Gary Oldman has claimed “the world’s gone to shit” in the almost ten years since his trailblazing friend David Bowie passed away.

The actor was speaking in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, during which he came to reflect on his close relationship with Bowie, whom he forged a friendship with over decades.

Reminiscing on what brought them together, Oldman said: “We laughed a lot — a lot. He was very, very, very funny, David. And we sort of had similar kinds of backgrounds, grew up in similar neighbourhoods. So we had that connection.”

In terms of Bowie’s artistry, this also had a profound impact on the way Oldman viewed him, as he continued: “But he was always pushing the envelope. He reinvented himself and his music many times. He was inspiring because he was a great innovator and not afraid to try things. It’s nothing conscious, but that rubs off.”

Yet since Bowie suddenly passed away from liver cancer on January 10th, 2016, the actor also admitted that he has struggled to come to terms with the magnitude of the loss, not just in terms of the point of view of a musical icon, but also in the respect of his own personal relationship.

“Well, don’t you feel that since he died, the world’s gone to shit?” Oldman reflected. “It was like he was cosmic glue or something. When he died, everything fell apart. So, yeah, I miss him. Occasionally, I’ll see something, it’ll make me laugh, and I’ll think, ‘God, I wonder what Dave would have made of this’, or ‘Oh, that would have made him laugh’.”

The actor has often spoken fondly about Bowie over the years, delivering an emotional tribute to him at the Brit Awards shortly after his death in 2016, and having appeared in the music video for the titular single of the musician’s penultimate album, ‘The Next Day’, three years prior.