Jason Isaacs

Isaacs was born in Liverpool on 6 June 1963, the third of four sons born to Jewish parents.[5] His father was a jeweller.[6] He spent his earliest childhood years in the Liverpool suburb of Childwall, in an "insular and closely knit" Jewish community co-founded by his Eastern European great-grandparents.[7] Isaacs has stated that Judaism played a big role in his childhood, as he attended youth club in the local synagogue and a Jewish school (known then as King David High School), as well as a cheder twice a week as a young adult.[8][9][10] When Isaacs was 11, he moved with his family to London and attended The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School in Elstree, Hertfordshire, where he was in the same year as future film critic Mark Kermode.[8] He describes the bullying and intolerance he observed during his childhood as "preparation" for portraying the "unattractive" villains/bad guys he has most often played.[2][11]

As a Jewish teenager in London, Isaacs endured marked antisemitism by members and supporters of the far right extremist organisation, the National Front. His parents eventually emigrated to Israel.[8] In an interview, he stated, "There were constantly people beating us up or smashing windows. If you were ever, say, on a Jewish holiday, identifiably Jewish, there was lots of violence around. But particularly when I was 16, in 1979, the National Front were really taking hold, there were leaflets at school, and Sieg Heiling and people goose-stepping down the road and coming after us."[6] Following in the footsteps of his brothers (one who became a doctor, one a lawyer, and one an accountant),[5] Isaacs studied law at Bristol University (1982–1985), but became more actively involved in the drama society, eventually acting in over 30 plays and performing each summer at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, first with Bristol University and then twice with the National Student Theatre Company. After graduating from Bristol, he went immediately to train at London's Central School of Speech and Drama (1985–1988).[2][5][12]

Isaacs in 2005

After completing his training as an actor, Isaacs almost immediately began appearing on the stage and on television; his film debut was in a minor role as a doctor in Mel Smith's The Tall Guy (1989).[12] He was initially known as a television actor in the United Kingdom, with starring roles in the ITV drama Capital City (1989) and the BBC drama Civvies (1992) and guest roles in series such as Taggart, Inspector Morse, and Highlander: The Series (1993).[12] He also played Michael Ryan in ITV's adaptation of Martina Cole's novel Dangerous Lady, directed by Jack Woods and produced by Lavinia Warner in 1995.[13]

On stage, he portrayed the "emotionally waffling"[12] gay Jewish office temp Louis Ironson in Tony Kushner's Pulitzer-Prize-winning Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, at the Royal National Theatre, in its London première, performing the role in both parts, Part One: Millennium Approaches, in 1992, and Part Two: Perestroika, in 1993.[1] When auditioning for that role, he told the producers, "Look, I play all these tough guys and thugs and strong, complex characters. In real life, I am a cringing, neurotic Jewish mess. Can't I for once play that on stage?"[9]

His first major Hollywood feature-film role was alongside Laurence Fishburne in the horror film Event Horizon (1997). Subsequently, he appeared in the Bruce Willis blockbuster Armageddon (1998), which kick-started his career.[12] Initially called upon to take a fairly substantial role, Isaacs was eventually cast in a much smaller capacity as a planet-saving scientist so that he could accommodate his commitment to Divorcing Jack (1998), a comedy-thriller he was making with David Thewlis.[5]

After portraying a priest opposite Julianne Moore and Ralph Fiennes in Neil Jordan's acclaimed adaptation of Graham Greene's The End of the Affair (1999), Isaacs played the charismatic honourable priest opposite Kirstie Alley in the miniseries The Last Don. He then shone as "memorable" villain, Colonel William Tavington, in Roland Emmerich's American Revolutionary War fictional film epic The Patriot (2000).[12] Starring opposite Mel Gibson as the film's hero, and Heath Ledger as Gibson's screen son, Isaacs portrays a sadistic British Army officer who kills Ledger's character, among many other soldiers.[12][14] Although his work in the film earned him comparisons to Ralph Fiennes' portrayal of Nazi Amon Göth in Schindler's List (1993) and mention of a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination, reaching beyond being typecast as an historical villain, Isaacs chose to play a drag queen in his next project, Sweet November (2001), a romantic comedy-drama.[5]

