- 6 weeks ago
Oscar Issac visits with Vanity Fair for a trip down memory lane as he rewatches scenes from some of the most memorable films of his career, including 'Dune,' 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens,' 'Ex Machina,' 'Inside Llewyn Davis,' 'Frankenstein' and more.
Director: Adam Lance Garcia
Director of Photography: Dave Sanders
Editor: Alex Mechanik
Talent: Oscar Isaac
Producer: Madison Coffey
Line Producer: Natasha Soto-Albors
Production Manager: Andressa Pelachi
Associate Production Manager: Elizabeth Hymes
Talent Booker: Lauren Mendoza
Camera Operator: Nigel Akam
Gaffer: Dave Plank
Audio Engineer: Kevin Teixeira
Production Assistant: Nicole Murphy
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Supervising Editor: Eduardo Araujo
Additional Editor: Sam DiVito
Assistant Editor: Andy Morell
Director: Adam Lance Garcia
Director of Photography: Dave Sanders
Editor: Alex Mechanik
Talent: Oscar Isaac
Producer: Madison Coffey
Line Producer: Natasha Soto-Albors
Production Manager: Andressa Pelachi
Associate Production Manager: Elizabeth Hymes
Talent Booker: Lauren Mendoza
Camera Operator: Nigel Akam
Gaffer: Dave Plank
Audio Engineer: Kevin Teixeira
Production Assistant: Nicole Murphy
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Supervising Editor: Eduardo Araujo
Additional Editor: Sam DiVito
Assistant Editor: Andy Morell
Category
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00The idea of just like aggressively disco dancing at someone is probably like top five favorite
00:13things I've had to do in my life. Hi, I'm Oscar Isaac and I'm going to painfully rewatch some
00:20scenes from my illustrious career on VHS.
00:30Right, this is this is from Inside Llewyn Davis when I'm singing this song Queen Jane. I've traveled all the way to Chicago to kind of have this one shot at, you know, getting the career
01:00going. I mean, F. Murray Abraham, like imagine opening up your heart to this face
01:06and waiting for the judgment to come down and the fact that he's also Salieri, you know, in this musical moment. It was just incredible.
01:13Llewyn Davis was my first leading role. I knew about it. I was playing a lot of music at the time.
01:20And I, you know, I learned as much of Dave Van Rock's catalog as I could once I knew that that's who
01:26it was kind of loosely based on. It was one video I sent in playing a song and then one audition for the
01:33Coens. And really, I'd say less fighting, more just pleading with the universe for this to happen, that I wanted it so badly and I needed it.
01:41And, you know, the fact that things lined up where I was, you know, I was granted the opportunity to do it is still kind of hard to believe.
01:49I mean, for me, there's life before Llewyn Davis and right life after Llewyn Davis.
01:53It was a welcome home in a way, you know, to be able to have Joel and Ethan be those figures in my life that kind of welcomed me
02:02into what it felt like to have that responsibility to lead this film, to get immersed in folk music of the time,
02:10to become really close to T-Bone Burnett, who did the music, and the fact that it was something that was so intimate
02:15and personal to them and prickly. You know, it's a very provocative movie and it's not easily liked, just like the main character.
02:21You know, it tells a very specific story in a very specific way. But like to align with something like that,
02:27it's not asking to be loved, it's just is the thing that it is. I'm really honored to, that that's, that I could contribute to that.
02:35I don't see a lot of money here.
02:38It's interesting because, you know, when we were preparing for this, this is kind of loosely based on Dave Van Ronk,
02:44and so he used a lot of Dave Van Ronk's music. But this one song, whatever Llewyn plays in this moment,
02:49was not chosen by the Coen's when we started. And so, I remember sending a lot of songs to them and thinking like,
02:56how about this one? A lot of them were like, kind of sexy blues songs that Dave would sing, like really intense ones.
03:02And they kept going, nah, nah. And I'm like, I don't think it's blues, I think it's like kind of a corny or white guy song.
