f i l m Interview with Jason Isaacs
starring in The Patriot by Cynthia Fuchs
PopMatters Film and TV Editor
e-mail this article The Patriot review by Cynthia Fuchs I think it's healthy to find it weird J ason Isaacs has a kind of energy that you don't see every day. He's certainly enthusiastic - he likes working as a stage and move actor and he likes the traveling that goes with it, which he's doing presently to promote The Patriot , in which he co-stars with Mel Gibson. And he's certainly earnest when he talks about it all, seeming actually to consider your question before he answers it. But Isaacs has an unusual playfulness, generosity, and attentiveness, too, a keen sense of humor and perceptiveness that don't surface often in your everyday movie star. Having just finished breakfast, the 37-year-old Liverpool native wants to talk in his hotel room, which is, frankly, a mess. There are suitcases half-unpacked, and sneakers strewn about, his laptop ready-to-go on the desk. He's embarrassed by the disorder, but not too. He's clearly at ease with himself. Cynthia Fuchs: How did you get involved in The Patriot Jason Isaacs: I get to read lots and lots of scripts, and almost all of them are crap. Not that the people writing them aren't talented or the people developing them aren't talented, but something doesn't quite work. If you ever start reading one and you're still reading it by the end, when you should have actually gone somewhere else, and you've been reading it on the steering wheel of your car, and park in a parking lot to finish it or read it in the tub until your skin goes wrinkly, you know it's something good. And this script had me sobbing. Those sentimental moments, when they work, it's difficult to orchestrate them well. I think that's one of the great things about Roland [Emmerich] and Dean [Devlin]. They can take those moments, and even intentionally telegraph them, and do them well enough that they can always hit a chord. | |
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