Maybe I’ve been living under a rock (have I?), but I don’t really think Oscar Isaac has risen to the status of “the internet’s boyfriend”… yet. Like, he’s on the cusp. The internet absolutely has a crush. The internet has drawn hearts around photos of Oscar Isaac and the internet is daydreaming about when their first kiss will happen. But full-on boyfriend? Not yet. But according to Rolling Stone, Oscar is it. And while he tries to shrug off the title, he ends up doing a lot of internet boyfriend-y stuff in this interview, like strumming a guitar and singing Jeff Buckley-esque love songs, and talking about his one-bedroom apartment in Williamsburg, and talking about whether he’ll have kids, etc. He’s a bit of a hipster. But I don’t hate it. Oh, and he’s actually still the real boyfriend of filmmaker Elvira Lind, just FYI. She gets mentioned in the piece, although he doesn’t actually say anything about her. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:
He’s not a movie star: “I’m an actor, not a star. I don’t really know what you mean when you say ‘star,’ ‘movie star,’ that stuff.”
He doesn’t know what to make of his new title, “the Internet’s boyfriend”: “The Internet never struck me as being into monogamous relationships. It’s very promiscuous, the Internet.”
The outrage when he wore a t-shirt with the cover of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. “I liked the design. I didn’t think wearing the shirt was saying I agreed with all her politics. I’m not a libertarian!”
Playing a big blue guy in X-Men Apocalypse: “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.”
He’s always liked X-Men: “I was really into the character. I’m not a huge comic-book-movie fan. I like them and I appreciate them, but it’s started to feel a little bit repetitive. I did really like Deadpool, and the last X-Men.”
Losing his surname, Hernandez: “They define you – ‘Latino actor, we’ll just bring him in for Spanish commercials.’ I’m interested in telling stories about the human experience that are not necessarily just about my personal circumstances. So how do I navigate that? I feel like I’ve been able to.”
The rise of Donald Trump: It’s “definitely irritating. The problem is it’s less about the guy that’s saying it, and more that he’s being the mouthpiece for a large part of the population. Because that’s me, that’s my family. We’re immigrants. What could be positive about it is that Trump could help to rally a lot of disparate parts of Latin America together. Because Latino is not a race – it’s a culture. There’s Chinese Latinos, there’s very white Latinos, there’s very dark Latinos, there’s black Latinos. There’s all sorts of variants – it’s not one thing.”
He abandoned his parents’ evangelical Christianity: “The social-conservative culture wasn’t lining up with what I was understanding Jesus was saying.”
He’s got a bigger role in Star Wars VIII: “In the new film, there’s a lot more to do. What happens now is the heroes get tested. All three of them” – Poe, Daisy Ridley’s Rey and John Boyega’s Finn – “get tested immensely.” And how’s BB-8 doing? “BB-8’s doing all right. BB-8 gets tested too! Everybody gets tested! It’s the dark second chapter, but not really dark.”
The most interesting thing to me is that Poe is now seen as “on par” with Finn and Rey, like they’re the three leads. Quite a turn of events for Oscar Isaac, because wasn’t Poe supposed to be killed off in The Force Awakens originally? I also found the conversation about Latin identity interesting, how it’s a culture and not a race, and I think he’s trying to be diplomatic and noncommittal about the Trump stuff. If he talks about it, he’ll be seen as the stereotype of “the Latin actor talking about immigrants” and if he doesn’t talk about it, he’ll be a traitor to his people. Rock, hard place.
Photos courtesy of Mark Seliger/Rolling Stone.
Yep. Yes. Absolutely. Dear lord, yes!
Yay or n…yay! Yah! Yep! Yes!!! Absolutely!!! Anytime anywhere!!
Sorry what were we talking about?
Great interview, he’s very endearing.
Back off Internet! Mr Dreamy drop your drawers is all mine!
Who would be stupid enough to kill off Poe? Not JJ Abrams. And finally, an excuse to buy a copy of RS again.
I know right?! There is no way you kill a character like Poe that quick and not alienate your audience. My guess is as the script was evolving Poe was originally their contingency plan if they couldn’t get Harrison Ford to sign on. Mark Hamill has mentioned that the original three were told if they didn’t want in there would be no recasting and their character would be written out. Poe would have done a lot of the “Han” stuff.
Once they had Ford, Poe wasn’t as needed in this movie, but thankfully they figured out how useful and great he could (and probably will) be later. Particularly when they have an actor like Oscar Isaac!
Really enjoyed his interview he’s seems down to earth and focuses on his craft rather than the fame.
I’m like men with height so I think the Internet can have him.
I saw some X Men interviews with him today and damn do I get it ! Love me Oscar!
He is correct that Latinos are not a race but a group of people who share culture and language. The U.S. Census does not measure Hispanics as a race. You indicate you are Hispanic, your country of association/origin and what race you are (black, white, Asian, etc).
In most demographic data cited, Hispanics across all these questions are grouped together as an ethnicity.
