As Churchill, Gary Oldman performs his greatest disappearing act

Gary Oldman has to sit in the makeup chair for hours to be transformed as Winston Churchill. Photo: UIP Malaysia

It’s a long distance from Sid Vicious to Winston Churchill, and a greater leap, still, from Dracula to Darkest Hour.

Gary Oldman, character-actor maverick, has taken up perhaps his biggest – and most buttoned-down – challenge. For even a veteran chameleon like Oldman who has a way of hiding in plain sight, the task of tackling such a heroic titan of 20th century history is a leap. If he can disappear behind just glasses (2011’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) or merely a moustache (1989’s The Firm), what feats of transformation can he accomplish with a pile of prosthetics and a heap of makeup?