well on set. Ultimately, he got a good laugh out of this story, and he was seemingly also baffled by the fact that that scene was the hardest one for him to film. However, while I’d never expect this moment to be the toughest one for him, I now get why.
Obviously, being cold and still on a fake frozen lake for days paid off, because Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is regarded as one of the best films in the franchise, and Sirius Black is one of Gary Oldman’s quintessential roles and one that he’s still praised for to this day.
So, when you re-watch the Harry Potter movies with a Max subscription, make sure to take note of that pivotal scene in Prisoner of Azkaban where Harry is working so hard to save Sirus, and Gary Oldman is working really hard to simply lie still on a frozen lake. It was a tough one for him to film, and we should all take a moment to appreciate his hard work and hilarious story.