Gary Oldman is trying to word his answers carefully.

Already done filming season 4 and currently at work on season 5 of Slow Horses, he's chatting with EW's The Awardist about the Apple TV+ drama's third season, trying not to give anything away about what's to come.

"I don't want to let the cat out of the bag," he tells Entertainment Weekly over Zoom, before simply teasing, "We haven't seen the last of Standish."

It's only a few words but still says a lot, especially given the most recent season 3 finale, when Oldman's Jackson Lamb and Catherine Standish (Saskia Reeves) have a falling out, leading her to quit her job as administrator at the Lamb-led Slough House, a division of MI5 for agents who have messed up their missions. The moment was a rare one for Lamb, who briefly shows some vulnerability in the tense conversation with his colleague who he's in a "very co-dependent" relationship with, according to Oldman.

Apple TV+

The many interpersonal relationships are at the core of this series, based on Mick Herron's novels. Oldman — best known for playing Sirius Black in the Harry Potter movies and Gotham City Police Commissioner Jim Gordon in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight franchise, and for winning an Oscar for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, among many other notable roles — says this project came his way at the same time he was looking for it.

Check out more from EW's The Awardist, featuring exclusive interviews, analysis, and our podcast diving into all the highlights from the year's best in TV.

"I said to Douglas [Urbanski], my producing partner and manager for many years, 'I love long-form TV. I'd love to do a show, but it would have to be of the right pedigree. And I would love something where I'm not in a load of makeup — because I've worn so much makeup in my career — something where I could use my own accent or my own voice, and I don't want too many costume changes. And it would be great if it was sort of in the family of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,'" the Oscar winner recalls, referring to his 2011 Cold War spy thriller. "And this thing fell from the sky. So I guess there's a lot of me in there with a spin, with a twist."

That spin is, to be frank, a slob of a man — "greasy hair... he's a drinker and a smoker and he's a belcher and all of those wonderful things, really, that make him so adorable," Oldman describes — who's completely miserable and seemingly has very little interest in his job. If the guy sounds even the slightest bit familiar, well, look no further than another Oldman character. On Friends, he received an Emmy nomination for his work as actor Richard Crosby, Joey's costar in a war movie who drunkenly spittles on Joey's face every time he speaks.

nbc

"They certainly share the alcoholic [gene], that's for sure," he notes when asked if Crosby and Lamb could be related. "Lamb is such a lugubrious, irascible, but old salt. Isn't worried about how he appears or being judged by anyone. The whole thing is, the enemy would underestimate him. People often will judge a book by its cover."Which, perhaps, is why — despite his demeanor — he's the right person to oversee these MI5 rejects who have "been dumped on him" at Slough House, relegated to administrative duty after making a critical mistake in the field.

"The redeeming thing about him is that he's incredibly loyal, he's very smart, has been and is still very, very good at the job," he explains. "It's a bit like the Marines or that [saying], 'Don't leave a man behind.' You'd never leave a man in the field. So I think he's incredibly loyal to the Joes, even though he gives them just absolute terrible time with, I guess, the objective being that they will either just be so insulted that they leave or he gives them something that is so bone-crushingly boring that they leave because he's always hoping or wishing or telling them that they should quit."

Listen to Oldman's full interview with The Awardist podcast below, where he also talks about that explosive — literally — season finale, why the Slough House set is like Disneyland for anyone who visits, reuniting with his Darkest Hour costar Kristin Scott Thomas, and more.