‘I Was Broke’: Gary Oldman Gets Honest About Starring In One Of The Most Hated Films Ever

During a new interview with the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Sir Gary admitted that he’s never actually seen Tiptoes, and revealed that it came along at a difficult time in both his personal and professional life.

“I’ll be very honest with you,” Sir Gary began. “I had gone through a divorce and a nasty thing with a contractor.”

He continued “I ended up in California, in LA, at 42 years old, a single dad, and I was broke. And, ironically, I was living under the Hollywood sign, living in this rental. We had no furniture – thank God for Ikea.”

Sir Gary said that when the offer for Tiptoes came along, he’d not worked for just shy of two years, and had been affected by an actors’ strike.

“It was a bit of a rough time, and I needed to pay some bills, and I needed some money, and it was an actors’ strike ontop of it all, which was a double whammy,” he admitted, noting the situation was a “terrible time” for everyone in Hollywood.

“And then this film came along, this crazy idea, from this director, that I would play a little person. And I would play Matthew McConaughey’s brother.

“There were several [issues]. First of all, I got locked in to doing a voice like that, because I had to sound like Matthew. We were brothers, so somehow, I had to sound like Matthew. So that was that. And then, I’m on my knees… desperate measures, desperate times.”