SINGAPORE - “Crazy-Scary-Gary”. That has been Gary Oldman’s reputation for most of his illustrious career.

Are we shocked? No. After all, Oldman started his career as the angry young man of British film who cornered the market playing cinematic psychos, and then went on to make his mark in Hollywood portraying skinheads, punks, vampires, assassins, psycho-cops, psycho-pimps and er, psycho-psychos.

“I don’t know how it happened,” the 55-year-old British actor said in an interview. “I really don’t. I was this ... psycho guy. I just got into these parts. Then it contaminates people. And they think that you’re Crazy-Scary-Gary.”

“The closest character to me - is Jim Gordon,” he said, referencing his role as the police commissioner in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy.

The thing about Oldman is, you probably remember him more than the film’s actual protagonist. And he’s doing it once more in the remake of Paul Verhoeven’s Robocop. Directed by Brazillian Jose Padilha, this version sees Oldman playing Dr Norton (a tweaked version of Bob Morton, the cyborg-inventing scientist in the original film).

It’s the kind of role that has become a strange trademark in his latter years. Nevertheless, even with this wide variety of cinematic masks, the ever-versatile actor still lives up to his Crazy-Scary-Gary moniker. Crazily and scarily good, that is.

Q: What was it about RoboCop that made you want to be in it?

A: My main reason was Jose Padilha, a man who started off as a physicist to later become a documentary film-maker. And then for him to tackle pop culture with his own twist really appealed to me. I liked his ideas and what he had to say about the material. José has a great energy that is infectious, and I found him to be a very smart and likeable man. He is talented and ... just really nice! When you work on a film you don’t want to dislike your boss, but preferably get along with a guy you are going to be around for several months for sometimes up to 15 hours a day! You want to arrive at the set looking forward to seeing him, and Jose Padilha is one of those people.

Q: What do you think of the original RoboCop?

A: I like it! I saw the 1987 movie when it first came out and then again recently. And I believe Jose likes it and has a lot of respect for it too.

Q: Why do you believe it became iconic?

A: Because it was interesting and ahead of its time.

Q: What did you think of Michael Keaton’s performance as the villain Raymond Sellars?

A. I think he is terrific in the movie and that it’s some of the best stuff he has done. Michael is very clever and seductive in RoboCop. You know there is a part of Sellars that is corrupt, but he plays the villain with such charm, which I’m sure a lot of these people have in real life.

Q: How did you prepare this role?

A: Well, luckily it was all there on the page for me. If the writing is good, your job is easy, because if you are working too hard to support the material you know something is wrong. If I had any questions I would just go to Jose, because he is so smart and encyclopedic.

Q: What research did you do?

A: I did some research on the web to find out what different scientists were doing all over the world. I was kind of like a bee getting a bit of pollen from here and there. But the truth is that having a genius like Jose next to me was kind of like having a technical advisor and director at my disposal.

Q: In your opinion, what is this movie really about?

A: It’s about asking ourselves questions like: Who is making the decisions? And the danger is to have other people deciding in your place what’s best for you. Then there is also the ethical and moral question of where does the technology stop, as things are becoming more and more automated.

Q: How do you feel towards that reality?

A: I know planes can fly themselves and land on automatic pilot, but it does make me feel much better to know there is a human in the cockpit.

Q: And what is your relationship with technology like?

A: I am not technologically-minded at all! I guess it’s a generational thing, because my kids and all their friends are incredibly technologically savvy. It’s puzzling to me how they can pick up these machines, interact with them and just work them.

Robocop opens in cinemas tomorrow.