#oscar isaac roles

[betweenthescarletmoon]

The Hollywood Reporter Roundtable Analysis

It was very intriguing for me how Oscar carefully delved into the question he was given by the host Lacey in 38:45, but in a slight surface-level way. Some information he's given in other times filled up a lot of the blanks he left behind in his answer.

First let's go over what they said.

Lacey: Your co-star from Scenes From a Marriage, Jessica Chastain, talked about [how] she had to go to a place that was so dark, and she's not sure she can sort of ever go to these places as an actress again. And I'm curious if you've felt any of that and how your individual, personal sort of boundaries shift with time, with experience, with success.

Oscar: You know, before I'd be like: "what limb do I have to take—cut off to make this scene three percent better?" But I think that it's about inspiration. [...] The whole reason process exists is to inspire, right? And sometimes you don't need a wild process to be inspired by something. Sometimes the words themselves will do it, um, sometimes the character is enough. Sometimes the situation is so harrowing that that's enough to inspire a whole history of a character. And sometimes you gotta: "what did he eat for breakfast? why did he do this?" In order to try, y'know, to inspire some imagination and some sense of truth, right, or some sense of—some emotional, interesting thing.

Oscar [continued]: But boundaries, I think, are becoming more important to me now. And then you have kids. Time is the most valuable commodity. And I think with Scenes From a Marriage, the scenes themselves—that [was what was] so harrowing, not so much the character. But also it mirrored a lot of things in my own life. [...] I'd be reading a bed time story to the young actress that's a five-year-old with a little bunny lamp, and then go home, arrive just in time to sit in the bed with the same exact bunny lamp, somehow, and read a story to my five-year-old— You know, it just starts to fuck with your head, because we're just a human being, so that's a weird situation! [...]

Oscar [yeah he makes up for not talking for almost the entire hour with this question]: After a while, I think it was just all the nature of it, you know? It was right in the height of the pandemic. It was in this factory in the Bronx that had been turned into a studio. It was only like sixty people. And these were very long—almost every shot was like a thirty-minute take. It felt like a weird hybrid between theatre and TV and film. And with someone that I've known for twenty years as well—so all those things created a very uncanny situation, that I think, going back, I probably would have been a little more mindful about. Like, y'know, a little clearer boundaries— And the truth is, even if it wouldn't have been quite as real or good (you know?), I'm okay with—I'm getting better with that idea that—I don't have to cut off a limb just to make it slightly better. It's okay. It's okay.

First off, i just wanna gush over his speech patterns bc I am that all over the place when I try to communicate my thoughts (i actually skipped a lot of his endearing stutters, pet phrases, and filler things he said to grasp at his next message). It's so relatable especially in a group full of people (not to mention legendary actors), because even a guy who looks as confident as him can still sound like he's making a discovery as he speaks and takes you along.

Now on to my analysis of what he said because at first I didn't completely get what he meant!

I have a feeling he's very perfectionistic, and from how he speaks about work in other articles as well as here, he also seems a workaholic. I believe in here he's trying to say that there should be different levels of immersion and hard work to connect with or explore the character instead of always bringing his all and beyond to the job.

Also, scenes from a marriage was as traumatic an experience to film as it was for us to watch (his words after 1:56 on this vid), and Jessica admitted to crying every day for four months during filming. It was a very intimate and emotionally intense series to film especially with such a close friend from Juilliard. So i believe both Oscar and Jessica gave everything they had to make this already overwhelming series feel as real and painful as possible. And since it's a hard setting to feel far removed from (both are married, have kids, have a sex life, could be facing divorce in the future bc of its high rates), it must have hit them even harder. I believe it's not truly an experience to watch sfam without you screaming at, insulting, or feeling immensely sorrowful for the characters because THAT is the reaction they fought hard to get from you. That pain, that anxiety, that tension, that rage, that pity, every emotion you felt that you could barely cope with? All crafted thanks to their extremely immersive and talented performance coupled with their flawless chemistry. But if it feels real to us, through a screen…for them it must've felt even more so. Unbearably more so.

So i believe these experiences, as well as having a family to take care of, and other priorities like time and mental health, have recently made it more important for him to strike a balance in his life. To stop obsessing over creating the perfect role or immersion, or to use these roles to cope with and process real life struggles (as he's admitted to do). I think it's important for him to now connect with real life more, like being a father and a husband, as well as just a human being. Not just an actor or a character.

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Important Excerpts from Articles about escapism and coping through acting (in case you don't feel like reading the last references):

New York Times: After His Mother’s Death, Oscar Isaac Turns to Shakespeare for Solace

“I didn’t know how to process any of this, but this [performing as Hamlet] I knew how to do.”

But [Hamlet is] also a tragedy that asks Mr. Isaac to relive the anguished death of a parent at every performance. In Sam Gold’s rowdy, deconstructionist staging, every time Mr. Isaac mud-wrestles, or lofts a prop skull or performs a mad scene in just a T-shirt and briefs, he seems to be working through his own loss, transforming raw private grief into riveting public performance.

As Mr. Isaac explained, performing has always helped him come to terms with his emotions. “This is how I’m able to function,” he said. “The only way that I’m really able to process stuff is through reflecting it.”

Esquire: The Dream of Oscar Isaac

To be in conversation with Oscar Isaac, who is forty-three, is to talk with someone who has thought deeply about the course of his life—not out of narcissism or vanity but by necessity, a desperate desire to find what feels like solid ground. For him. For his family. For us, whom his art reaches. He has worked to wrest meaning out of his confusions and fears. His effort is ongoing, and his audiences have the privilege of following him in his relentless and shattering performances, in search of the firm footing he lost every time another of his dreams was interrupted.

