Isaacs On Portraying A Villain
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Jason Isaacs doesn’t mind portraying villains as long as those villains can “justify their own actions.”
“That’s my job when I’m offered parts that seem to be there to drive the peril in the plot,” he said; “the criteria I set myself is that I will take the part if this person can justify what they’re doing and rationalize it.”
“If they’re only doing thing in order for the audience to go ‘boo, hiss’ then I’ll walk away from it because I won’t be able to flesh it out and make it seem real. Can I access the conversation inside the character’s head by which they are the hero of their own life story.”
This explains why he took on the role of Captain Lorca, in spite of initial reservations about doing Star Trek. “I really wasn’t up for doing Star Trek,” he said. “I didn’t want to do it; it wasn’t the kind of thing I was looking for and then I read the script and thought it was great.”
These days, though, Isaacs is eager to get back on the stage. “I’m desperate to do a play because I’ve not been on stage for years,” he said. “I’ve put the word out.”
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