t off the heels of a banner 2015 and in advance of his debut in X-Men: Apocalypse,Oscar Isaac sat down withRolling Stone to reflect on his rising star. But that word, “star,” doesn’t sit well with Isaac. “I’m an actor, not a star. I don’t really know what you mean when you say ‘star,’ ‘movie star,‘ that stuff,” he tells the magazine. That anti-celebrity attitude is precisely what has endeared Isaac to the many moviegoers who got to know him first in his unsmiling roles as the heavy in Drive(2011) and a dour folk singer in Inside Llewyn Davis (2013). As Isaac takes bigger and bigger roles and continues to break out completely authentic smiles on the red carpet, his devoted fan base has exploded.
But, committed to keeping things genuine, Isaac is balancing big-budget franchises with smaller, more personal roles. Given the success of Star Wars: The Force Awakens alone, Isaac could probably have any part he wanted, but has opted, among other things, to appear in a tiny part in Annihilation—a film that will re-unite him with Ex Machina director Alex Garland. But before he slips back into the world of low-budget sci-fi, Isaac has a big, meaty superhero role to get out of the way. Here are the five most important things we just learned about Oscar Isaac via Rolling Stone, including, yes, the odd places his X-Men costume made him sweat.
Rolling Stone describes Isaac’s elaborate X-Men ensemble as “blue makeup, prosthetics, Kiss-worthy high-heeled boots to push him from five feet nine to more than six feet, and a 40-pound suit.” Isaac himself says he used to have to visit a cooling tent between takes. “I would do some acting and then go to my tent and try to breathe and not freak out that sweat was pouring into my ears and I couldn’t touch them. It was rough. But the challenge of basically doing Kabuki theater in a film was crazy.” But the extreme nature of his costume—something even X-Men producer Simon Kinberg called “a nightmare contraption”—proved to be a bonding experience for Isaac and his Apocalypse co-star Michael Fassbender. “He was short prom dresses up in blue and I had my cape and helmet on,” says Fassbender. “Two grown men. We had a little chuckle.”
THAT DOG’S NAME IS MOBY
Alright, hey, maybe you already knew this. I don’t know how deep your Oscar Isaac love runs. But the pup posing (and ungratefully not smiling) next to Isaac on the cover of Rolling Stoneis presumably his Boston terrier, Moby. The dog made a (brief) appearance in Isaac’s 2014ALS Ice Bucket challenge. Nobody tell Moby that Isaac has been seeing Carrie Fisher’s dog, Gary, on the side.
HE’S IN STAR WARS FOR THE LONG HAUL
Though Isaac doesn’t want to take credit for making Star Wars fun again (Rolling Stonereports he “wrinkles his brow” at the thought of “fixing” the franchise), he does confirm we’ll see more of Poe in the upcoming films. His character, famously, was supposed to die in the first installment, but J.J. Abrams et al made the wise decision to keep Poe around. Isaac says, “It’s the first time in my life when things have been mapped out for quite some time. I’m basically Star War-ring until 2020.” That “basically” leaves some wiggle room, but it soundslike you can take Poe off your deathwatch list for Episode VIII. He’ll probably live to give Finn many more hugs through at least Episode IX—which is scheduled for 2019.
BB-8 MAY BE IN TROUBLE
O.K., this is more about Poe’s cuddly droid sidekick, but I’m sure you’ll want to know. “BB-8’s doing all right,” Isaac says of the droid’s status in Episode VIII, but says “BB-8 gets tested too! Everybody gets tested! It’s the dark second chapter, but not really dark.” Star Wars is not above torturing cute droids, so everyone better keep their hands off BB-8.
A SCORCHING GLIMPSE INTO HIS LOVE LIFE
Isaac was unofficially elected the “Internet’s boyfriend” last year, and so the Internet, naturally, has taken a very deep interest in his girlfriend. “Oscar Isaac Rudely Kisses Woman at the Golden Globes, Overwhelms Twitter,” one headline read last January. While Isaac has proven to have chemistry with nearly everyone he meets—including the entire cast of Star Wars: The Force Awakens—the woman in question here is documentary filmmaker Elvira Lind. Isaac doesn’t so much as mention Lind in his Rolling Stone interview, but he does play a song that, if you care to extrapolate, could be a rare look into matters of his heart. The song—an original called “Demolition”—includes the following suggestive lyrics: “Anything worth doing is worth doing in bed / The life that I see is a life I’m ready to begin / It took me a while, but now I welcome you in . . . With a word, I’ll put my devotion to the test / I’ll strap your love around me like a suicide vest.” We know that no matter how many women he smooches at awards shows, some of you will continue to pretend this is about John Boyega’s character, Finn. More power to you.
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