Jason Isaacs
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Such is his penchant for villainy, one might be forgiven for thinking that Jason Isaacs is a very, very bad man indeed. The Liverpool-born star is currently stalking the stage opposite Lee Evans as one of the two killers in the Trafalgar Studios production of The Dumb Waiter. In The Patriot, he starred opposite Mel Gibson as the nefarious Colonel William Tavington, and was a winningly despicable Captain Hook in PJ Hogan’s adaptation of Peter Pan. But it’s undoubtedly his dastardly plotting as Lucius Malfoy against speccy nerd-cum-rippling torso’d hunk Daniel Radcliffe in the Harry Potter films that has done most to earn him a deafening chorus of boos and hisses from audiences worldwide. It’s almost a disappointment then to find that this most versatile thesp is, in reality, the very model of solicitousness and charm. Isaacs originally set out to become a lawyer but felt out of place studying among his posh peers. He signed up with the drama society, and fell into acting via the plays Idle Hands and The Glory of Love, in which he was respectively required to dance naked covered in chicken blood and be castrated with chicken wire. Clearly, the path to fame was not to be a straightforward one for the aspiring actor, and anything chicken-related was henceforth to be assiduously avoided. Since then, alongside the wonderfully malevolent characterizations mentioned earlier, he has been a constant presence on stage and on screens both big and small, essaying roles in Capital City, Inspector Morse, Armageddon, The End of The Affair, Tony Kushner’s Angels in America and many others. He loves playing Malfoy so much that he’s recently confessed to personally lobbying JK Rowling to include the character in the final Potter novel. Isaacs has now responded to your many (!) questions. See if responded to yours!
From Nicole le Strange: Jason, I absolutely adored you in The Dumb Waiter. Do you have plans for more U.K. theatre in the near future?
Jason responds: Thanks Nicole, I don’t actually have any plans for more theatre, since I don’t really plan anything beyond the next job! I’m about to go off to shoot another season of Brotherhood and, hopefully, fit in a small part in the film Good while I’m at it. Beyond that…who knows? Either something will come along or I’ll be at home watching bad telly.
From Jenny: You play such awesome evil characters! How do you make any villain you play unique?
Jason responds: Firstly, I don’t think of anyone as a villain. Nobody ever thinks of themselves as evil—they just think everyone else has got it wrong! When I’m lucky enough to get a crack at a well-written bad guy, I just try to find what makes them angry or violent or make those choices that you and I would never make. Normally it’s a sense of being hard done by and misunderstood along with a sense that only they can see what needs to be done. Even sadists are just righting wrongs that have been done to them at some point. I also come from that old-fashioned tradition of finding it fun if every one of my characters looks, walks and talks in a different way, so, essentially, I’m playing at dress-up in the same way that my kids do.
From Leah: Will you marry me? (Just kidding.) I've been wondering what kind of music you like and who is your favorite artist?
Jason responds: Thanks for the offer Leah, but my wife might have something to say about that. I love lyrics so anything where I can hear the words is good with me. I’ve got Lily Allen and Paul Weller on my iPod at the moment, rubbing shoulders with Frank Sinatra, Bob Marley and the soundtrack from Little Shop of Horrors. Pretty eclectic. I like to warm my voice up in the dressing room and poor Lee, who’s really musical, has to hear me murder some cheesy '70s pop through the wall. I apologize everyday, and everyday he pretends it’s not killing him, which it obviously is. I also listen to a couple of singer/songwriters I came across in California quite a lot: Craig Jerris and Judith Owen because not only are they fabulous, but I can picture the people they’re singing about.
Jason Isaacs and Lee Evans
in The Dumb Waiter
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From Kate Pecoraro: Are you enjoying doing a play by Pinter after being away from live theater for so long? Are you having a good run?
Jason responds: I’m enjoying it, but I never feel quite comfortable. There’s such a fine line with this play in particular between allowing the tension and the situation to be funny and playing for laughs. We have to be ever vigilant that we’re not selling Pinter or his themes short. Also, it’s been such a long time for me that I’d forgotten how work-like it feels; to turn up every day, look out at a sea of faces full of expectation and willingness to participate and have to make it fresh, new and compelling for them. Unlike acting on camera it’s a real contract. The camera’s all about keeping secrets to yourself, the stage is all about sharing them, and I’d forgotten how exhausting that is. Weird, really, since the show’s only an hour and I’m in bed for most of it, but I’m really knackered by the end.
From Kayleigh: Hi Mr. Issacs, You have played several villain roles, including Col. Tavington in The Patriot, Captian Hook in Peter Pan, and of course my favorite, Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies. Have you ever worried about being typecast as a villain?
Jason responds: I’m far more worried about not working. As long as I’m offered the chance to do plenty of other things as well, I’m more than happy to chew up the scenery occasionally. The only thing that’s difficult is when I’m offered the chance to play a badly written villain, or a virtual repeat of something I’ve done before and the money’s good, or the location’s fabulous or, more likely, I’m sick of staying at home and getting under my wife’s heels. I just try to keep myself interested and hopefully what interests me will interest an audience.
From Trevor: Tell us something juicy about Lee Evans, please!
Jason responds: He’s absolutely nothing like the mad, sweating stand-up persona that the public know and love. Not that he isn’t ridiculously funny, but, unlike almost any other comedian I’ve ever met, he laughs uproariously at everyone else’s jokes. And I sweat more than him.
