Jason Isaacs Goes Hollywood Before Going Back to Hogwarts

Don’t be shy, Jason, come out and chat.

ComingSoon had a chance to speak with Jason Isaacs, who’s in the US working on a few episodes of the next season of Entourage (no, he’s not playing himself, yes, he is playing a bad boy…come on, it’s Entourage, what other kind of boys are there?). He talked about his playing Lucius Malfoy again in the final Harry Potter films. Here’s an excerpt:

CS: Are you excited to reprise the role?
Isaacs: I am very excited. Also, the woman who is playing my wife I’ve been a fan of for a very long time. In fact, one of the great things about going to do “Harry Potter” at all is that a lot of people who are my acting idols I see sitting in make-up chairs beside me. To get to do scenes with Gary Oldman and Richard Harris, Michael Gambon and now Helen McCrory, who I’m a big fan of – it’s fabulous.

CS: What was it like to pick up the final “Harry Potter” book when it came out and not know what was in there, especially for you?
Isaacs: I’m not quite strong enough to pick up a book of that weight. I had a couple of people to help me, and a winch. The secret can be out now. Before it came out I wasn’t quite sure – there was a point where I wasn’t sure I was going to do anymore because there wasn’t much for me to do in number five and I wasn’t in number six. I met Jo Rowling for the first time at a big awards dinner. I went over and basically fell to my knees and said “Get me out of prison, I beg you.” She looked over her shoulder and looked back at me mouthing “You’re out. Chapter One.” And that was it, that’s all I had to know, and I signed up immediately. 

CS: Do you know when you start?
Isaacs: I think I start February next year, but I’m not sure. Dan’s [Radcliffe] got to go to Broadway first and wow them with all of his… with all of him. [Laughs]

CS: You have seen the young actors in the films growing up, basically.
Isaacs: I have, yeah.

CS: Can you talk about how they have matured over the years? How have they stayed grounded through all of this?
Isaacs: In the beginning all of us grownups got to patronizing a little bit. Now they have gotten a thousand hours more screen time than any of the rest of us put together – and bank balances to match. They are not just very accomplished actors, they’re very seasoned and mature individuals. They have learned to handle this very enormous stress and this kind of global fame. Frankly, I marvel at how well they have turned out as human beings. Like the mystery of “Harry Potter” and the magical alchemy that happens in the stories, the scripts and the books, something very magical has happened to those young people because by rights they should have turned into monsters, but they are still delightful to be around.

CS: Is it easier on them to be mostly in England? Do you think if they were here there would be more temptations?
Isaacs: They have each other, they have the film set they have been on, which is their family for the time. It’s going to be very hard for them, and for all of us, when we finish. We are so into it, too. Sadly it has to end, unless she’s going to write us all a sequel.

So there you go, Lucius Malfoy fans, he’ll be back, he’ll be blond, and he’ll be bad. At least I guess he’ll be bad; with “mal” as a prefix to his last name, that would seem to be his fate. I must confess that I don’t know because I’m not a fan of the Harry Potter books or the movies (ooooooooh!! Sacrilege! Heresy! Burn her at the stake and take away her Diana Wynne Jones books!). I am, however, a Jason Isaacs fan, so I feel safe in saying that whatever he does in the films he’ll do quite well.