"You're Gary Oldman! Why are you asking me?": Slow Horses director on working with the legendary actor (Exclusive)

Slow Horses Season 3 is even funnier and more thrilling than the two excellent seasons that preceded it. At the helm is none other than veteran Scottish director, Saul Metzstein.

Assuming directorial duties for a season that spans from Turkey to the United Kingdom, he continues the tradition that has made this Apple TV + original so very popular.

Gary Oldman reprises his iconic role as Jackson Lamb in Slow Horses Season 3, where he continues to lead his band of MI5 agents, each of whom has made a career-ending mistake. All of them now operate out of Slough House, and is thereby dubbed a 'slow horse'.

And yet, somehow, this band of misfits succeeds where more accomplished agents fail.

Metzstein spoke to SK POP ahead of the Slow Horses season 3 premiere and detailed his experience of working with Gary Oldman, recalling that he was often stunned when the Harry Potter star asked him for advice:

"And there are these funny situations where he comes up and asks you – should I do it this way or that way? And you think – 'You’re Gary Oldman, why are you asking me?' You can’t actually say that. So you come up with something."

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Slow Horses star Gary Oldman "weirdly" likes direction, says Saul Metzstein

Gary Oldman's body of work spans decades, ranging from the Harry Potter movies to classics such as The Dark Knight and Oppenheimer. So, how did Metzstein go about directing the legend? The Slow Horses Season 3 director answered:

"Gary weirdly likes a lot of direction. He weirdly likes it."

Over two seasons of Slow Horses, Oldman has made the part of Jackson Lamb his own. This made him a delight to direct, says Metzstein:

"He's a real perfectionist. He's one of those guys who will always deliver. He'll never give you like a lazy thing. Like he wants to go home and it's enough. Up to the point where everyone would be exhausted and Gary would be like I just want to try something like this."

Metzstein, who has directed episodes of Doctor Who and The Musketeers, among other projects sang the actor's praises:

"He's very respectful of your position as the director. I was surprised, to be honest, how fun it was. Because quite a lot of famous people are not fun to work with."

The director even outlined Oldman's "superpower":

"Once Gary senses that there's a deeper thing not working, that's his job. That's literally what he does. That's his superpower. So, I think to make this work you just have to be quite nimble and quite alert."

Is the director ever afraid that the inherent comedy of Slow Horses could overpower the international espionage storylines that lie at its very core? Saul Metzstein says no:

"I think what keeps it together is that you have this cast that is proper actors that understand the emotional core of scenes. They're not going to let it go off, if you know what I mean. That's testament to their skill and also, they've rehearsed for two seasons to get there."

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Slow Horses returns for its third season on Wednesday, November 29. Catch all the action only on Apple TV+, as the MI5 operatives face one of their toughest challenges yet!