2/21/07 WMGK  The John De Bella Show  Interview w/Jason

Approximately 8 minutes, 19 seconds..                         Transcribed by Kj

JDB= John DeBella

JI= Jason Isaacs

Jen=Interviewer

3rd Interviewer: Name unknown..

JDB: I hate to having to do this, I have to clarify you by one

of your more famous characters

JI: That's fine by me

JDB: if you recall in the Patriot, there was that one British Colonel, ah

William Tavington, everyone knows him, as "THE DICK"..

LAUGHING ALL AROUND

JDG: They hated you, I hated you so much

JI: I didn’t know you could say that word on Radio, but let me tell you somethin…

I went to the very first screening of that cause I had to meet the press the next

day and talk about it and I hadn't seen it, and I sneaked into the back of the

screening, which was all journalists, and I had a baseball cap and sunglasses

on and in front of me these 2 journalists, actually when I first came on, you know

and started killing and slaughtering and causing mayhem, (In an American Accent)

"This guy is such a DICK, somebody should just cut his head off"

ALL LAUGHING

And I stand there bristling, and every time I came on they were hollering abuse at the screen

and halfway thru the movie I stopped taking it personally, I realized I was probably doing my job OK.

JDB: You doing your job very well, and both Jen and I, you're in a favorite movie

of both of ours, and Jeah, Jen, you go first…

Jen: Oh, Sweet November

JI: OMG, well funnily enough after the Patriot I was offered a lot of bad guys,

obviously, would be, and I, I didn’t want to do it again, cause I thought it was such a

fabulous character and well written, so the next job that I took was, oh Charlize

Theron's Transvestite neighbor in Sweet November.

Jen: You were Fabulous

JI: Not a classic Hollywood choice for me to make, but I just felt like I wanted to do

something different.

Jen: Speaking of films that you've done, other works, I was looking at your profile

on IMDB, how disappointed where you that your scenes were cut from Spice World?

JI: Well,yeah, it was not a tragedy, but I can tell you that having a very long, lovely, juicy scene

cut from "Crash", when it goes on to win Best Film Oscar, was not cool.

Jen: That one hurt, yeah

JDB: As for my favorite film that you did, and when I saw this on your credits, I am the only

person in America who will ever talk to you about this movie, "The Tall Guy"

JI: OH MY GOD, I was out of Drama school about 1/2 hour,

ALL LAUGHING

I was cast as Dr #2, which is not an auspicious beginning, and I get there, but I'm so excited

cause I've a couple of lines, and I get there and they put a Surgeon's hat and

mask on me, and that was my great beginning, and only my eyes are gonna be visible, I got

to say something like "The Patient's Spineless, he's Spineless", and my girlfriend, who I

left drama school with, who is now my wife, and you know, Mother of my kids,

she also bizarrely out of Drama School had a small part in "The Tall Guy"

And we both went to the Premiere, we weren't given tickets, we had to buy tickets _????

which was a big deal for us in those days and we sit there and my bit comes up and we

squeeze each others hand, you know, 3 frames of film, but whatever, its exciting, and the film

goes on and on, she leans over and says to me with tears in  her eyes, she says

"They cut Me",  oh no Darling, they move scenes around all the time, I'm sure

Ten minutes later she goes "they cut me", my bits gone by" and I go oh no

Any way it finishes, the credits go by and she goes "I wanna go home, I have to go home"..

"This is my, You know, my first show biz networking, hand shaking thing and my agent said to me I

have to stay here and mix"

She looked at me and said, went, "I've been cut those theatrical fools, I have to go home"

and we went, and that started a pattern that’s continued ever since.

3rd interviewer guy: If it makes your wife feel any better, I've never heard of the movie

ALL LAUGHING

JI: Don't worry about it

JDB: Just remember, even in Heaven there's an Angel with Big Ears

ALL LAUGHING

JI: Yes, I don’t know what that means, but it's live Radio, so I'm just gonna agree with you.

JDB: It was the song that they sang in the musical production of the Elephant Man.

JI: OH MY GOD, so it was, that's incredibly impressive, I know the writer and I'm gonna

tell him you thought of that, he'll be thrilled.

JDB: I Love that movie, it's wonderfully silly and

JI: It's a very good movie, actually the guy, Richard Curtis, who wrote it, also went on to write

Notting Hill, 4 Weddings and a Funeral, and Love Actually and many, many other successful

movies and sitcoms and that was his first movie, so not only is it good, but it, you know,

it marks the beginning of a brilliant career

JDB: Well tell him

JI: The thing that obviously, only in case he's listening, he gives me a job

ALL LAUGHING

JDB: You're one of 3 Brothers?

JI: I'm one of 4 Brothers, yeah, I have 3 Brothers, I'm somewhere in there

JDB: and there like Doctors, Lawyers, Surgeons, Accountants?