And I do believe most (not all) of us will group together philosophically and politically against Trump’s and his calculated rhetoric that mostly serves to play on many people’s fears. Latinos will have a very large role to play in the upcoming election.
PS. Oscar Issac makes me swoon.
But he’s right. Latino is not a race. The majority of Latinos are multiracial. European, African and Native American in varying degrees, even if some refuse to admit it, which is why we have people who can run the gamut look-wise from David Ortiz, Romeo Santos, Dascha Polanco, Jennifer Lopez, Adrienne Bailon, Selena, Roselyn Sanchez, Sofia Vergara Adrianna Lima, etc. And also why so many Mexican and Central Americans have a distinct Native American look. Our ethnicity, culture and nationalities are Latin American.
You forgot Asian. There are indeed Asians that are born and raised in Latin America.
I mean sure he said smart things in this interview but he’s holding a puppy!!
I love his dance scene from Ex Machina. *swoon*
I guess since both Rey and Finn are jedi in the making, Poe could be the ‘Han Solo’ version of this.
Nay he’s just new to the masses. A shiny knew toy whether or not he is talented.
Nay for me…nay the dated poofy hair and need to moisturize. Not a fan of people who use dogs as props.
I have destroyed my laminated list or “hall pass” if you will, and made a new one with only him name on it. He has become my forever dong. Farewell to all my past celebrity boyfriends. I find him intoxicatingly beautiful and then add in talent and intellect , animal lover…musician…UGH..he is practically perfect. My hubby is half Cuban too so he approves of Oscar being my hall pass
But is not a culture either, we are not the same as one group of people. It is more like a brotherhood where we share lots of cultural elements.
Latin American countries share the same language (mostly) and we have a similar historical development, and over the years we have influenced each other, we understand, respect and like the culture of our fellow Latin countries (e.g. like Colombia’s cumbia which is huge in Mexico). That’s why we identify with each other.
I think that’s the best part of our Latino identity, the fact that we recognize that each of our countries have their our culture and at the same time we can identify as brother-nations
This, this, this. It does bother me when people paint us as “one culture” because WE’RE NOT. Visit 2 Latin American countries that are relatively afar from each other and you’ll see a world of difference.
And while “Latino” is just as much a race as “American”, it does bother me when people completely try to wipe out any distinctive racial background we have. Miscegenation was one of the fundamental pillars of our society. I read “latino” as an abbreviation of “mixed race, with varying degrees of European, Native Latinamerican and/or African blood”. I don’t think that’s a bad definition of it at all. Most people I know (being a latin woman living in Latin America) would fit that description.
Exactly. I’ve been to some Latin American countries and while the identification is outstanding (especially compared to the times I’ve felt completely out of place in other places), it is also pretty obvious that we are really different, from the way we speak, our accents, our food, etc. Now, don’t get me wrong, I do believe in the Latino brotherhood which I personally find fascinating, I just don’t like when others treat us as one homogeneous group of people.
I personally think that when Oscar speaks about “Latinos” he sounds really ignorant. He said himself he wasn’t raised with cultural Guatemalan elements, and I think it shows.
Culture can also broadly mean the social heritage of a group. There is such thing as an American culture- though different parts of the country and its people eat different kinds of food, have different dialects, dress differently, etc.
you seem to be caught up in a semantic argument, “brotherhood” vs “culture”.
I think Oscar is making the broader point that Latinos (which I am one) are not homogenous but share a heritage that if we can embrace, we can speak with a more unified voice. Particularly at this time in the US when you have a demagogue like Trump dehumanizing Latinos and calling for mass deportations.
To me, there is nothing ignorant about that. It’s a much more important point than getting hung up on a narrow definition of culture.
I thought the internet’s boyfriend was currently my paesano Sebastian Stan?
He’s Tumblr’s boyfriend definitely, otherwise reception seems a bit mixed.
I’m not sure how things will go for Stan. I think he’s interesting but outside of Marvel he’s nothing at the moment. Some good indies definitely but you don’t hear him talked about seriously for lead roles. He’s got time, we will see.
Stop it Oscar! I’m at work you can’t be sultry and flirty with me right now!
🙂
Have you all seen “In Secret”, his movie with Elizabeth Olsen, based on the Thérèse Raquin novel? It’s his sexiest role.
You lot can have Oscar – I’ll have the pug!!!
I think it’s a Boston terrier. Isn’t he adorable with his pointy ears and buggy eyes?
Good god. I want that face as a “fainting couch”.
I love Oscar and have loved him as an actor since his Agora, Balibo, etc days, though I’m not the sort to buy every DVD and catch every single movie of his. Very, very underrated. So glad JJ Abrams expanded his role in SW (he was going to kill him off in the first one). Recent fav is A Most Violent Year, which he costars in with Jessica Chastain. Both Juilliard people. Also very good in Ex Machina.
You can tell all his female co-stars get stars in their eyes talking about him, and it’s easy to see why. He has such wonderful charisma. He IS gorgeous, but it is the “IT” factor with this one.