Not that he’s hoping he’ll get recognized at the grocery store or photographed on the street.
“And then I’ll disappear back into the crowd, as has happened many times before.
And that’s exactly how I like it.”
“I’ve known a couple of people who are super famous.
They have a part that changed their life forever,” Isaacs explained.
“No part has changed my life forever.
I just keep working.”
Don’t ever read anything I say or watch anything I do on the internet.'"
Do you imagine that Tim would ever come clean about that?
I think Tim’s a new man.
Most people don’t change.
Mike [White] is far too good a writer to give everyone huge changes.
They don’t change that much.
But Tim has changed enormously, almost completely.
I mean, what a heart-wrenching moment it would be if Tim were to come clean about his intentions.
Like, where are we going to live?
How am I going to pay my cellphone bill?
How are we going to put food in the fridge?
All of their life plans have just been blown up.
Did you ever worry you’d get typecast as a villain with great hair?
I thought, “Ugh, two children’s villains.”
Not because they cared about my career.
No, you don’t get typecast.
There’s no such thing.
you might be punch in-offered, but you have to take the jobs.
And I turned ‘em all down.
Do you want to be more imaginative than that?"
Well, at least the wigs were amazing.
The wigs were amazing.
I love a wig.
The thing is, men don’t get to disguise themselves very much.
Women can totally change their looks.
And I love disguise.
I put a ton of weight on to play Tim.
So I like a wig because that’s part ofthe great disguise.
You are not the only person who uses it.
I had a coffee in Starbucks this morning that’s a franchise.
Burger King is a franchise.
“Harry Potter” is a story.
But it wasn’t difficult locking into it.
I wasn’t on it very much.
I was doing many television series and films in between.
Lucius, after “Chamber of Secrets,” made occasional appearances.
But really, it was barely in my life.
It was like going back to a holiday resort, seeing your old friends.
It was a joy.
They’re working on casting a new version of"Harry Potter" as an HBO series.
My daughter’s friend is in the casting office, and my goddaughter is in the writing room.
Have you suggested any actors that should take over your role?
One of the best casting directors in the world is doing it and they don’t need my suggestions.
Actually, they’re getting phenomenal actors.
It’s going to be brilliant.
We’ve had a good run.
Do you see it that way?
I’d done “Event Horizon,” which was part of an ensemble.
I already had a bit of a career going in England.
I was offered one of the astronauts in “Armageddon.”
And I went, “I can’t drop out!”
And I went, “Mate, this is a David Thewlis project!
But it doesn’t make any difference.
I’m still a professional actor.
I signed a contract.”
[He said,] “You let us handle that.”
And I went, “No!
You’re not handling anything.
I’m getting up in six hours and I’m on set.”
It’s only eight days."
Six months, and we can get you some other meetings and work will go well."
So, it was an odd film for me.
I don’t know if it’s an anomaly.
On the very first day I did, frankly, the only scene I had lots of lines in.
AndMichael Baytook a shining to me and said, “Oh, that was great.
Let’s have you back.
We’ll give you a clipboard, we’ll stick you next to Billy Bob.
And then I was there, essentially as an extra, for six months.
It’s not his fault.
Look, I’m around producing occasionally, very rarely directing.
You want the best people you’re able to have on set to do anything at all.
It’s not insulting, but it’s just I didn’t have any choice.
I was paid for the whole film.
It was an odd experience.
The entire film, frankly.
How does being directed by Michael Bay compare to being directed by someone likeRidley Scotta few years later?
I don’t know how much you know about Michael Bay.
I’m not telling stories out of school.
He’s done lots of very successful films.
It’s a very alpha, macho style he has with these giant movies.
And I think he wants to build tension on the set so that he gets tension on the camera.
Ridley is just this visual genius.
He’s whispering his orders to someone else and they’re telling you, communicating.
A tank’s going to fly over your head.
Nine people are going to die and try and get your lines inside the helicopter.”
And you’d go, “Sorry, just explain that to me again?”
And they go, “Don’t worry, it’ll all work out.
So it was less about character and story than it was about these enormous set pieces.
Oh no, just drawn to well-written stories.
I don’t really know what a villain is.
Shakespeare said the job of storytelling is to hold the mirror up to nature.
If you believe a character, you are going to react to them much more strongly.
I take parts when I go, “That’s a human being.”
Lucius is an old-fashioned racist and he’s trying tomake Hogwarts great again.
The great American industrialists at the turn of the 20th century were all eugenicists.
They didn’t think they were villains.
I take parts that are well-written.
They make me look good as an actor because I look three-dimensional.
I feel them completely when I play them.
And yes, I suppose if you’re crying all day, you’re not pretend-crying all day.
So you feel sad somehow.
But my brain could overcome that when I’m looking at people that I love.
I know they’re not dead or I know that I’m not angry at them.
And you just have to give yourself a little bit of decompression time but not days or weeks.
That’s an important distinction.
Some actors might say they live in it for longer than they intend to.
Well, then they’re idiots.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
“The White Lotus” season three is streaming in full on Max.