JI: You know they're grown ups, they do proper jobs, and don’t get dressed up in

silly costumes and wands around, it's true

JDB: Now how does the family feel when they went off after there serious careers

and you decided to become an ACTOR?

JI: Well, you know I was in University, studying law and I just started getting into

the plays, because, ah, I loved them, and the first thing my parents came to see me

I was running around naked, covered in chicken blood,

(Jen: Charming),

second thing they came to see me

in I was castrated with a cheese wire (JEN: OH), and it went down hill from there, so I

think they're just happy that I keep my clothes on

ALL LAUGHING

JEN: There's our son, we're so Proud

JI: Although, they did like it in The State Within, and um, I um,

(over lapping dialogue here)

in an undignified way move it, this conversation around to this play

(more over lapping dialogue)

JDB: This is new to BBC America, when did this run in England?

JI: It went on in the fall here, it was a huge hit, ah I think they would have liked some

more of them, but I'm going off to do Brotherhood, and ah, other things and the writers

are doing other projects, but it's just, its one of those things that really only the BBC

can do, you know, it's tough, I think, in America when you make Network Television anyway

there, You have to be aware there are advertising breaks every 64 seconds, and so nothing

can be too hard to follow, you know, and you have to be able to walk away, heat up a

TV Dinner, take a phone call, you know play your Play Station, come back and not

have missed the Story. Where as the BBC which doesn’t really have to care about ratings,

and doesn’t have any adverts, can make proper, grown up, thrilling stories that deal

with contemporary issues, you know, stuff that's ripped from the head lines and the

weird and obviously perverse thing is they make something without caring about ratings

 to make something intelligent, and it ends up being one of the most popular things they can make.

JDB: Unfortunately, when you send it here, they fill it with Commercials

Jen: mm mh

JI: Well, they put more commercials in there, but the point is that it's not made with the

commercials in mind, which means it doesn’t every 3 minutes have a little artificial

hook

JDB: Right

JI: Like a Saturday morning serial, you know, it's written for adults, I mean that was the thing

that really drew my attention to it. I read it and I didn’t feel like all the dots were being

joined, I didn’t feel like they were trying to make sure that, you know, 11 yr olds could

enjoy it while they're playing Game Boy and 80 yr olds, who are dribbling in their soup

could follow it as well. You know, it was presuming that there are some sophisticated

people who watch Television.

JDB: Speaking of playing the bad guys, cause in this one you're not, are you glad that

you're finishing up the Harry Potter Series?

JI: Oh, we're not finishing up, far from it

JDB: Oh Really?

JI: #5 is coming out this Summer.

JDB: Right

JI: Ah, the Seventh Book will be published almost at the same time, and I've no doubt at all

that they're be making #6 and #7 into movies. The Heart Breaking thing for me is I'm not in the 6th

book, so I wont be in the 6th film, and I'm awaiting the publication of #7 probably more anxiously

than anybody else in the World. I'm desperate to bust out of prison in it, I'm hoping that this

time, I get a motor bike and jump the fence like Steve McQueen.

JDB: It's the white, Blonde Wig, isn't it?

JI: Well, that's what I miss, true, also I miss the chance, I go to work, and there are some people

who I, you know, I worship, frankly, professionally, you know, Michael Gambon, Gary Oldman,

Maggie Smith, and Alan Rickman and I get to do scenes with them, you know, I've a Huge Wand

battle with Gary Oldman at the end of last year, and it was ridiculously good fun, these two

grown men, having frankly more fun than my daughter, who is downstairs at the moment,

dressed as a Princess, you know..

ALL LAUGHING

3rd interviewer: Did you read the books?

JI: I'd miss out, I don't want to miss that kind of fun

3rd interviewer: Did you read the books? Did you know the books before

you were in the movies?

JI: I read, before I was in the movie I didn’t, I got the job when 4 of them had been

written and I read them all, cover to cover, and you know, I just stayed up all night a kind

of unwashed mess, staggering around with a book stuck to my nose, and ah,

and then after that I stopped reading them because they're so good and I had so many lovely

things to do in it, and they have to reduce, you know, a thousand page book to a 100 page

script and a lot of my favorite stuff doesn't make it into the film.

Certainly when I say my favorite stuff I mean stuff with me and so I now have to wait

to read the script so I don’t get disappointed.

JDB: Well, Jason, thank you so much, this was really great getting to talk to you, ah

The State Within on BBC America. You are obviously welcomed back, we're fans,

after all, how many people are quoting "The Tall Guy"

ALL LAUGHING

JI: That's true, I'll tell you, I'm stunned by it 

JDB: Classic Rock, 102.9, WMGK

JI: THANK YOU