03:09You know, I was like, what do you mean? Like just something that's like a little bit, like really folky.
03:13And they never really explained why that was it. And then they, they landed on this Queen Jane song,
03:19which was like about a medieval C-section. And what's amazing about the Coen's is that they don't
03:24really over explain anything. You know, it's like, it's almost, it's like too square to talk too much
03:29directly about what it is. And I learned it and I think it's a beautiful song. And I realize now how much
03:35it is connected to all the strands of what's happening in his life. And the whole point of the song is that he
03:40plays just a tragically uncommercial song in this moment, but it's one that feels the truest to him.
03:48And that's kind of his cross to bear is that he can't move outside of his, his small bandwidth of
03:54what authenticity means, even if it means kind of tanking his career. So that's it.
04:01You're okay. You're not green. But I don't have what, say, Troy Nelson has.
04:06You know, Troy, a good kid. He's a good kid. Yeah. He connects with people.
04:18They're just so mischievous, the Coen's. You know, I remember whenever,
04:22you can see it right there on the face, like whenever, whenever I would think of something
04:26as funny in the movie, like a scene, it just really wouldn't work. And when I was at my most
04:32heartbroken and just, just weighed down by tragedy, they would find it the funniest. They would just
04:38start laughing. And so I think, you know, it's not that they're sadists, although maybe a little bit.
04:44I call this, what is it? A screwball tragedy. You know, that, you know, they, they find the sad,
04:51beautiful absurdity in, in our existence and, and find a way to portray it with a lot of humor and
04:57compassion and, and edge. Look, I'm putting together a trio, two guys and a girl singer.
05:04You're no front guy, but if you can cut that down to a goatee, stay out of the sun,
05:09we might see how your voice works with the other two. You're comfortable with harmonies?
05:14No. The whole thing started with a week of all of us at this place, Avatar Studios in New York,
05:20and recording all of the music with Marcus Mumford and Justin Timberlake and, and Adam Driver was in
05:27there and the Punch Brothers and just like an incredible litany of amazing musicians, that that
05:32was our foundation. And Joel and Ethan would just be lying around on the couches listening. T-Bone
05:37Burnett would be going, going around, you know, burning Palo Santo. And that was our immersive
05:43introduction into this thing. So you could just trust the authenticity of what we were doing. And it
05:48wasn't even a question of likable or not likable. It's just, this is this person's journey. And,
05:54you know, whether you, whether you decide to go with them or not, that's, that's on you.
06:04Up ahead. Up ahead. You see it? I've got us dead center. It's a clean shot.
06:08Up ahead. I got it.
06:20Did you see that? It was this beautiful red herring. I think he did something similar in Star Trek II,
06:25where, you know, you feel like this heroic character, classic kind of heroic character is
06:30going to be your, your lead character. And then he suddenly is gone. And it's the one that you didn't
06:35expect, you know, which is Finn, which is the stormtrooper, the, the least likely that you start
06:40to follow. So yeah, that's, that's what it was. And it's, it's fun. I mean, the, the, the energy,
06:44once Poe was going to survive much longer, they did want me to read with Finn and with Daisy because
06:52they didn't know where it was going to go. So they wanted to see what that would, what, what that was
06:56like. Immediately with, um, with John Boyega, we just had a chemistry together and we were already
07:03having a lot of fun. We did this scene, I believe in the audition. Then we did the scene that we were,
07:07when we're in the actual TIE fighter and the two ethnics in the film, at least like the two lead
07:14ethnic, we just like kind of clunk to each other and we're excited for each other. And you know,
07:18I think you feel that, that kind of love between these two characters.
07:21The TIE fighter is much more comfortable to fly than the X-Wing. Just a little tidbit. You know,
07:44there's a little more space. The X-Wing is a little bit more, you're a little tighter. Oftentimes you've
07:48got the helmet on. It's, uh, you know, you got a little joystick. This one's got, you know,
07:52these kind of things that you're, these things you're moving around on the side. And I think
07:56the way that they're shot generally is just, you know, there's, they're just a little more open.
