Time Capsule
Jason Isaacs
TALKING WAISTCOASTS, WIZARDS AND THE WHITE LOTUS WITH THE BELOVED BRIT
WORDS CHRIS HEWITT
“IT’S FUNNY WHEN people come up and they say, ‘Do you remember…?’” says Jason Isaacs. “As if I will have forgotten the film I made where I was away somewhere for months.” Isaacs is, in many ways then, the perfect Time Capsule candidate. He’s had a rich and varied career that stretches over decades, has a plentiful supply of anecdotes, and has a mind like a steel trap. There’s just one problem. “I do have a very poor memory for faces,” he admits. Thankfully, he saves the day. “I will recognise my own face.” Phew.
SMOOTHIE CRIMINAL
THE WHITE LOTUS (2025)
“I’ve spoken so much about The White Lotus the past eight weeks. A lot of my memory, when I see that photograph, is what it was like being Timothy Ratliff. He’s incredibly unhappy. I remember holding my son in my arms and feeling like my world had come to an end. I love Sam [Nivola]. Patrick [Schwarzenegger], Sam and Sarah Catherine [Hook] became my kids. We still talk all the time. I love that boy, Sam. And I look at that and think of how broken I was with him in my arms. When you see Tim on the boat at the end, he’s accepting of his fate. He’s the character least curious about any kind of spiritual enlightenment, and is the one who comes the closest to the Buddhist ideal. That’s Mike White’s genius.”