Sunday night. SIFF Cinema at the Uptown was packed, sweaty, filled with puffy jackets and buttered popcorn and giddy adults waiting to see acting royalty Gary Oldman. Even Dale Chihuly was there, back row center. If Twilight fans are Twihards, we were…what, Oldhards? Old Men? Or maybe just fans of John le Carre, whose 1974 British spy novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is the basis of Oldman’s new film. It’s been called the greatest spy story ever told, a steely Cold War thriller about double-agents that makes Fleming’s Bond series look like chick lit. And at its center is George Smiley, a senior M16 agent tasked with finding the mole within British intelligence whose feeding intel to the Russians.

Actor Alec Guinness has been synonymous with Smiley ever since his turn in the BBC miniseries—it’s the kind of performance people call "definitive," which is a lovely thing to hear when you’re another actor slated to play Smiley. It took Oldman a month to agree to the part in Tomas Alfredson’s feature-length adaptation. "The ghost of Guinness has loomed very large," Oldman told the audience at SIFF. "I was really quite terrified, because of the inevitable comparisons… But then I said, Pull yourself together, Gary."

After all, this is Gary Oldman. The chameleon. The man who’s played heroin-addled Sex Pistol Sid Vicious and a pimp in True Romance; mentored Harry Potter as Sirius Black; manned the bat signal as Commissioner Gordon in The Dark Knight. "People say I always play these big, extravagant characters, but they haven’t seen the whole career," Oldman said. Then again… "When I’m wound up and let go, I can be very big," he added with a smile.

But 53-year-old Oldman is nearly unrecognizable as Smiley. The natural charm is shoved down deep, hiding behind Smiley’s enormous 1970s square-frame glasses. He’s the definition of taciturn, seeming to communicate by blinking, and while the film is so subtle it’s maddening (who is Karla? What’s this "circus" they keep talking about?), Oldman’s silent stare speaks volumes. Seems Oldman got so close to director Alfredson, they didn’t need to talk, either. "By the end, we didn’t even need language," he joked. "We communicated telepathically."

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy opens in various Landmark Theatres on Dec 25.