08:00The X-Wing was hard on, on the first one in particular, because we shot it outside and it
08:04would just get ridiculously hot. No droid can be that important. This one is. We gotta get as far away
08:09from the first order as we can. Go back to Jakku, we die. That droid has a map that leads straight to Luke Skywalker.
08:15Oh, you gotta be kidding me. There was a lot of pride in being, you know, in those early days,
08:19like one of the few Latinos in space. Um, I loved getting to know JJ as well. You know,
08:26especially in this one, there was just the air of possibility and not knowing what this thing was.
08:31And if you know, feeling like this was the first one in so many years to come back to, you know,
08:36getting to meet, uh, the original cast, it was incredibly, incredibly exciting to be asked to come on board with this thing.
08:45To the office. I called a car. It's, the office is still closed.
08:56Why? I got a key. Will you please just listen for a second?
08:59What? This is, uh, it's just surreal. It's delusional.
09:04Yeah, I know. Then no, no, then I, I don't accept it. We're gonna sit here and we're gonna talk as long as it takes, okay?
09:10We talked last night. No, no, we, we yelled at each other for an hour. That's not the same thing.
09:16We were shooting during COVID as well. So it was a, it was also a very, that made it even more alien.
09:22And it was a really, um, pressurized situation. Guy Levy and Amy Herzog with him, like wrote this really
09:31surgical precision of pain in a marriage and in a, in a dissolution of a marriage. And Jessica and I,
09:39knowing each other for so long and, you know, trusting each other to go down this, this dark
09:47rabbit hole of, of pain. It was a real excavation that was painful. And I think it, it produced some
09:54really compelling, um, work. It's not gonna do any good at me. It's not gonna do any, what is this?
10:01What is this thing where we can't talk to each other? Mira, I want to talk to you and you don't
10:05want to talk to me. What kind of cruelty is that? I want to talk to you. I want to, I want to sit here
10:12till there's smoke coming out of our ears. And when we, we've gone through all, all of the angles and
10:17figured out where we went wrong and how we can fix it. Yeah. You know, it is important to, to find ways,
10:24healthy ways of, uh, kind of letting that be its thing and, and, and move on. I know I'd watch,
10:30I was watching a lot of Succession at the time. I hadn't seen it. So I'd go into the room and watch
10:35a lot of that, eat a lot of potato chips. Those were kind of the two things I would do to try to,
10:40try to relax. I'm not attracted to you anymore. How do you fix that?
10:44Pain, pain of being left, pain of being left behind, that kind of confusion. Hagai was really
10:57great because this character was, was quite different from me and had a different upbringing
11:02and the idea that he had been orthodox and he had a very kind of strict idea of, of right and wrong,
11:09you know, um, and that, and that he was trying to approach this in not a, such a,
11:18you know, in the kind of sublimating himself in this situation, um, in the hopes that that would
11:24kind of make her come back or at least just talk to him. I think that the, the, the pain of that
11:30and the confusion of this also shooting in this house, it was its own character. We built this house
11:36and it became a character in itself. You know, sometimes it was this happy place and often
11:40it was just this place of trauma. It's very evocative at that time. I haven't seen it since,
11:44so it's quite strong. Jonathan, please let me go, please.
11:49It's effective. It's effective. Yeah. You know, I, I get, you know, it's the idea that Jonathan's like,
12:10uh, maybe if she feels this, this will convince her to stay, you know, and then that kind of almost
12:16childlike feel of like clinging to mom's leg. Go ahead, dance with her. Dance with her.
12:31No, you don't like dancing? She does.
12:38Come on, buddy. After a long day of touring test, you got to unwind.
12:42What were you doing with Ava? What? You tore up her picture.
12:49I'm going to tear up the fucking dance floor, dude. Check it out.