Isaacs has appeared in many other films, most notably as Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter series of films (2002–2011). Regarding the Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling, Isaacs has said: "I went off and read the books after the audition and I read the first four books in one sitting – you know – didn't wash, didn't eat, drove around with them on the steering wheel like a lunatic. I suddenly understood why my friends, who I'd thought were slightly backward, had been so addicted to these children's books. They're like crack" (from an interview in 2009 on ITV's The Justin Lee Collins Show).[15] In "The Naked and the Dead", an article published in the San Francisco Chronicle, on 26 November 2006, Neva Chonin names the character Lucius Malfoy one of the 12 "Sexiest Men Who Were Never Alive" and Isaacs one of the 13 "Sexiest Men Who Are Real and Alive".[16]

Prior to the making of the film, when asked whether or not he would be in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), Isaacs replied, "I hope so – you'll have to ask David (producer David Heyman). I can't bear the idea that somebody else would get to wear my Paris Hilton wig, but you never know."[17] Isaacs also talked to Rowling on the inclusion of Lucius Malfoy in the then unpublished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, so that he would have a part in the seventh and final film: "The character does not appear in the sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince; but ... [Isaacs joked], 'I fell to my knees and begged ... It didn't do any good. I'm sure she doesn't need plot ideas from me. But I made my point. We'll see. Like everybody else, I'm holding my breath to July to see what's in there. I just want to bust out of prison, that's all. I don't want to stay in Azkaban most of my life.' "[18] Ultimately Isaacs did reprise the role of Malfoy as a cameo appearance in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009), where he is seen in a moving portrait. Afterwards, Isaacs reprised the role again in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010) and Part 2 (2011).[19]

Isaacs appeared in Dragonheart (1996), Event Horizon (1997), Black Hawk Down (2001), Jackie Chan's The Tuxedo (2002), as George Darling and Captain Hook in P. J. Hogan's adaptation of Peter Pan (2003), and as the voice of Admiral Zhao in the first season of the animated Nickelodeon series Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005). He played the leading role of Sir Mark Brydon, the British Ambassador to the United States, in the BBC Four miniseries The State Within (2006), for which he was nominated for the Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television for the 65th Golden Globe Awards.[20][21] On British television, he also portrayed actor Harry H. Corbett in The Curse of Steptoe, part of "a season of new one-off dramas for BBC Four revealing the stories behind some of Britain's best loved television entertainers, and their achievements," first broadcast in March 2008.[22][23] On American television, Isaacs appeared in three episodes of The West Wing in 2004, prior to developing his most notable TV serial role, as Michael Caffee in Brotherhood (2006–08).

Isaacs at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con International

Between 2 February and 24 March 2007, Isaacs played Ben, opposite Lee Evans (Gus), in the critically acclaimed 50th-anniversary production of Harold Pinter's The Dumb Waiter, at Trafalgar Studios, in London, his first theatre performance since appearing in The Force of Change (2000).[2][3][4][24][25]

Isaacs played Major Briggs, an American military officer, opposite Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear, in Paul Greengrass's thriller Green Zone (2010), a fictionalised drama set in Iraq after the defeat of Saddam Hussein based on the book Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Baghdad's Green Zone (2006), by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, for which production began in Morocco, in January 2008.[26][27]

In 2007, he was cast in Jan de Bont's then-still-upcoming film Stopping Power, to play its star John Cusack's "nemesis",[28][29] but, on 31 August 2007, Variety reported that the film, also planned for release in 2009, had been cancelled after a financial backer pulled out.[30] Isaacs appeared in one episode of the TV show Entourage in the autumn of 2008 as Fredrick Line. In 2009, he was nominated at the British Academy Television Awards for Best Actor for his role as Harry H. Corbett in The Curse of Steptoe.[31]

On the evening of 2 May 2009, Isaacs performed the role of Ben again, opposite his Brotherhood co-star (and Tony Award winner) Brían F. O'Byrne (as Gus), in a "rehearsed reading" of The Dumb Waiter. Their reading capped off the Harold Pinter Memorial Celebration being curated by Harry Burton (who had directed him and Evans at Trafalgar Studios). This tribute to Harold Pinter co-sponsored by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center (MESTC), of The Graduate Center of The City University of New York (CUNY), was part of the Fifth Annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, held in New York City, from 27 April to 3 May 2009.[32][33] He provided the voice of Ra's al Ghul in the DC animated film, Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010), and also the voice of Sinestro in the DC animated film Green Lantern: Emerald Knights (2011). In 2011, he starred as Jackson Brodie in a BBC adaptation of Kate Atkinson's Case Histories. For his portrayal of the detective, Isaacs won a Satellite Award for Best Actor in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture Made for Television.

