Even in Hollywood, bad behavior still makes the cut.
While chatting with Vulture in an interview published Monday, June 16, Jason Isaacs opened up about a particularly rough on-set experience with one very famous — and unnamed — actor.
“Oh Jesus. Did worse than that,” the 62-year-old Armageddon star said, referencing a time he was literally pushed out of frame. “Was the worst bully ever and a global icon. Did all the old tricks of doing a completely different performance off-camera than on. Yeah, it sucked. I’d never seen anything like it. Before, I would’ve licked the ground that this person walked on.”
Isaacs — who plays Timothy Ratliff in the upcoming season of The White Lotus — didn’t name the costar in question but made it clear that over the years, he’s worked with plenty of difficult people. “When I think someone’s terrible, someone else might think they’re brilliant,” he said. “One of the things that’s very charismatic is madness.”
For the Harry Potter icon, the real red flag isn’t a strange acting style — it’s bad on-set behavior.
“Mostly, what I judge on set is bad behavior,” he told the outlet. “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 added that he's witnessed all kinds of chaos behind the scenes, including actors leaving work early, calling in sex workers, using drugs, or just vanishing entirely. “I come across all that stuff,” he said.
Still, the veteran actor has no plans to name names. “There is no value, other than masochism and sabotage, in telling people the truth about people I’ve worked with or experiences I’ve had,” he said. “Acting is all about secrets.”