12:55This is a very good exchange talking about, talking about just like Alex's sense of humor,
13:00just the tear up the fucking dance floor. I remember my, uh, I, before I agreed to do this in the film,
13:08I was looking at it and I, I, uh, my best friend growing up, he's like a musician as well, and he's a physicist.
13:13And I was like, take a look at this. And then it was the scene where he read it. He's like,
13:17I can really picture you saying, I'm going to tear up the fucking dance floor. He's like,
13:21it's, it sounds like a really dickish thing that you would say.
13:24I was like, yeah, yeah, you're right. I actually rehearsed a lot to figure out how to do this dance.
13:30Both of us did me and Sonoya, uh, who's just so, so great in the movie. This was one of those things
13:36where it was just such a random spike in the middle of the film. It's hard to understand why
13:42it's just so perfect, even because it's just so opposite of the, every, the rest of it goes. But
13:46you think we're talking to Alex Garland and it's like, this guy's all by himself. He's got no friends.
13:52He's got these robots, you know? Okay. We have an idea of what he does with these robots, but at a certain
13:58point, what else is there? You know, what would, what would he do if he wanted to like have fun?
14:03And we got this idea that he like programmed the robot or this particular robot to be able to do
14:09this dance and what that felt like. He's also, the thing that was so fun about this character and what
14:15Alex and I worked on very hard was looking at this kind of multi-dimensional cube from every angle
14:22and, and understanding at every given moment, he is intending something. Nothing is happenstance.
14:40It's all a performance for Donal's character, Caleb, to get a particular result at the end of it. It's
14:47this, his particular type of test that he's doing. And so him performing this horrible creator is very
14:53much part of this thing. Him performing someone that's messy and sloppy and drunk is very necessary
14:59for Caleb to think that he can create a diversion and escape. And so that was, that's kind of what the,
15:06the idea of a scene like this is. Loneliness is a, is an interesting thing, you know? And I'm drawn to
15:13the characters. He's alone and he's by himself and he sees, he kind of sees the end of humanity. And
15:19that's, I mean, these guys, a lot of them have this feeling. I mean, what's amazing about this film
15:24is how old it was and how prescient it was, how prophetic it is about so many things. You know,
15:29I mean, I've, I've, I've met a lot of these, a lot of these guys since then that are on the forefront
15:33of these things. And it is a strange feeling to be, feel like that you are on the precipice of the
15:39singularity and there's nothing humanity can do about it and what to do with that and how you,
15:46how one behaves with those things. It was, it's a fascinating character. You know, I looked at
15:50geniuses, dark geniuses that inspired me. Bobby Fischer was one, you know, that I read his,
15:55his book and he really spiraled out and just kind of seeing some of these things and also his workout
16:00regiment. And that was something that inspired this Kubrick. Um, I kind of, I actually listened
16:05to a lot of his recordings, um, and modeled my voice a bit after his, and they even got the glasses
16:11that looked like his and a few other people that, that helped influence it. But the truth is that
16:17the script was so tight and the character was so clear in the writing and it was really funny.
16:24You know, in fact that, you know, it's something people don't really know is he's an incredibly
16:27funny guy. I mean, he's dark, you know, and cerebral, but he's got such a wicked sense of humor.
16:32And I think this is one of the, one of his movies, maybe the only one where you really see that,
16:37that expressed in this character and particularly in this scene.
16:50That was one of the funniest people I've ever met in my life. Uh, the idea of just like aggressively
16:55disco dancing at someone is probably like top five favorite things I've had to do in my life.
17:01By the way, there's the, the, the scene was maybe two minutes longer.
17:06Like the whole dance sequence, it used to end with me like spinning and spinning and spinning
17:10around and falling onto this glass table and shattering it. But I think his, uh,
17:13his hard cut to me just smacking myself in the face was like a nice way to end it.
17:31Well, this is an interesting tidbit. When he first talked to me, he said, I don't know if I want you
17:46to play Lido or if I want you to play Gurney, uh, which Josh Brolin ended up playing Gurney.
