OH, BROTHER -- IT'S ISAACS

 

Jason Isaacs looks gorgeous in a wig.

The British actor with the arctic eyes has played everything from a nostalgic lover in Rodrigo Garcia's "Nine Lives" to the gay best friend of Charlize Theron in "Sweet November" to an indomitable army commander in Ridley Scott's "Black Hawk Down." But it's his arch portrayals of archetypal heavies with great hair that send audiences and (and some critics) into a collective swoon.

It's easy to parse why: There's an irresistible quality to Isaacs' campy, existential Capt. Hook in 2003's "Peter Pan," and the wounded quality he brought to the hyper-evil Col. Tavington in "The Patriot" (2000) gives his most heinous acts -- and there are many -- a certain internal logic. As for the luxuriant and sinister version of Lucius Malfoy that Isaacs created for "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" ... well. Suffice it to say that being bad has seldom looked better. (Ironically, in his one official turn as a trannie in 2001's "Sweet November," Isaacs looked ghastly; maybe it was the bobbed 'do.) Credit all of this to Isaacs' talent for transforming cardboard villains into characters layered with emotional complexity (and great hair).

As Michael Caffee in the Showtime series "Brotherhood," though, Isaacs, 43, retains the complexity while jettisoning the camp. A career gangster and psychological mine field, Caffee returns to his working-class Irish neighborhood in Providence, R.I., after seven mysterious years on the lam, determined to make up for lost time. His homecoming complicates life for his brother, Tommy (Jason Clarke), a state representative with his own ambitions and moral ambiguities. The series traces the siblings' uneasy relationship as they pursue their respective crusades against the establishment -- Tommy by working within it, Michael by subverting and exploiting it.

Isaacs is a teddy bear compared with his "Brotherhood" character, but he's still an errant son. Born one of four children in Liverpool, England, he broke with family tradition by leaving his law studies to pursue acting. This proved a wise choice on several levels, since it was at drama school that he met Emma Hewitt, who became his wife and with whom he now shares two daughters: Lily, 4, and Ruby, 1, born in Rhode Island during the filming of "Brotherhood."

For this interview, Isaacs calls from Toronto, Canada, where he's been filming the BBC miniseries "State Within." He explains that he finished shooting at 5 a.m., then spent the morning discussing acting with hundreds of kids at a performing arts camp. The man is tired. And yet, judging by pictures taken during the lecture, still gorgeous. Yes, even without a wig.

Q: You filmed "Sweet November" in San Francisco, didn't you? How long were you here?

A: I was in San Francisco for four, five months, and I absolutely loved it, apart from the shallow aspect of my being absolutely addicted to Chinese food. Like Toronto, it's one of those cities where I felt, maybe incorrectly, that there was a sense of political pride and civic activism that I don't feel in London and I haven't felt in many other places. There's a set of values in the streets that I feel are healthy. You can see it in the free newspapers, you can sense it in the notices that are posted everywhere. I remember saying to my wife, "We could live here. It feels almost European." And she went, "Yeah, until it falls off into the ocean."

Q: Nah. We'll all be dead from global warming before then.

A: Or the imminent nuclear war, or the man-made biological terror.

Q: Or civil unrest or a purge of the liberal intelligentsia.

A: It's very gloomy.

Q: Yes. Maybe we should discuss something happy, like "Brotherhood."

A: Well, there is a tangential link to "Brotherhood," because there's this notion of two men vying for control of this neighborhood, which is a metaphor for America. I hope that we get to see that Michael is in despair over the status quo. Not just the fact that his old neighborhood has changed, but the fact that he thinks his brother is part of the system. So he is in many ways part of the problem, because the system is the problem. It keeps the poor people down.

Q: It seems they're both pursuing the American dream down different avenues.

A: They both have narcissism and the kind of egotism that makes them think they can do good for the world at large. Michael isn't just thinking of the local Irish people -- he sees beyond that, because he's been away and he sees through the casual racism he's grown up around. In the pilot episode, when he's asked where he's been, he says, "The library. I read a lot of good books at the library." I think that there are things in him waiting to be revealed, things about the way he views the world.

Q: I thought one of the most telling scenes was his date with a younger woman, when he's forced to admit that he's aged, that time has passed.

A: I was kind of thrilled when that happened. A couple of times I've had scenes where there's a big age gap between myself and the person I'm meant to be having an affair with, or having sex with, and I've thought, "Are they going to mention this in the script?" And usually they never do, so this was nice.

Q: Speaking of age gaps, were you surprised by how much your Harry Potter character took off? People love Lucius Malfoy.

A: People always love the bad guys. And Lucius is rather delicious. He delights in his power, and the audience delights in his delight. Also, when you've built someone up to be so unbelievably supercilious and arrogant, there's pleasure in seeing him humiliated and brought down a peg or two.

Q: Plus he's pretty.

A: I like to think so. When I have my costume on, I imagine myself to be this great supermodel beauty. And then I see this hideous old man in a wig.

Q: Oh, no, no, no. Just no. The campy villains you play -- the Captain Hooks and the Lucius Malfoys ...

A: They're half a step away from drag queens, let's face it.

Q: Not even a half-step. That's the beauty of it. They are drag queens.

A: They are! It's because I can't sing and I never got to play Frank-N-Furter in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," which is obviously my vocation. I know every syllable of "Rocky Horror."

Q: Please don't sing them, because there's a little game I want to play with you. It's a prison game.

A: Oh, God.

Q: It's called "Who's the Bitch?" It goes like this. Maximum-security prison. Shared cell: Lucius Malfoy and Captain Hook. Who's the bitch?

A: What do you think went on in the public schools? The captain's an old Etonian. He wouldn't be allowed to have a hook, so he'd only have his one hand to protect himself. Oh, no. Lucius would win. Lucius has got magic. With one wave of his wrist, he'd conjure up a whole army of thugs.

Q: OK. Shared cell: Lucius Malfoy and Col. Tavington. Who's the bitch?

A: Tavington would have Lucius for breakfast. Skin him alive and hang him.

Q: Col. Tavington and Michael Caffee?

A: Ooh. I don't know. Obviously, Tavington's slightly better with a sword than Michael Caffee would be. He's had a bit more training. Tavington, after all, is aristocracy. Michael's had a bit more street fighting. If we're talking no weapons, well, Tavington is more evil in his head, but in a cell, with nothing on hand to use, Michael's got the edge on him when it comes to hand-to-hand combat.

Q: Fair enough. Now Michael's put in a cell with you. Who's the bitch?

A: I'm the least tough character you'll ever see in your life. It's amazing that I play all these tough people. It's bizarre to me that I fight onscreen. Slap me and I'm on the floor in a pool of my own vomit and tears. I used to go to youth clubs and spar, and I was pretty good at it until someone hit me. You know how some people have a glass jaw? I have a glass nose. Touch my nose and it breaks.

Q: It's still a fine nose.

A: Why, thank you.

E-mail Neva Chonin at nchonin@sfchronicle.com.

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