Actor's Roundtable: Oscar Isaac, Samuel L. Jackson, Quincy Isaiah, & More
Brian Cox (Succession), Michael Keaton (Dopesick), Oscar Isaac (Moon Knight and Scenes From A Marriage), Samuel L. Jackson (The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), and Quincy Isaiah (Winning Time) joined The Hollywood Reporter’s Lacey Rose to talk about their respective projects and experiences.
“If you see somebody do something great, just tell them.”
Lacey Rose begins the interview by asking Quincy Isaiah about how he prepares for his role on Winning Time. Isaiah states that he wanted his show to be fun. However, he struggled with his sudden popularity and began experiencing anxiety whenever a fan or group of people walked up to him in his daily life. Isaiah sought counseling where he eventually came to understand that such an event is part of the entertainment business. He now sees people approaching and speaking to him as signs of excitement for his work. He also learned to separate people who love him as an individual from people who love his work.
“When I was doing Die Hard, or something I would actually walk around to see how many people recognize me.”
Spring boarding off Isaiah’s talk of anxiety and acceptance of fans approaching him, Rose asks the other guests if they remember when they immediately went from anonymity to sudden recognition due to a project. Hiddleston states that playing the role of Loki in the Marvel superhero movies made him famous. These days Hiddleston is approached almost every day in his daily life by fans of his portrayal of Loki. He believes it is a strange feeling when you’re doing a thing you always do in life, such as grabbing a coffee, and then somebody comes up to you. Jackson claims that the Internet changed how actors become recognizable.
“You find that we are all in positions where we’ve constantly subsidized ourselves for the next job.”
Brian Cox values anonymity. While his popularity has ebbed and flowed regularly, he believes he has now been thrust back into the spotlight due to his current role in Succession. Michael Keaton also values anonymity regarding living a normal life, but he also wants to keep working and be recognized for his work. Keaton states that Beetlejuice was the role that made him “known.” However, he spent a lot of time auditioning for new roles and turning down others to break out of being labeled by that role. Keaton credits his role in Batman for changing his landscape in character casting.
Oscar Isaac reveals that he has contemplated getting off the “fix” of work. He reasons this obsession relates to seeking approval and a desire to be included. Isaac learned to say no to some roles despite wanting more opportunities. Now that he has a stable set of roles, Isaac feels he can emotionally afford to step back and enjoy everyday life for a year or so.
“It just seems to me, sometimes, like lately I feel like there is a misperception. Not even a real education or understanding in the public, especially in this country, know what it [acting] really is.”
Rose moves the interview along and asks Isaiah if he is thinking about his next project. Isaiah notes that he can’t smile as much in his next role due to his current character requiring him to smile frequently. Keaton chimes in and states that his goal is to always try to be as original as possible in every role he performs. Despite his belief that everything actors have done came from something in the past, those experiences will lead to something new because they are used for the future. Keaton feels that many of today’s projects lack this and claims they are “a knockoff of a knockoff.”
“They [writers] have a perception in their minds of what they want their characters to be. They hire you because you have something…They think you’re going to inhabit that character.”
Rose then asks about times when the guest actors began a new project. When the present actors sign on to do a series, Rose is curious if there were things about their character they wanted to bring to the performance that wasn’t in the script. Samuel L. Jackson claims that the situation is true, to an extent, because he believes actors physically inhabit the role in a way the writer and director didn’t perceive. He believes that actors fill characters full of life, and as a result, the actor begins to perceive how that character thinks and feels.
In Brian Cox’s opinion, actors are at the mercy of the director and the script. When a project has a great script, there’s no problem. Cox feels that the script feeds the actor which, in turn, gives that actor all the mystery needed to create the role. He also believes actors are underestimated in a literate sense, but that is a misconception. Tom Hiddleston agrees with Jackson’s previous statements. Being cast as Loki gave Hiddleston an opportunity to take the character away from the things people associated the role with. For example, portraying Loki on the back foot in the Loki series allowed Hiddleston to open him up. He believes that exposing the character to fear and doubt allowed for Loki to be built back up, and Hiddleston enjoyed the whole process.
“The whole reason process exists is to inspire. Sometimes you don’t need a wild process to be inspired by something. Sometimes the words themselves will do it. Sometimes the character is enough, and sometimes the situation is so harrowing that it’s enough to inspire a whole history of a character.”
Referencing how Jessica Chastain felt her portrayal in Scenes from a Marriage made her feel like she went to a dark place, Rose asks Oscar Isaac if he goes to a dark place while portraying some of his characters. Also, she questions Isaac on his boundaries possibly changing due to time and experience. Isaac jokingly claims that he once thought about what extremes he needed to take to make a scene better. He feels that an effort needs to be made to inspire imagination and some sense of truth. While he believes boundaries are becoming more important in today’s industry, Isaac also claims he has gotten better with the idea that extremes aren’t needed to make a scene better.
Hiddleston takes command of the questioning near the end of the interview when he asks Jackson if there was a greater sense of stakes back when film cameras used 35-millimeter film. Instead of Jackson answering, Brian Cox chimes in by saying that sense is dependent more on the director than the actors, reasoning that it’s about what the director notices. Keaton also adds his experience in theatre, relating the experience on stage to handling a rifle; you only get one shot to make it work. Isaac agrees with Keaton on how much pressure is on performances where actors are unable to redo a scene.
Rose asks each of the actors if there is a role they wish to be cast in. Quincy Isaiah wants to be cast as a period king like Mansa Musa. Keaton jokingly states he wants to be a period queen, and Hiddleston desires to play a court jester in a royal period piece starring by both Isaiah and Keaton in their previously stated roles. Brian Cox wishes to play a character where he laughs more; Cox feels that he has done enough drama projects. Lastly, Samuel L. Jackson doesn’t have a role in mind. He is the type of guy who read the script and then determines how he feels about his character.