17:52And I was like, okay. And the same friend, my buddy Bruce, who said, you know,
17:59tear up the fucking dance floor. I can imagine doing that. He's a huge dune head and he's read
18:04all the books and you know, it was just like, well-versed. I asked him, I said, what do you
18:09think? He's like, I think you're Lido, man. I mean, Gurney's cool, but he's like, I think,
18:12I think it's just, you know, Lido's kind of like your dad and Gurney's like my dad.
18:17I'm like, all right. And so, yeah, I had to kind of thought about the two of them.
18:20And then like a week later that he's like, no, no, no, you're, you're Lido. I've thought about it.
18:25And you're definitely, you know, Gurney's not available anymore. You're Lido. I was like, all right.
18:29And we worked a lot. We worked a lot. I read the book. I looked at things that I wanted to bring in.
18:36We talked with Eric Roth, who did some work on the, on this scene in particular. We did a few
18:42passes to this scene to just try to get, get to something interesting and, you know, archetypal
18:49as well. Something that was succinct, but really gave you a sense because, you know, there's not a
18:53lot of time between, particularly between Lido and Tim Chalamet's character between Paul Atreides.
18:59So the scene required it to fulfill a lot of,
19:03a lot of storytelling tasks and character development tasks.
19:06I've studied the Fremen language. I'd be an asset.
19:08Out of the question. They'll travel in a few weeks to Arrakis like the rest of us.
19:12I've been training my whole life. What is the point if I'm not allowed to face some actual risk?
19:16There's a warmth to him and a love to him, but there's something stately as well. And that there's
19:22something, there's a bit of a remove. And so, yeah, that balance, the balance between
19:28responsibility and expectations, but also being able to see him as an individual and understanding
19:37that I do accept you for whatever it is that you are and what you're going to be. You know,
19:42it's not just about what I require of you or what's expected of you. These are like the positive
19:47qualities of my father, who I love very much. But, but yeah, I just kind of focused on more of that.
19:52You know, the idea of somebody who also is aware of the sacrifice that's going to be made
20:01and still moving into it out of some sense of hope. You know, I mean, pretty quickly on,
20:07I think he can tell shit's going to go down and it's probably not going to fall in my favor,
20:11but there's nothing, nothing to do, but move towards it.
20:15Here on Caladan, we've ruled by air power and sea power. On Arrakis, we need to cultivate desert power.
20:23He's one of the few human characters, you know, there's, he's not superhuman. He's not,
20:28you know, and he's, there's forces that are way beyond his control that are squeezing him into
20:34this particular fate. And so within that fate to want to at least pass on to his son, a sense of
20:44humanity and integrity and some form of dignity. And the biggest thing being, yes, we are going in
20:50as colonizers, but it's the people that are the key, the people that are there. You know, these,
20:57nobody's realizing what, what, what desert power is, which is the people. Your grandfather said,
21:05a great man doesn't seek to lead. He's called to it. And he answers.
21:13And if your answer is no,
21:18you'll still be the only thing I ever needed you to be.
21:20Pete, my son. We pretty quickly got very close. You know, this is the kind of scene part it is.
21:28It's like an old adage that, you know, when someone plays a king,
21:34they don't play the king. It's the court that plays the king, right? They're the ones that let
21:38you know who the person of status is. And, you know, to me as a, as, you know, as a young,
21:45passionate actor has this incredible role, um, to kind of give that authority over it takes a lot
21:53of security in oneself. And, and it's just really smart as an actor, you know, because it's going
21:58to make the scene stronger. So, so he did that right away. And I think that's why they're at the,
22:04and at the same time, doesn't shy away. He's getting loose. And we had such a good time doing
22:09it. I even remember like one of my favorite memories is when we were in the trailer with Timmy and
22:14Josh Brolin and Steve Henderson was one of the, you know, he was a legend. And then Timothy was
22:20already preparing for the Dylan movie and just jamming out and playing and all of us playing guitar
22:26and listening to him and, and already being like, oh, wow, this kid, this kid's, this kid's good.
