Gary Oldman: quite possibly the finest actor of his generation. A charismatic force of nature, capable of blazing through the screen as a central villain (like killer cop Norman Stansfield in Leon), or even in relatively small roles, like the bizarre Drexl Spivey in True Romance. Then there are the stunning character portrayals, like Sid Vicious in Sid & Nancy, or Beethoven in Immortal Beloved, or the troubled Jackie Flannery in the little-seen but wonderful State Of Grace.

Typecast for a time, at least in Hollywood, as the go-to villain type – see Air Force One, The Fifth Element or Lost In Space to name three – Oldman has since, as he puts it, “turned the ship around”, and has more recently starred as Sirius Black in Harry Potter, Jim Gordon in the Dark Knight trilogy, and British spy George Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Most recently, he’s appeared in RoboCop, playing the conflicted science genius Dennett Norton in Jose Padilha’s remake. The sci-fi scientist is the kind of genre staple we’ve all seen a legion times, and Oldman could easily have sleepwalked through it, cashed the paycheque and moved on. But as ever, he didn’t; as he did with Jim Gordon, or Sirius Black, or even Rolfe in the critically-panned Tiptoes, Oldman brings something special to the character – there’s the sense that some sort of emotional war is being played out behind his eyes.

Given just how intense Gary Oldman is capable of being on screen, we were nervously wondering what he’d be like in person. Yet the Oldman we sat down with in a London hotel one rainy afternoon couldn’t be different from most of the characters he’s played; if he’s like anyone, he’s like Jim Gordon on a day off. He sits well down on a comfy sofa, relaxed, and speaking in a gentle, quiet voice that phases melodically from a London accent (he was born in New Cross) to American (he now lives in California) with an occasional hint of Royal Shakespeare Company-trained luviness sprinkled on top.