You may know Jason Isaacs best for playing Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter series – the Slytherin Hogwarts ex-governor and bad dad to Harry’s nemesis, Draco Malfoy.
He’s been in plenty of other films, though: as Captain Hook in 2003’s Peter Pan as well as co-starring with Matt Damon in 2010’s Green Zone and Bryan Cranston in 2016’s The Infiltrator. He was extraordinary as Zhukov in The Death of Stalin and as the father of a school shooter in Mass, released earlier this year, and has done sterling work on stage, notably in the first London production of Angels in America. All in spite of having one of those faces that Isaacs himself says lets him travel unnoticed on the Tube to film premieres but still has people “screaming and screaming as soon as I get on the red carpet.”
Isaacs says that his upbringing prepared him “to become a specialist in unattractive characters”. He was born in Liverpool to Jewish parents and says he was often bullied at the Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ school in Hertfordshire. He nearly became a lawyer, and has been outspoken of the Labour party’s 2003 invasion of Iraq and antisemitism in Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party, which – along with some battles with drink and drugs – is all very serious. He’s good in Disney Pixar’s Cars 2, as well.
Now Isaacs is back in the soon-to-be-released war drama Operation Mincemeat with Colin Firth and Kelly Macdonald, playing the character that inspired M from James Bond. He also stars in a new Australian swimming drama Streamline, produced by Ian Thorpe. And – as ever with our reader interview – what we ask him is all down to you.
So put your wizard hat and swimming kit on and get cracking! We’ll need your questions for Isaacs by noon Friday 25 March, ready to print the answers in Film&Music and online on Friday 8 April. Don’t delay, post today!
Streamline is on digital platforms 11 April, Operation Mincemeat is in cinemas 15 April.