If superheroes have their capes and their flamethrowers to help them survive, we ordinary humans have our imagination. It has been our shelter for millennia, a way to express and to understand what feels incomprehensible. When it all gets too heavy, sometimes the fragile rope tethering us to solid ground snaps clean, and there is often no refuge sturdy enough to put us back together except in the intimate, private shelter of our minds.

NPR: For Oscar Isaac, life — and acting — is all about impermanence

“It [acting] is a funnel, and it's always been where I go to understand things about life and things that are happening to me. But it's one thing to grieve as a character and one thing to grieve as an actual person. And I think that there's still quite a lot of unresolved stuff there.”

I hope you enjoyed this post! I had to organize all my thoughts in one place because it's so fascinating and complex

[janisjoy]

Scene from the botanical garden

[azertyrobaz]

Was Narcos an offer or did you still have to audition?

[darlingjmiller]

Oscar Isaac on wanting Pedro to join the Spider-verse 👀

British GQ

[mountainmagpie]

Begging HBO Max and the creators of Scavengers Reign to make an adaptation of the Southern Reach trilogy.

[basicalyrandom]

[halogenseas]

Congrats to Aaron Taylor-Johnson for joining Oscar Issac and Hailee Steinfield in having more than one Marvel role. 

Edit: Here’s an updated list of more actors who have more than one Marvel acting credit. Sorry for forgetting anyone. 

[fouralignments]

Me in my little corner of the internet just all happy and writing about Peter and all his dads

Not thinking about the trash fire that is the death of the MCU

The MCU cannot convivence me that its somehow not yet dead

[the-force-awakens]

Had this thought and thought you might understand it. I know Poe Dameron is played by Oscar Isaac, but when I see Poe, I don't see Oscar, I just see Poe. Like, they look the same, but also they don't. I see Poe as his own separate person.

Or, I could just be crazy.....

Nope, nope you're definitely not crazy, I talk about this all the time with my friends. Oscar is one of those rare actors that just kind of disappears into his roles — and no two characters even physically look the same, and it's not just because of hair or stubble ratio or whatever, there's just something different about him every time.

It really properly struck me last year (though I noticed while working through his filmography in 2021 that I also never thought about Poe watching any of his other movies) when I happened to have, I think, a Marc header on my blog and then one afternoon my top post was a gifset of Poe — and the difference was so staggering i sat there and stared between the two for a long time because even though i know 100% it's the same actor, im like. that's two entirely different people who just kind of look alike.

I also like tossing Santiago out as an example for this because man:

it blows my goddamned mind that Triple Frontier came out the same year as the Rise of Skywalker, because again, that is NOT the same man. But yet also it is!!!! This man is Talented, goddamn.

[cluelessfanperson]

Felix Kammerer Joins Guillermo Del Toro’s Adaptation of "Frankenstein"

Let Me Get This Straight: Oscar Isaac

and Felix Kammerer

in the same film?!?!

[nkp1981]

Art: JustRalphyyy

Source: https://shorturl.at/eoHPW

[betweenthescarletmoon]

I figured it out.

If Oscar Isaac's character doesn't involve a dead parent or orphanage, beware, something is wrong.

Hamlet.

Marc Spector/Steven Grant/Jake Lockley.

Nick Wasicsko.

Rydal Keener.

Jonathan Levy.

Llewyn Davis.

Duke Leto II Atreides.

Poe Dameron.

Mikael Boghosian.

I APPARENTLY CAN GO ON

[janisjoy]

Missing my Doctor.

[darlingjmiller]

actually causing myself a headache trying to decide between continuing books on my tbr or reading mutuals fanfics about that old man 

[ichayalovesyou]

Loving your Goncharov posts. Can’t wait for your Goncharov playlist. Who would you cast if making Goncharov today?

Oooh! That’s a toughy! I’ll do my best!

Goncharov: Oscar Isaac

Period drama with protagonist with a moral corruption arc, a looming sense of doom, a really frayed but sexy fucked up relationship with his wife while also coming off as incredibly bisexual? Who else could you POSSIBLY want?!

Mario: James Frain

He’s a conniving boot licker in Tron: Legacy as Jarvis, and a stone cold bitch as Sarek in the new Star Trek shows, Mario is somewhere in that ballpark so why not?!

Andrey: Michael Fassbender

Fassbender is sooooo good at simultaneously being extremely emotionally raw and cold and calculating and I swear to gawd if that ain’t Andrey he’s soooooo, gawd, such a juicy role. Plus I think it would be sick to see Oscar and Michael chew on the scenery together and be well… Like That. As Goncharov and Andrey

Michailov: Adrien Brody

I’ve said before that I’d love to see a Wes Anderson take in these film and Adrien Brody is in like all of Anderson’s movies and he’s always playing stuck up little hard asses like Katya’s brother so I think that works super well!

Katya: Elle Fanning

MAN I love Elle Fanning I can’t tell you how much I need this. Between the Maleficent films and also THE GREAT (she’s already a Russian aristocrat I mean come ON) she could totally pull the ‘disillusioned old money trophy wife’ thing easy! I NEED her to be Katya I neeeeeeeed it!!

Sofia: Jesse James Keitel

I mean… just LOOK at her??? Amazing, hardened chaotic and queer tough chick I mean please, Keitel can and has absolutely ROCKED that shit and would do it again, Captain Angel but make it 1970s mafia sapphic I mean that’s just CORRECT

Ice Pick Joe: Steve Buscemi

I know he doesn’t do a lot of on camera stuff anymore but god this man is so good in Fargo and I love it when he plays baddies and I think he could really lean into Joe’s homicidal tendencies with that sly voice I associate with Randall from Monsters Inc who also spooked me as a kid.