Gary Oldman has clarified his comments about his “mediocre” acting in the Harry Potter franchise.

The Oscar-winning actor shocked fans in December when he criticised his performance and described his portrayal of Sirius Black as “mediocre” on the Happy Sad Confused podcast.

Oldman addressed his critical comments at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday, telling reporters that he didn’t mean to “disparage anyone out there who are fans of Harry Potter and the films and the character who I think is much beloved”.

During the press conference for his new film, Parthenope, Oldman explained that he always feels like his work can be improved.

“What I meant by that is, as any artist or any actor or painter, you are always hypercritical of your own work,” he continued, reports Variety. “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.”

Oldman played Harry’s godfather in 2004’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and reprised the role in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, while he also had cameos in the Goblet of Fire and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.

Repeating his comments from the December podcast, the British actor said he would have approached his portrayal of Black differently if he had read more of J.K. Rowling’s books beyond The Prisoner of Azkaban and known the full arc of the character.

Insisting that his comments were not a reflection on the franchise as a whole, Oldman stated, “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.”

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