Gary Oldman laments 'secrecy' for hindering his Harry Potter performance

Gary Oldman thinks the "secrecy" involved in the 'Harry Potter' film franchise impacted his performance as Sirius Black.

The Oscar-winning star branded his acting in the wizardry series as "mediocre" last year but has now clarified the comments by suggesting that he was not completely aware of his character's development and did not intend to "disparage" the franchise.

Speaking at the Cannes Film Festival, Gary said: "There was such secrecy that was shrouded around the novels, they were under lock and key. And had I known from the very beginning, if I had read the five books and I had seen the arc of the character, I might have approached it differently. I may have looked at it differently and painted in a different colour."

The 66-year-old actor continued: "So when I started 'Harry Potter', all I had was the book 'The Prisoner of Azkaban', and that one representation of that man – one book in the library of Sirius Black.

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"And that's kind of what I meant by it. It's not me looking at the movie and saying it's a terrible film or I'm terrible, I just wish it had been under different circumstances. That's what I meant, not to be rude to any of the people out there who like that film."

Gary explained that his comments show he is constantly "hypercritical" of his acting work and claimed that he would be "sad" if he felt he had played a part to perfection.

The 'Slow Horses' star said: "What I meant by that is, as any artist or any actor or painter, you are always hypercritical of your own work.

"If you're not, and you're satisfied with what you're doing, that would be death to me. If I watched a performance of myself and thought, 'My God, I'm fantastic in this', that would be a sad day."