Contender Controversy Continues

October 17 -- Gary Oldman doesn't play a villain in The Contender — at least not according to the actor's manager, Douglas Urbanski. And, even though Oldman went on the record in Premiere magazine as siding with his hidebound, right-leaning character in the political drama, don't call the Brit actor a conservative, insists Urbanski.

Fine. Point noted.

Although we should also note that nearly every reviewer in the country has jumped to the conclusion that Oldman's character, Sen. Shelly Runyon, is yet another rogue in the actor's crowded gallery of villains. (Runyon gets called a "junior-league McCarthy" in the film by his wife, and Premiere's own critic praises the actor for being "reliably bloodcurdling as the serpentine villain." D'oh!)

"We did not set out to make a movie about a nasty, villainous Republican," Urbanski explains to Mr. Showbiz. Urbanski co-produced the film and makes no secret of the fact that his own political leanings are diametrically opposed to those of the "left-leaning billionaires," as he refers to DreamWorks heads Steven Spielberg, David Geffen, and Jeffrey Katzenberg.

The feud between the two sides is well sketched out in the November Premiere interview, with Oldman and Urbanski seeing Runyon as the film's "dark, tragic hero." Director Rod Lurie, in contrast, insists — as most audiences will likely agree — that the hero of the piece is vice-presidential designate Laine Hanson (Joan Allen).

Sam Elliott, who plays presidential adviser Kermit Newman in the film, admits that he didn't know what to expect from working with Oldman, especially from the other side of the on-screen political divide.

"I've been a fan of Gary's for a long time and I'd heard a few horror stories about him," says Elliott, a tall, silver-haired acting vet with a perpetual twinkle in his eye. "He comes in and he's totally consumed by the character — either that or he totally consumes the character."

That characterization is in keeping with what director Lurie has said about Oldman, who is The Contender's highest-billed star and the film's executive producer. In the same interview in which Oldman claimed that the final cut of The Contender was influenced by studio democrats, Lurie said that those remarks were due to the actor's complete immersion in the film — something the film-critic-turned-filmmaker likened to "Stockholm syndrome," in which hostages start to identify with their captors.