by James Mottram
British actor Jason Isaacs has enjoyed one of those rare careers where he’s been able to effortlessly slip between characters parts. This year has already seen him turn up in TV phenomenon The White Lotus, as Timothy, the wealthy married father whose business is about to implode. Now he stars opposite Gillian Anderson in the tender real-life drama The Salt Path, based on the best-selling memoir by Ray Winn.
In The Salt Path, Isaacs plays the author’s husband Moth, diagnosed with a brutal illness the same week that the couple lose their home, meaning that they have no choice but to set out and walk the English coastline as they recalibrate their lives.
We spoke with Isaacs about meeting the real Moth, jumping out of planes, his time on The White Lotus and his thoughts on the new Harry Potter TV series.
What made you want to do The Salt Path?
“I mean, often we want our stories to be about extreme experiences through which we can extrapolate something, hopefully more minor, but something parallel, relatable, happening to us. So, it’s a cautionary tale, but it’s also so full of hope as well. And I was dying to be in it.”
What was it like meeting the real Moth?
“Extremely intimidating, because he’s literally the most lovable, convivial person I’ve ever met in my life and seemingly very jovial. Like a slim, handsome, tall Father Christmas. And yet, when I asked him questions about some of the most vulnerable things any human being could ever talk about, he was completely unguarded in his responses to me about what he felt and also the depredations of his condition, the indignities forced upon him.
“And yet, when I looked at the Zoom back – the first time I met him was on Zoom before I met him in person – we were laughing, laughing all the time. I felt tremendous shame having laughed, and then I realised that he was making me laugh. He was wanting me to feel comfortable talking about such uncomfortable subjects. It was important for him to put me at ease.”
How did you find Gillian Anderson, who plays Ray?
“She’s not a chatter and I’m a yakker. But then, that’s true of Moth and Ray, absolutely.”
What was she like to work with?
“She was a great scene partner. We liked doing scenes together. We enjoyed each other in character. I don’t know. What’s her process? What does she think? How does she prep? I’ve been listening to her talk about it all day. I still don’t know. I don’t know what she does. She’s really good at it.”
When you saw her on set, did she transform?
“We would sit in the make-up trailer next to each other. She would sit very quiet, and actually, it was very cold and very windy often on the top of the mountain. We had these gigantic, warm, Arctic duffel coats, and she would turn it round, be inside it, sitting on a chair. So, she would create her own little place. And she’d be on the phone, then they’d be ready to go and then she’d take it off and walk over to me, and then we did the scene. And then, she needed to go somewhere warm, all wrapped up, very often in between, and I’d be running around like an idiot.”
Are you a big walker yourself?
“I’m an outdoorsy guy, but I like high adrenaline activities. I like abseiling or climbing, canyoning and stuff. I like skiing. I like jumping out of planes, but I don’t like looking at somewhere that’s not that far away, and thinking that it’s going to take me twelve hours to walk there!”
When was the last time you jumped out of a plane?
“Ten years ago. But my kids promised they’d do it with me again. I was waiting for them to okay it, for us to be somewhere sunny, windless. I did a tandem jump. As I landed, the guy said, ‘What was that like?’ I went, ‘I’ll go right up again now!’”
You’ve just been a part of season three of The White Lotus. The first two seasons were very big, but are you surprised at the show’s insane popularity?
“It’s been slightly breathtaking. I think everybody’s surprised. There’s one thing being in a popular TV show. I grant you that I’m inside the bubble of people talking about it. So, it’s not the entire world, but it has felt like the entire world was talking about it continually for eight weeks. I’ve never experienced anything like it, and I was in the Harry Potter films. Although they were big launches, first of all, and you didn’t talk about it for months and months. And then secondly, it didn’t hit every demographic. I’m continually surprised by the people who come up and want to talk about White Lotus and who stop me in the street. They just don’t look like what I thought was the typical viewer – who, it turns out, has two legs, a nose and an eye either side!”
What did you make of the storyline that Mike White cooked up?
“He’s just such a clever storyteller and it’s not like Mike is deliberately manipulating the online audience, but by God, they had so much to think about every week, and every time he led you somewhere, people were predicting what things were going to happen. You knew in the end, he delivered something that no one had seen coming.”
He does have a habit of bringing characters back. Would you love to see your character Timothy back down the line?
“I would do Mike’s shopping list at dinner theatre. Let’s see what he comes up with.”
Talking of returning characters, the Harry Potter TV series is now being cast. Would you return to your role of Lucius Malfoy?
“I don’t see that happening! It’s going to be fantastic, though. I know a few people who are already in it, and they’re reinventing it from scratch and with some really smart people at the wheel. It’s going be great. I go to conventions occasionally, just sci-fi conventions. Harry Potter fans come… and it has never abated. It sells as many copies as it ever did, or has as many fans as there ever were. Something remarkable happened.”
Is Malfoy the character you get most recognised for?
“He’s the character I get least recognised for. I don’t look like him. I get recognised for The OA, which is huge with young people. I get recognised for Star Trek or Brotherhood. And now I get recognised for White Lotus. I get recognised as being this old fart who has been around in a million things, so someone has seen me in something!”
What can you say about your upcoming film Words of War?
“It’s about an extraordinary journalist, Anna Politkovskaya, who spoke the truth to power, to freshly elected Putin, and no one was saying it. She went, ‘he’s a gangster and he’s a liar, and these are the false reasons that he’s invented for invading Chechnya … I’ve been to Chechnya and we are massacring people there, and we’re raping people there, and we’re torturing people there.’
“And people listened to her, and she grew quite a following. She was a campaigning journalist who took on the most powerful man in the country. And maybe some might argue in the world today. The film is about what it cost her, in her family and in her life, and Maxine Peake, who is a magnificent actress, plays her. We were improvising a lot. It was just fun. When you know what you’re doing and you feel like you have some idea of your character and relationship, and you’re opposite someone who is just in top gear, like Maxine always is, it’s a real pleasure.”
And Heavyweight? That boxing saga looks great…
“It’s cracking. I’ve seen it. It’s all set in the dressing room of a heavyweight boxing match. I play the promoter. I come in and out. It’s not a big part. I did a day on it. Five or six scenes, I think we packed into that day. It was a great script.”
The Salt Path is in cinemas from 15 May 2025
