Jason Isaacs revealed in a new interview that one of his “global icon” co-stars was the “worst bully ever.”
But with 176 acting credits over the course of his 37-year career, it’s hard to know which actor allegedly did him dirty.
However, Isaacs spoke about the co-star in question in a 2011 interview with the Telegraph, meaning we can at least narrow down that the negative experience took place before then.
“When he tells (sadly unprintable) stories of people he’s worked with, he’s very flamboyant, always putting on the perfect accent,” the Telegraph’s reporter wrote in the article at the time.
“And for one anecdote about an actor that kept on trying to push him out of the shot, he mimes the whole scene.”
Isaacs recalled the same story in Monday’s interview with Vulture, adding that the unnamed A-lister “did worse than that.”
In fact, this person “did all the old tricks of doing a completely different performance off camera than on,” Isaacs, 62, claimed.
“Yeah, it sucked. I’d never seen anything like it,” he lamented. “Before, I would’ve licked the ground that this person walked on.”
While the “White Lotus” star did not disclose the thespian’s identity, we went ahead and gathered the names of some of his most prominent co-stars before 2011.
In chronological order:
- Jeff Goldblum, “The Tall Guy”
- Rowan Atkinson, “The Tall Guy”
- Jude Law, “Shopping”
- Dennis Quaid, “Dragonheart”
- Sean Connery, “Dragonheart”
- Bruce Willis, “Armageddon”
- Billy Bob Thornton, “Armageddon” (1998)
- Ben Affleck, “Armageddon” (1998)
- Owen Wilson, “Armageddon”
- Steve Buscemi, “Armageddon”
- Kurt Russell, “Soldier” and “Grindhouse”
- Mel Gibson, “The Patriot”
- Heath Ledger, “The Patriot”
- Keanu Reeves, “Sweet November”
- Josh Hartnett, “Black Hawk Down”
- Nicolas Cage, “Windtalkers”
- Mark Ruffalo, “Windtalkers”
- Jackie Chan, “The Tuxedo”
- Daniel Radcliffe, “Harry Potter”
- Ralph Fiennes, “Harry Potter”
- Martin Sheen, “The West Wing”
- Rob Lowe, “The West Wing”
- Danny Trejo, “Tennis, Anyone?” and “Grindhouse”
- John Boyega, “Riding with Sugar”
- Kevin Connolly, “Entourage”
- Adrian Grenier, “Entourage”
- Jeremy Piven, “Entourage”
- Matt Damon, “Green Zone”
- Taylor Lautner, “Abduction”
As for Isaacs, he told Vulture that many of his co-stars have been “bonkers.”
“When I think someone’s terrible, someone else might think they’re brilliant,” he explained. “One of the things that’s very charismatic is madness.”
The “Harry Potter” star clarified that what he “mostly … judge[s] on set is bad behavior.”
He elaborated, “It’s selfishness, cruelty, bullying or people complaining to the person who’s getting them dressed who doesn’t get in a year what they earn in a day to pick their filthy underwear off the floor.”
Isaacs also notices when actors don’t show up, leave work to go home early, do drugs and call “prostitutes to their trailer.”
He teased that he “come[s] across all that stuff.”
As for why he won’t name names, he insisted that “there is no value, other than masochism and sabotage, in telling people the truth about people [he’s] worked with or experiences [he’s] had.”
According to Isaacs, “acting is all about secrets.”