Oscar Isaac is a Guatemalan-born American actor and singer. He is best known for his lead role in Inside Llewyn Davis in 2013, for which he received a Golden Globe Award nomination, and A Most Violent Year in 2014. He will star in the upcoming films Star Wars: The Force Awak...
Oscar Isaac Hernandez , Óscar Isaac , Oscar Isaac Hernández
Awards
National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor
Nominations
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Movies
, Star Wars
TV Shows
Show Me a Hero
Star Sign
Pisces
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Quote
1
[on the impact of moving from small films to big-budget features] My job is still the same. Between 'action' and 'cut', that's mine. No matter how big the production is, that's still my space. That's a sacred place.
2
[singing in Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)] Sometimes like 30 takes of one song. It was an intense process but I love the music, and I'd been playing them 100 times a day, so playing them 30 was fine. I get obsessed with that kind of stuff. Sometimes I would smoke a bunch of cigarettes and drink a bunch of beer before the take.
3
[re 1960s Greenwich Village music scene]People hated each other. In Washington Square Park, it was amazing because there was all this music, but the drummers hated the bluegrass guys, who hated the folk guys who hated the jazz guys [fighting] over their square inches.
4
[re immediate impact of being tapped for "Davis" film] On a practical level, as soon as Joel and Ethan [Coen] cast me, the doors opened up for more parts...Basically the next day [my agent said] we got these offers now. Now you're bona fide, kid.
5
[on being cast as Llewyn Davis] It was the role of a lifetime, and I just really talked myself into the world of the movie, of 1960s Greenwich Village, New York - the pre-Dylan, great folk scene that was happening and into this character who's both wanting desperately to succeed, and also desperately to fail. And then, on top of of everything the character is, I was learning that repertoire of music, which I wasn't familiar with.. I'd say I definitely found the character through the music. I think that's the window into his soul, his only connection with the people outside.
6
[on working with the Coen brothers] It was the best experience of my life. They're so generous - not only with their time, but with stories about these people that they've worked with and artists they admire. It was an incredible, joyous process - even though it's quite heavy material. They're very pragmatic. They don't put any impositions on you or come in with any kind of idea in particular that they want you to do. There's room to play.
7
[on modeling his title character in Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) persona] For the character I thought a lot about the comedy of resilience. Buster Keaton was someone that came to mind. He had quite an impassive face with a melancholic stare on it. All of these crazy things could be happening - he could be falling in love or a building could be falling on him, but it was all internalized.
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Fact
1
Started acting in small local play in Miami at Area Stage Company. Till this day, he has a good relationship with owner and manager John Rodaz Sr. to the point that he was one of the first people whom he told that he got the part of Poe Dameron in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Likewise, John often asks Oscar for his input in any plays that he is producing and thus tends to get a thank you credit in the playbill.
2
Has been playing guitar since he was twelve.
3
Lives in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in an apartment that he renovated himself.
4
Isaac's family settled in the U.S. when he was five months old, and he was raised in Miami, Florida.
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He was expelled from private grade school Westminster Christian due to various pranks and instances of misbehavior such as setting off a fire extinguisher in a gym and defacing a mural to make other kids laugh.
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Member of the 'Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' (AMPAS) since 2016.
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Is a musician and singer, playing guitar. In high school he played in punk bands and later became lead singer of his own band, the Blinking Underdogs.
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Worked as an orderly at the same hospital as his doctor-father.
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Is friends with fellow Juilliard alum Academy Award-nominated actress Jessica Chastain.
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Studied acting at Juilliard.
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He was born in Guatemala, to a Guatemalan mother, Maria, and a Cuban father, Oscar Gonzalo Hernández-Cano. Oscar's maternal grandfather was of French origin.
arranger: "Hang Me, Oh Hang Me", "Fare Thee Well Dink's Song", "The Death of Queen Jane" / performer: "Hang Me, Oh Hang Me", "Fare Thee Well Dink's Song", "Please Please Mr. Kennedy", "The Death of Queen Jane", "Green, Green Rocky Road", "Cocaine", "Shoals of Herring"
Won't Back Down
2012
performer: "A Girl Named Malia", "Goin' To College", "Ask Not"
$8 Million