Isaacs starred as Detective Michael Britten in the NBC series Awake, which premiered on 1 March 2012, and ended in May 2012. After Britten gets into a terrible car wreck with his family, his dreams begin to take on two alternate realities, one in which his wife died in the crash and one in which his son died. Says Isaacs about the ambitious premise: "There's no question it's challenging. We've got a bunch of very experienced writers who have written things from HBO shows to The X-Files, to 24 and everything in between. And they are challenged. All of them have said that it's the hardest job that they've ever had. But sometimes that's a good thing. If it comes easily, that they could write in their sleep, I personally wouldn't want to act – and I think the audience wouldn't want to watch."[34]

In 2015, Isaacs took the lead role in the USA Network action adventure drama series Dig. Isaacs plays an FBI agent stationed in Jerusalem who uncovers a 2,000-year-old conspiracy while investigating an archaeologist's murder. The ten-episode series premiered 5 March 2015. In February 2016, he starred in Medusa's Ankles, a film directed by Harry Potter co-star Bonnie Wright. In December 2016, he appeared in the Netflix series The OA as Dr. Hunter Aloysius "Hap" Percy.[35]

It was announced in March 2017 that Isaacs would play the role of Captain Gabriel Lorca in the new CBS All Access series Star Trek: Discovery.[36][37] The series premiered on 24 September 2017. Isaacs made his first appearance as Lorca on 1 October 2017 in the third episode, "Context Is for Kings". Lorca was exposed as his 'mirror universe' self in episode 13, "What's Past Is Prologue", in which the character was killed.[38] In January 2019, showrunner Alex Kurtzman teased the possible return of Isaacs as 'Prime universe' Lorca at some point beyond season two.[39] Isaacs also voices the character for the role-playing game Star Trek Online: Rise of Discovery.[40]

In September 2017, Isaacs played Field Marshal Georgy Zhukov in The Death of Stalin, a political satire film directed by Armando Ianucci.

Isaacs also played the role of Dan in the 2018 psychological thriller, Look Away, starring Mira Sorvino and India Eisley.[41]

In 2019, Isaacs provided the voice of Skekso, the Emperor in The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance and in 2020, voiced Dick Dastardly in the Scooby-Doo film Scoob!.

In November 2019, it was announced that Isaacs will appear beside Jim Broadbent in the film The Dead Spit of Kelly.[42] In March 2020, Isaacs will play in the lead role of Dr. Paul "Griff" Griffith in the CBS drama pilot Good Sam.[43]

Isaacs began living with his partner, BBC documentary filmmaker Emma Hewitt, in 1987.[44] They started dating at the Central School and were married in 2001.[45] They have two daughters, Ruby and Lilly.[11]

Isaacs describes himself as a "Jewish man who does almost nothing Jewish in his life"[46] and feels "profoundly Jewish, but not in a religious way".[11] He has spoken of travelling unrecognised to film premières on the London Underground, saying, "They just think, who's that t*** in black tie? As soon as I get on the red carpet they start screaming and screaming."[2]

On 4 August 2020 Isaacs revealed he had battled a "decades-long love affair with drugs". He spoke of how a bartender had slipped a 12-year-old Isaacs and his friends a bottle of Southern Comfort, which they proceeded to get blackout drunk on. He said "The next morning, I woke up with a splitting headache, stinking of puke with a huge scab and the memory of having utterly shamed myself. All I could think was… I cannot f------ wait to do that again. Why? I’ve no idea. Genes? Nurture? Star sign? I just know I chased the sheer ecstatic joy I felt that night for another 20 years with increasingly dire consequences." Eventually, Isaacs realized he needed help and achieved sobriety, but asked fans not to congratulate him on his efforts, writing on Twitter "Please don't anyone congratulate me or tell me they're proud of me. I am and was useless by myself. Pride's the worst part. If you feel the desperate need to click, retweet it to let other people know there's a solution out there."[47][48]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jason Isaacs.

• Jason Isaacs at IMDb
• Jason Isaacs news and commentary on The Guardian