22:44Guillermo, you know, it's, it's a very interesting question because, you know,
22:52Denis in a similar way kind of infused their being into this material. Guillermo's departs quite a bit
23:02from the novel, not in like a, you know, DNA kind of way, but just like the story,
23:07the tangents that it goes off, the characters, how they shift, there's a much, I'd say a more
23:12expressive, emotional expressive approach that Guillermo takes with this, with this material.
23:18Whereas in Dune, you know, Denis honors that, like the form of that, of the novel in a different way.
23:25This is very Mexican, Catholic, Latin American, you know, telenovela point of view of Frankenstein,
23:34which, you know, and he said, he's like, at one point, he's like, it's not a, it's not an accident that
23:38my Victor Frankenstein is actually named Oscar Isaac Hernandez, you know, it's because, and we
23:42were only speaking Spanish to each other. And it was, it was like a real exercising of our demons,
23:49of our pain. And the movie is about pain. That's what it is about pain and how people deal with pain
23:55and the rage that happens, the egos that get constructed out of it, and ultimately the forgiveness of it.
24:04So that was an accident. So the, the, we had an issue with the steam, the pipes were like not
24:10working and suddenly the steam came out before and Guillermo was like, let's use it. We're going to
24:15use that. And so we've made that a feature, you know, that, oh, we, things should be going wrong.
24:19Of course things go wrong. You know, that's the whole point. And so this was like a fun addition
24:23that we did. And, you know, I'm particularly proud of making it look like it's really hard to turn
24:27those things, you know, cause they were so easy to turn. And I was like, yeah, it's one of those silly actor things.
24:32Where I was like, yeah, it looks really difficult to turn. But this whole thing,
24:35I remember Guillermo at some point being like, we're making a real gothic superhero with this guy,
24:40you know, and those, you know, this was three weeks of rain being dressed in this kind of thing,
24:45running up and down. And I just, I couldn't believe how much fun I was having doing this.
24:52So this is the other one. I said that about Llewyn Davis and the other film that feels like life
24:56before and life after it was, was Frankenstein. And it had a, similarly to Llewyn Davis,
25:02it's like being, being in the arms of family. It felt very much like Guillermo was a family member.
25:10And there was just a connection and an intimacy together. And it, and it felt like we were building
25:16this thing together. We talked about defiance. We talked about the idea of defying our fathers,
25:25defying our fate, defying death. So defiance was a big thing that he's a vitalist,
25:32that he is much more artist than scientist, that there is an expressive quality to him. Then that he is,
25:41he, he is being pushed along by forces that he's unaware of. That kind of helped open up just the
25:48expressive possibilities of who he is. And there is, there's a lot of rage and a lot of anger and pain
25:55in this character. And there's a lot of pleasure and like the idea of like pain and pleasure being just
26:00right on a nice edge with each other. I remember afterwards I went off to do something else and I
26:05found it really difficult. And I realized that like, I, I missed the enjoyment, the sensuality of,
26:13of Victor.
26:35Victor's constantly trying to impose his will, even from a, you know, from a place of pain,
26:42but to, to run away from the pain. I mean, to the point where the, the pain of the death of his
26:47mother is so strong that he dedicates his life to beating death, not even from a place of generosity
26:55for the world, but from a, just a place of trying to heal this wound somehow, you know, or run away from
26:59the wound. The idea that for me, the creature and Victor are exactly the same thing. Maybe there
27:06isn't even a creature, you know, that, that he goes through all this, the, his entire journey,
27:12even running away into the Arctic, that this, this inner child of his, that he recreates with all the
27:19scars and all the innocence and all the brutality that was inflicted on him, that he continues to
27:24inflict on his creation. That seems to be just an extension of him, either his success or his failure.
27:29And that this child, um, has to chase him down to the ends of the earth to ultimately forgive him.
27:39You know, I think that for me just was just, um, so powerful and, and it was like the through line
27:47for this character.
27:53Thanks so much for watching.
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