Oscar Isaac explains why he married Elvira: Shes Danish, shes not a citizen
Oscar Isaac covers the latest issue of GQ Style, the Spring edition. The photos are really good – you can see the whole editorial here. I’ve covered Oscar’s interviews before, and let me just say… this is probably one of his best. He used to come across as a very careful guy, not wanting to say anything too personal, too offensive, too noteworthy. He wanted it to just be about his work, and while that’s all well and good, he sometimes seemed like a tightass? He just seems much looser and more relaxed in this piece. He even talks about his wife, Elvira Lind, their son, his mother’s passing and more. Some quotes:
Why he was drawn to ‘Annihilation’: “The very allegorical nature of sci-fi, and particularly with Annihilation, the idea that we self-destruct, we are doomed, and we do it to ourselves. That it’s actually in our genes to self-destruct. That’s the reason he did the whole movie. And I think, for me, I get very drawn to these characters…Because we’re all doomed. You and me and everybody.”
Why he decided to marry Elvira: “Tons of reasons. She’s Danish—she’s not a citizen, and she was very pregnant, and there was an element of figuring out “Well, where are we going to be?” And us wanting to be a family unit a bit more. Also, the Danes, they don’t really believe in marriage. I think it has a lot to do with the equality of the sexes over there. Marriage doesn’t mean anything financially, because the state takes care of people. So the marriage itself becomes less important. But, you know, at the time, right before it happened, my mom was ill, and so I saw her carrying my child, bathing my sick mom—seeing her do that, I just thought: I want to be with this person forever and ever. And I just wanted to take that extra step as well. And so my mom passed in February and we got married in March and our son was born in April.”
Why he doesn’t live in LA: “Well, theater was always super important. I always knew I wanted to do theater in New York. So L.A. wouldn’t have been an option because of that. I like L.A. But I don’t like myself in L.A. I just feel anxious when I’m there. And I just get annoyed with myself more. It’s not L.A., it’s me. There are definitely a lot of tempting things about it. It’s like the ring in Lord of the Rings—you put it on and you’re like, “Whaooo, no!”
He worked with Paul Haggis on Show Me a Hero & Haggis has been accused of abusing women: “It’s wild. I mean, who knows? It’s impossible to know. It’s what’s so strange about this moment—like, how do you make an informed enough of an opinion about things?
Whether he’s thinking about vetting his coworkers: “Yeah…I need to know way more about people. You want to have faith that there’s a system, a very fair and just system that will make sure this sh-t doesn’t happen, but that’s failed, clearly that’s broken down totally. So then what happens? It’s got to go to the streets, right? And that’s when there’s collateral damage. But that’s part of it, too. If you don’t have a system in place that people can have faith in, then you have to demand it, by any means necessary. That’s the only way to move forward.
Whether the Weinstein revelations made him rethink the industry: “No, because I wasn’t affected the way some people were—horribly affected by those f–king predators. I wasn’t a victim of that stuff. So as far as the way I interact with it, obviously I think there’s a reckoning that was going to happen and needed to happen. The chickens have come home to roost. And I don’t think it’s just something that’s going to die out. I think it’s a real thing that’s going to bring about change. I feel hopeful. It feels like sometimes the stuff that goes on in this particular industry would be illegal in any other one. It’s that weird art-commerce water—there’s something about that really murky place where you go to dinners and you have drinks…”
At first I was feeling a bit miffed about how he kind of rolled through the Paul Haggis question, but then I remembered my own ambivalence about the Haggis stuff – women should be believed, absolutely, but there was a healthy dash of Scientology weirdness around it too. So I don’t really blame Oscar for not wanting to really go deep there. As for what he says about Weinstein and the broken system… he sounds like he has compassion for the victims and that he’s an ally for whatever needs to happen next.
I found the marrying-a-Danish-woman thing very interesting too – he seems to be saying that Elvira was the one who really didn’t care about marriage. But he wanted it, especially when she was pregnant and caring for his dying mother. I feel like crying a little bit. *sniff*
Photos courtesy of WENN, cover courtesy of GQ Style.
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