From Simona Popescu: I understand you're a fan of various techie gadgets. Would you please tell me which are your favourite brands and what you're using at the moment? (For example: camera, mobile, mp3 player, computer...) Thank you! P.S. Your performance in The Dumb Waiter is brilliant, and I loved every minute of the play.
Jason responds: I’m a total Apple evangelist and am holding my breath for the iPhone. Currently, I walk around clunking an iPod, a Palm TX and a Blackberry Pearl in my pockets, a pair of Bose headphones round my neck, a Motorola HS850 close to hand and a TomTom 910 in the car. My Powerbook’s never further than a hop, skip and a jump away either. Geeky enough for you?
From Kathy: Mr. Isaacs, I find your numerous performances awe-inspiring. You have mentioned that you like to be involved with the director in creating your characters. Would you ever consider going behind the camera to direct other actors?
Jason responds: I would and I will. I just get lazy about it. Sometimes I think that if I had longer out of work, I might pull my finger out. But actually when I’m out of work, I just feel broke and restless, so it’s more likely to happen when I’m busy. I’m dying to do it, but I have so many director friends, and I see how often they’re disappointed and projects fall apart and how long they spend on them that it might just be slowly sapping the incentive. We’ll see. I definitely fancy it, though.
From Karen: I think you are brilliant in The Dumb Waiter. What aspects of live performance do you enjoy the most? And what made you decide to take the role in The Dumb Waiter?
Jason responds: Thanks very much for the compliment, but the truth is that it’s a brilliant part in a brilliant play and my co-actor is a truly brilliant performer. It made the decision pretty easy to make. I knew, liked and respected the director from way back so it was what the Americans call a no-brainer. Strangely, the thing that I enjoy the most is being terrified, which wears off after the first few shows but then reappears when stuff goes wrong—as it always does. When actors tell stories about work they have done, it’s always the fun and fear of when things screw up and how they got out of it that makes them laugh, never when things went right.
]From Jack: Who is your favourite person to work with the Potter films?
Jason responds: That’s just a horrible and impossible question! Every time I go back there’s a triple pleasure: first to see how the leads have all changed and grown up some more, then to find out which legendary actor I get to play opposite (this time it was Gary Oldman) and finally to meet some new and fabulous director who would never have chosen me in any other circumstance.
From Mandy Hodgkinson: I would be interested to know how you manage to stay in shape and juggle work and family commitments. Also are you still "on the wagon" smoking-wise?
Jason responds: I’m what they call a shape-shifter in Harry Potter-land. Staying in shape’s a nightmare with two small kids because mealtimes are always at the wrong time and you have to eat whatever they don’t. Add to that the late nights on film and TV sets and the continuous rolling buffet of fat and sugar on offer to keep you awake and perky and my total lack of willpower and you have a lethal combination. Luckily, the knowledge that I’m likely to have to get my kit off on screen combined with my fierce competitive nature make me run after balls regularly—on a tennis court, football pitch or chasing dogs round the dog park. I haven’t smoke for a long time now—except on screen; Chris in Scars smoked nonstop and that was really hard for me: first to start and then to stop.
From Moira Manion: How did you find the courage and perseverance to stick with the unpredictable career of an actor?
Jason responds:I have neither courage nor perseverance. What I do have is luck; so when I started out I got some jobs and then, because of those I got some more and…cut to 20 years later. Although I’ve had some relatively lengthy periods out of work, they were mostly through choice—turning things down that I thought were rotten or that I’d be rotten in—and I’ve never had to think about doing something else. I never wanted to be an actor and I still don’t really know why I’m doing it but I’m a bit to old to do anything else now and, anyway, it’s quite enjoyable while I’m waiting for inspiration.
From Amanda Mate: I have just finish Conn Iggulden's latest brilliant book Wolf of the Plain, which you narrated in its audiobook format, and I was wondering what type of books you like to read when you have the opportunity?
Jason responds: I have a lot of trouble if I read fiction anywhere but on holiday because I find myself just wanting to sit down and finish the book. I can’t leave things on the nightstand so I fight sleep till the last page. Not so bright with two small kids. So I mostly read non-fiction and the newspaper cover-to-cover every day in an attempt to have interesting things to say in the fantasy world of sophisticated high society that I’ve never belonged to. Unfortunately, I mostly talk to my kids and my friends about their kids and, anyway, the instant I put the paper down I forget everything I’ve just read.
From Fluffybot: The quintessential question, Jason darling, is: boxers or briefs?
Jason responds: That’s for me to know and you, hopefully, to never find out. Since I never buy any clothes—I hate the process—it’s most likely to be whatever I’ve nicked from the last job.
From Wendy: Do you find it easy to turn off your character and be yourself at the end of a project?
Jason responds: I find it harder to turn myself off and be the character during the project. The only times I’ve even partly carried a character home are when I’m living the character all day everyday. It happened on Black Hawk Down a bit, partly because we spent so much time with the soldiers whose story we were telling, partly because I stayed in my accent all day during training and mostly during the shoot and partly because there were just so many men together the whole experience became a bit macho. Or mock macho. The other character who haunted me a bit was Chris in Scars, which went out on More4 and Channel 4. I was acting out real, verbatim transcript of interviews he had done with the filmmaker and they were so harrowing and he was so damaged by them and, anyway, there was just me on camera all day everyday that I found myself upset, angry and thinking violent thoughts through the whole shoot. Not that anyone at home noticed, I hope, but it was quite disturbing. Generally I don’t think about it longer than it takes to take the make-up off.