Career Q&A with Gary Oldman. Moderated by Jenelle Riley, Back Stage.

ABOUT GARY OLDMAN:

Earlier this year, at the 2011 Empire Awards, Gary Oldman was honored with the Icon Award for Achievement. An acclaimed presence in motion pictures for 25 years, he is regarded as one of the foremost actors of his generation.

Mr. Oldman is known to millions the world over for playing Sirius Black (Harry Potter's godfather), Commissioner Jim Gordon (Batman/Bruce Wayne's crime-fighting partner), Dracula, Beethoven, Pontius Pilate, Lee Harvey Oswald, Joe Orton, and Sid Vicious, to name just a few of his iconic characterizations whose ranks George Smiley now joins.

Over the past 18 years, the U.K. native has appeared in 11 movies that have opened in the #1 position at the box office. As part of the two most successful franchises in movie history, he has appeared in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, directed by Alfonso Cuarón, Mike Newell, and David Yates, respectively; and Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises (opening in 2012).