Jason Isaacsis incredibly consistent.
Not just because he has consistently been on-screen for 40 years.
He is consistent in the way he talks about his past and his love for the craft.
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He is also consistently gracious and one of the best conversationalists you will ever encounter.
But Isaacs would rather pathologize my self-professed love for Captain Hook (well get to that).
Professions are things that give you some ballast against that.
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So he went to Bristol University to become a lawyer but became an actor instead.
It’s taken years to do it, and I still struggle with it sometimes.
I’ve ended up part man, part goldfish, he jokes.
Image by Columbia Pictures
Every time they say action, it’s all new to me.
His commentary has me nodding along, engaged by every astute word aware of how effortlessly he holds attention.
Isaacs hasseenme, like he has every other journalist hes sat down with.
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My energy is about what I want to be happening inside your head, not what I’m doing.
We pivot to discussing his aspirations beyond acting, or rather lack thereof.
I’ve written some things.
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I’ve worked on scripts, often uncredited.
I likeallaspects of the creative [process].
I love rewriting scenes.
Jason Isaacs as Captain Hook in Peter Pan
I love rewriting sequences.
I love working with writers.
I’m more admiring of the work ethic of many of the writers that I love than the talent.
The White Lotus is a television series that explores the interactions of guests and staff at an upscale tropical resort. Premiering in 2021, the narrative unfolds over a week, revealing underlying complexities and tensions among the resort’s seemingly ideal travelers and employees.
The talent is in many places, but theyusetheir talent.
There’s a humility in that which I’m in awe of.
Whatever script doctoring he is doing, hes doing it for the love of the game.
Let’s try and develop it together.
They’re all traumatic experiences.
I remember them so vividly, all of them, he reveals, and hes telling the truth.
He paints a picture so vivid, I feel transported back to the 1980s.
Looking at his expansive list of credits on IMDb, his first credited role is Dr.
Guy Chadbot onThis is David Lander, but Isaacs isnt certain if that was his first one-day job.
Its betweenThe Tall Guyor a movie calledDangerous Love(laterThe Lady and the Highwayman).
They were auditioning for some version of Prince Charming in some romantic tale.
The made-for-television film was based onBarbara Cartlands beloved 1952 novelCupid Rides Pillion.
Don’t send me alongside all these Adonis-like men.
Thats not the part I want to play.
Which is a fortune in 1988 I mean, its a fortune now.
I went, Oh no, I’ll do it.
Of course, Ill do it.
Isaacs lights up as he tells me about his disastrous first day on set.
But his role wasnt cut, as he first feared.
He had been mistakenly sent to the extras tent.
So he scurried over to the actors' trailers, where he met his scene partner.
I said, Oh, we’re in a scene together.
He went, What?
It was morning, he hadnt had his coffee.
I said, What’s our history?
We were coachmen together?
And he went, I don’t fucking know, and then just didn’t talk to me again.
And I went, Well, okay.
I think I give out a yo-bully-me vibe, or so I used to.
Eventually, they get to the scene, Isaacs recalls.
Im standing in the doorway, and the director goes, Action!
He cuts my line.
Im almost surprised he hasnt risen from his seat to fully reenact the scene.
The director goes, Cut.
What was that you were doing?
I said, I was just making fun of him.
He goes, Don’t do that.
Maybe you should get your cues in quickly.
I should have shut my mouth.
Even as a young actor, its hard to imagine anyone trying to bully Isaacs.
He tried to humiliate me on set, and I wasn’t going to put up with that shit.
I have been bullied many times on set, subsequently, by many people.
I think I give out a kindly-bully-me vibe, or so I used to.
And great storytelling in the days before Alan Rickman had completely changed villains forever.
The Patriotwas lightning in a bottle in terms of the dynamic between its hero and villain.
As Isaacs notes, it worked becauseMel Gibsonplays scared.
The audience understands the stakes because the main character has the odds stacked against him.
I remember there was a bit in the middle of the film where we meet face to face.
In the script, it said, For the first time, you see Tavington scared.
But I went to Roland, and I went, Why am I doing that?
Why am I scared?
The film is over if the villain is scared at that point.
The whole film’s over.
And he goes, Okay, do something else.
I go, Should I tell Mel?
He goes, No, no, no.
Isaacs recollection is such a clear example ofwhypeople come to him for script notes.
His keen observations elevate the scene into one of the films most memorable moments.
He looked absolutely furious.
Mels eyes went electric.
I thought, I’ve really crossed a line here.
It’s a terrible mistake.
He just looked around.
And he walked off, and Roland called cut.
I ran up to Mel, and I said, Look, I’m really sorry.
I wanted to do something, but I didn’t want to tell you.
He grabbed me, and he went, I fucking loved it!
It was electric, man.
Because he’s a proper actor.
The Patriotwasn’t my part.
Many of the best parts I’ve ever played, I was not the first choice for it.
It was on offer to Jude Law, and Jude hadn’t given them an answer yet.
His audition was simply meant to pressure Law into accepting the role.
And then, he booked it.
That’s how I got the film part inThe Patriot.
Many of the best parts I’ve ever played, I was not the first choice for it.
As Isaacs points out, it wasnt the first time he was the second pick for a character.
So, I was offered this part inDragonHeart.
That has nothing to do with how Tim is on the show.
Tim Ratliff is every other rich white man in a Vineyard Vines polo.
He feels guilty about what the money has done to his kids, Isaacs explains.
Can they survive in the world?
Do they have the skills?
Do they have any grit?
Can his wife survive if everything that has sustained them is erased in that one fell swoop?
What will they be?
He’s got other children who have reactedagainstthe privilege that they’ve had.
