For the dark-haired
Jason Isaacs, the opportunity to don a long blond wig was a sizable enticement to play the ruthless wizard Lucius Malfoy in
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
"I had white-blond, waist-length hair that tickled the top of my
buttocks," says Isaacs, 39. "Blondes do have more fun. You have a lot of fun when you have a wand as well."
The chance to play a nasty villain in a blockbuster (the movie
grossed an amazing $88.4 million in its opening weekend), appealed to his inner warlock. In the book and film, Malfoy, the
sneering father of Draco, Harry's youthful archenemy, also has a house elf known as Dobby, a kind of magical indentured servant.
The 3-foot-tall Dobby, with his giant aqua eyes and ski-slope nose, was computer-generated.
"I could do whatever I wanted to do to Dobby, and they could erase
it on computer," Isaacs says. "I could kick him and smack him. I bashed him on the head with my cane and tripped him up."
The English actor generally managed a more contained cruelty as
the elder Malfoy.
"When you stick a wig on and a giant wand and cape, it's pretty
easy to get really Gothic," he says. "If there's anything subtle about (my performance), it's due to (director) Chris Columbus
reining me in, saying, 'Could you pull it back 80 or 90%?' Lucius is actually a volcano of resentment and rage."
Isaacs was willing to brave the eruption for the sake of those
dear to him. "None of my seven godchildren would ever speak to me again if I didn't take the role," he says. "I suspect they
were less interested in me playing the part than with their opportunities to visit the set."
He's thrilled that he's breaking into family films, so "all the
children I love can go and see them. All the other films I've been in have been dark and adult."
And very war-centric, including playing a Marine major in Windtalkers,
an Army officer in Black Hawk Down and the villainous British commander in The Patriot.
Being new to fatherhood probably has a lot to do with a change
in roles. He and his documentary filmmaker wife, Emma Hewitt, welcomed daughter Lily in March. "I found it very hard to find
a dark place to go when I was just full of love," he says. "I couldn't stop crying because she was just so wonderful."
For better or worse, Isaacs also drew
on previous not-so-nice incidents to portray his character.
"Lucius is terribly patronizing and superior,"
Isaacs says. "I modeled him on someone very patronizing to me and other people at drama school. When I grabbed hold of the
cane with the snake on its handle, this thing vomited out fully formed."
Says Columbus: "Jason
is an actor who does his homework and really thought about the progression of his character. He's fantastic."
He does shine as the bad father and Machiavellian
racist, who comes from a long line of pureblood wizards and calls for the elimination of non-wizard types, aka muggles (humans)
and mudbloods (dual parentage). "There are plenty of English voices and American groups looking for that kind of blood purity,"
Isaacs says.
The actor's next screen
appearance will call for more nasty behavior. He's in Australia
now shooting Peter Pan, in which he plays the dual role of Captain Hook and Mr. Darling. He says: "Lucius is far closer
to pure evil than Captain Hook."
