Sir Alec Guinness played Smiley in the beloved 1979 BBC miniseries. In the new film (from left) Colin Firth, Dencik and Toby Young are part of Oldman’s team of spies. (Jack English(2))
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George Smiley may be the most realistic spy ever portrayed in literature and film. Introduced in the 1974 novel “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,” by former British intelligence officer John le Carré, Smiley is a mastermind sleuth who skillfully and ruthlessly sets out to purge a Soviet mole from the upper echelons of MI6.
By modern standards, however, he may also be the most understated spook on the planet. Where Jason Bourne eliminates enemies with lethal cunning and well-placed pistol fire, Smiley does them in with paperwork and dossiers — a bureaucratic version of James Bond.
A new movie adaptation, opening Friday, follows the book’s unromantic tone. It’s set in 1973 and tells a dense, languid, set piece-free story of Smiley’s quest to rid his agency, affectionately called “The Circus,” of outsiders. The chase is compelling, but not at all like a battle on a French bullet train or an Alpine shootout on skis.
“Initially I was very relieved when I opened the script that they had not tried — as the chefs say — to kick it up a notch,” says Gary Oldman, who plays Smiley. “Having seen the movie, it’s a bit like watching a lava lamp. It’s got the pace of snow falling or something.”
The film’s throwback tempo is due to Tomas Alfredson, the Swede behind 2008 vampire flick “Let the Right One In.” The director earned the “Tinker Tailor” job by formulating an unusual take on an espionage movie. Alfredson reasoned that all the square-jawed, musclebound men would end up in the army, while the ranks of MI6 would be filled with — for lack of a better word — nerds.
“The men that fought the Cold War were very different, and to do the work that they did, they had to be sensitive,” Oldman says. “I can’t speak for the soldiers or say they are less sensitive, but the people [who MI6] normally recruited were boys from Oxford or Cambridge, and they were recruited by their teachers.”
Sure enough, “Tinker Tailor” deploys an expansive cast, and you won’t find a meathead among them. John Hurt plays the head of the Circus, known simply as Control, while Colin Firth, Toby Jones, Benedict Cumberbatch and Ciarán Hinds round out the management. (In Smiley’s investigation, each suspect is known by a code name derived from the nursery rhyme that goes, “Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief.”)
“This has the sensibility of a European movie,” Oldman says. “I like the fact that they were not tempted to compete with ‘The Bourne Identity’ or the Bond movies. I think people are ready for it.”
Oldman admits that he initially had doubts about whether a slow-burning spy thriller without, as he says, “car chases and guns going off and explosions or anything,” would work for modern audiences. (For the record, guns do go off in at least three scenes.) So far, so good. “Tinker Tailor” sat atop the British box office three weeks straight after its September release.
Across the pond, le Carré and the character are more popular, in part due to the beloved 1979 miniseries, which cast Alec Guinness as Smiley. Oldman says following in the footsteps of Guinness also gave him pause.
“That was a dragon to slay,” he says. “Inevitably, the comparisons are going to be there. He was so famous for it. Other have played Smiley: Denholm Elliott, James Mason, Rupert Davies, but Sir Alec was the one. In the end, I just did a trick with my head and thought, You know what? Other people reinterpret classical parts. There’s more than one Romeo, more than one Hamlet. I just approached it like that and hoped I could at least come out the other end fairly respectable.”
Helping him along the way was the 80-year-old le Carré, who was enthusiastic about retelling the story for a contemporary audience in a “sexier, grittier and crueller” way than the original miniseries.
“I don’t think I could have lived as a spy,” says Oldman, who will appear again as Commissioner Gordon in next year’s “The Dark Knight Rises.” “The thing I took away from those conversations with John was the sheer level of paranoia being on an assignment involved, with a cover and a different passport. You’d wait for the sound of footsteps on the stairs and your cover would be blown and it would be over. It sounds exhausting.”
The actor says that he didn’t do much research into the espionage world beyond reading the book and speaking to le Carré, but he was meticulous about Smiley’s wardrobe.
“We would have discussions about Smiley’s silhouette, about if he were wearing a watch,” Alfredson says. “We decided that he doesn’t wear cufflinks, because that would express something.”
Oldman searched California eyewear shops for just the right pair of vintage specs, which were then duplicated by the crew in case anything happened to the originals. The actor bleached his hair to turn it silver.
The character’s bland, unassuming suits also took some thought.
“We talked about that he probably wouldn’t have an up-to-date wardrobe. He wouldn’t be of a generation that wore big lapels and flairs,” Oldman says. “We wanted to keep him in the 1950s wardrobe and not give him a big selection of clothes.”
Smiley’s gray three-piece was made by an ex-Savile Row tailor in a crisp, 1950s style.
Duds that nice would be ruined by Bourne in about half a reel. Smiley, on the other hand, is able to keep a nice crease on his pants.