I think he’s a great dad, or rather, great dad is an exaggeration.
I think he is concerned about trying to be a great dad, which is the start of it.
I told him what a huge fan ofWhite LotusI was.
He did, finally, watch the show after he booked the role.
Dave sawDeath of Stalinon a plane.
I certainly didn’t play in that way.
Maybe there was something in the boldness and swagger of him.
Tims swagger is something that Isaacs also compares toTom Wolfe’sBonfire of the Vanities.
He’s a big swinging dick.
That is going to be a challenge for him and all of his family.
It gets more out of control, he says.
That was the challenge.
It wasn’t going over the top.
ButThe White Lotushas introduced him to an entirely new audience.
I went, Yes.
And I go, Yes.
No, I know that.
He goes, And you.
You’re in deep shit.
You got bad shit coming and ain’t gonna get any better.
I’m like, No, that’s a very accurate assessment.
Thank you very much, sir.
Isaacs continues, It just shows that the writing is soengaging and real.
People feel like they’re watching something real.
But there is a story for everyone.
That was the challenge.
It wasn’t going over the top.
I love an accent.
He, on the other hand, has forged connections with his voice.
Specifically,Southern Charm, which White recommended the Ratliff family actors check out.
For those who have alleged that he is imitatingThomas Ravenel, Isaacs is quick to reject that notion.
He’s a day away from oblivion.
Not just for him, but seemingly to him for all of his family.
His mind is working overtime to think: what is this?
And will it be okay?
Will I be okay?
And the status I have within my family.
Will my children and wife survive?
And all those things.
I probably would have pursued law because I love an argument.
I liked using my brain, he adds.
I’m very, very geeky and very logical, which is not useful for an actor either.
Its a very rehearsed sort of answer, but the next part surprises me.
I probably would have been in the computer world.
Isaacs tells a story about visiting a repair shop in the early days of Apple.
About the fifth time I grab the phone.
I went, I’ll do it.
Can I help you?
I said, Well, have you rebooted the PRAM?
Okay, well, hold on down Option, P, and R and tell me.
Wait till you hear a double chime.
I go, Yeah.
Because I’ve seen you on TV.
I go, Okay.
She goes, Do you work all the time?
And I go, Not all the time.
I almost burst out crying and kissed her because no one had offered me a real job for years.
I like to think I’d be somewhere doing that.
My family, that would have never happened.
I like climbing things, jumping off things.
I like hurting myself.
I like running along things.
I’m not good enough!
I’ve never been good enough for any of these things to do it.
His propensity for injuring himself in sports has followed him into his acting career.
I am walking testimony to the fact you shouldneversay yes when an actor says Can I do that?
Because I’m nothing but a giant bag of injuries.
With a handful of Motrin and a visit to a specialist doctor, he persevered.
I did the scene because no one else was going to fight Michelle Yeoh.
They built a bit of rubber cobblestones.
All I had to do was the last 3 or 4 inches.
Like you said, it’s the first time it happened.
I don’t know what it’s like.
I’m relatively sanguine about things I have no choice over.
No point resenting things that are happening, or regretting things.
And so, it is what it is.
It’s going to be brilliant.
I’ve been Lucius Malfoy for a long time.
I guess I won’t be Lucius Malfoy for the next generation.
I could be upset about that if I chose to, but I’m trying to choose not to.
Its just what it is.
The series will be phenomenal because it’sDavid Heyman, and it’sMark Mylod.
Like all of us, he is curious about how some of the characters might look, particularly Lucius.
Perhaps his faith in the series is rooted in the fact that he knows someone in the writers room.
The fact thatshe’sin the writers room makes me love it and wish it well.
Unpick you as your psychiatrist?
Once again, Isaacs has me in his crosshairs.
Why not wrap up this interview with a psychological evaluation?
And I go, No.
And they go, It’s my favorite film.
I asked them why, and they never really know why, and I think I know why.
Which is that the book, and the play, and the film should be calledWendy.
It’s not about Peter.
Isaacs sounds more like a scholar at this moment than an actor, barrister, or tech support.
And in those days, you didn’t have adolescence.
She’s a little girl.
She shares a room with her brothers.
They play pirates, and she’s told, That’s it.
Done.Now get ready to have children and be a mother.
She’s akidand it’s fucking terrifying.
Genuinely, it means have sex, have a husband, and run a family.
So she invents a friend.
In fact,in the book,she always wants to play mommy and daddy.
Mother and father, and discipline the boys.
And he’s like, No, lets go climb trees!
Why does she want to play mommy and daddy?
Because actually, she is on the cusp of puberty.
It’s confusing for her.
And so she’s slightly attracted to a man.
This man, Captain Hook, who looks like the only man she’s ever met.
Which is always played by the same actor.
It was weird when some journalists asked, Whose idea was that?
I’d say, J.M.
and theyd go, Oh right.
And what did he say to you?
I go, Not much.
He’s been dead for a long time.
I think that’s why it really resonates with women in ways.
After pointing out thatPeter Panwas the only film to accurately double-cast Mr.
Darling and Captain Hook, Isaacs has a theory for that, too.
Men get obsessed with the boy in it.
They think it’s about Pan.
Spielberg made a film about grown-up Pan.
Who gives a fuck?
He’s part of her imagination.
And other people become obsessed with Pan.
He doesn’t matter.
She’s the real one.
Her dilemma is a real one, and her journey is the real one.
He continues, P.J.
Hogan’s adaptation doesn’t get anywhere near enough credit.
It’s been a phenomenal success in all the decades in between, and he doesn’t get credit.
That’s due to him as a really remarkable filmmaker and tapping into young women’s psyches.
He certainly seems to have figured out the wiring of it all.
