To say that actor Oscar Isaac’s star is soaring like an X-wing may be the biggest movie-industry understatement of 2015. In addition to the upcoming thrillers Ex Machina and Mohave, Isaac will be starring (with the always-interesting Catherine Keener) in the HBO mini-series Show Me a Hero, from The Wire and Treme creator David Simon. Isaac also recently signed on to play the titular villain in X-Men: Apocalypse, due in May 2016. And, oh yeah, there’s this little confection called Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Though J.J. Abrams and Co. are, of course, trying to keep all pertinent details from the fans and media, the not-so-inside skinny is that Isaac plays one of the main characters, and likely the son of Han Solo. It’s somewhat safe to predict that upon release of Star Wars VII this December, he will become one of the best known faces on the planet.
In 2012, Isaac garnered across-the-board critical acclaim with his impressive lead performance in the Coen brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis. As good as he was in that picture it was just a warm-up for his stunning turn in director J.C. Chandor’s A Most Violent Year, one of the superlative films of 2014. An homage to the gritty, early 70s crime dramas that were the bread and butter of great American directors like William Friedkin (The French Connection) and Sydney Lumet (Dog Day Afternoon), A Most Violent Year won the National Board of Review award for Best Picture, edging out powerful competition such as Boyhood and Birdman for the prestigious honor.
A Most Violent Year is anchored by Isaac’s character, Abel Morales, a driven yet idealistic entrepreneur trying to expand his home-heating oil company in New York during the winter of 1981, when the city was on the verge of financial collapse and violent crime was skyrocketing. Also starring Jessica Chastain and David Oyelowo, A Most Violent Year strangely recalls Chinatown (which dealt with crimes involving water districting) in that the setting is a type of big business that is not commonly understood, is often presumed be mobbed-up, and therefore becomes mysterious and quite threatening in spite of its apparent banality.
I sat down with the personable Isaac recently when he visited San Francisco to promote A Most Violent Year. I was impressed with his dedication to his craft and his understanding of the character, remarking that in a year of very showy, broad performances, it was noteworthy that he approached Abel from the inside. Isaac explained: “He’s a calculating individual, a hyper-capitalist, very ambitious. He has a very concrete idea of where he wants to go—he’s got the long view—he’s looking fifteen years down the road. He’s an optimist, but at the same time he is risking everything. He needs to secure his livelihood, so in a way it is like he is going to war. But all that is inside. We felt it was really important to show him on a human scale.”
A Most Violent Year upends expectations by not using violence, per se, to show the threat hanging over Abel. Even in a landscape populated with mobsters and fuel trucks, the film is not concerned with delivering the big explosive finish by way of special effects. It is engaged in telling a very personal tale, one where much of the drama is quiet. While there are plenty of thrills on the screen in A Most Violent Year, the firepower takes place in the emotional story.
“It’s called A Most Violent Year,” Isaac said, “but the irony is that Abel is a pacifist to a certain extent, though this doesn’t really come from an ethical place or a moral high-ground; it comes from strategy. He’s being pragmatic. He has his eyes on the prize. He wants to get into politics. What everyone wants him to be is a Latin thug with a gun. They want him to arm his drivers, get a gun for his home…and he sees that as the complete destruction of what he has planned.”
I said that I felt the heart of the movie was found in the relationship between Abel and his wife, who is powerfully played by Jessica Chastain. Isaac lit up. “Jessica and I have known each other for a very long time—we went to Julliard together. We have a very similar approach to creating characters and working on scripts, so we were able, right from the start, to talk to each other in the same language. We talked about everything and erased all the boundaries. That allowed us to create a real sense of intimacy, and safety. And also, for a guy who is as calculated and armored as Abel, to see him melt in those scenes with her, to see that passion, that sensuality; we thought that was very important.”
Of course, I couldn’t let him go without offering congratulations on Star Wars, and asking that in lieu of him telling us, you know, every single detail, I’d settle for just the color of his light saber. He laughed at that (sure, no problem…) and then focused with humility. “It’s been a very busy year, but a very blessed one.”
You can say that again. I think The Force truly is with Oscar Isaac.
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