In the David Fincher-directed movie, the 'Darkest Hour' star takes on the role of Herman J. Mankiewicz, who was tasked with revamping the script for Orson Welles' iconic 1941 film 'Citizen Kane'.

• Dec 28, 2020

AceShowbiz - Gary Oldman was "uneasy" at his lack of a disguise to portray Hollywood screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, because he had become so comfortable hiding behind prosthetics to play real people.

The Brit portrays the writer tasked with revamping the script for Orson Welles' iconic 1941 film "Citizen Kane" in new biopic "Mank", but he wasn't keen on director David Fincher's idea to forgo heavy makeup and prosthetics, which Oldman wanted to use to make him look more like the titular character.

"I am partial to a disguise. I like to hide. And David wanted no veil between me and the audience," Oldman tells The Associated Press.

"He said, 'I want you as naked as you've ever been.' It wasn't that I resisted that. I was just a little uneasy with it at first."

The movie chronicles the tumultuous development of "Citizen Kane", and co-stars Amanda Seyfried as actress Marion Davies, and Charles Dance as her lover and media magnate, William Randolph Hearst.

In a separate interview, actor Ferdinand Kingsley said that director David Fincher asked him and Oldman to do one scene nearly 50 times for the movie. "He's intensive insofar as he doesn’t take his foot off the gas. You spend very little time not acting, not doing a take," said Kingsley. "The turnarounds take about 90 seconds. The crew are military, so almost all the time on set is spent doing takes and you do a lot. You do 30, 40, 50, 60 takes a shot."

As for his personal best for takes was during filming, Kingsley mentioned one scene with Oldman. "Gary and I did one shot 40-something, 50-ish times. I think the record on the shoot was either 74 or 78 and that was a scene with Gary, Tom Pelphrey, and Arliss Howard in a walking and talking scene. So they all got blisters."

"They're walking around the MGM studio lot and it's a brilliant shot. I think David [Fincher] said his record is 104 takes. When I asked if we were going to beat that he swore at me. That was when he filmed Panic Room and he said it was a stunt. I can't imagine what it was like," he added.