A hook into Hollywood's heart

Lovers of tell-all, insider books about the bizarre workings of the movie business are advised to place their orders for British actor Jason Isaacs' biography now.

Not that the 40-year-old star of the coming $US100 million ($135 million) made-in-Australia blockbuster Peter Pan has even considered putting pen to paper. Yet. When he does, however, it will be a cracker.

Isaacs, you see, is one of those rare Hollywood beasts: a successful, in-demand actor who enthusiastically chops away at the superficial, vain, and deceitful heart of Tinseltown.

"I've got it all in my head, and one day when I decide I never want to work again or everyone I've worked with has died in some coach disaster, I'll be able to tell the stories," he said with a laugh.

In the meantime, here's a tiny preview, starting with his impressions of some of his highly paid colleagues.

"Certainly, when it comes to actors, there are some people who should not even be exposed to themselves, let alone the public," Isaacs said. "They should be locked in a padded room somewhere and fed stale bread.

"No one will ever tell you you're being a dick or that you're offending people or upsetting people or you're just being indifferently rude to people. And if no one tells you and everyone laughs at your jokes and everyone tells you your musings are pearls of wisdom, then that goes on unchecked for a while and you stop listening.

"I've worked with people who think they can do everybody's job better and that everyone around them is a moron. Since they are the engine for the whole enterprise, they're pretty much indulged at every level and it can bring out the best and worst in people.

"Sometimes, these are dysfunctional, damaged, dangerous human beings, like there are in all walks of life. It's just that they don't normally get so empowered."

On the way that films are cast in an industry dominated by middle-aged men, he had this telling anecdote.

"I know of an actress who once got a part in a film because at the audition she sat on the main actor's knee when the kiss was required and gave him a hard-on," he said. "That was obviously the ultimate statement about what a magnificent talent she was. And all of her stuff had to be re-shot and mostly cut anyway."

On Hollywood itself, where he has made his mark in a number of big-budget films, including The Patriot, Black Hawk Down and Armageddon, Isaacs was especially candid.

"Every time I've been, it's been a completely different city," he said. "When I've been in something that looked like it was going to be very successful, I've felt enormously successful, like I was bursting with potential and that all doors were open to me.

"I've also been there when a terrible flop came out and I felt like I had leprosy, like I was walking around with a neon pox on my head.

"And I've been there looking for work, feeling like I'm outside the loop and everyone whose life was glamorous was living inside some thick Perspex wall and couldn't hear me as I was banging out there."

It's certainly a fraught existence if, like Isaacs, you're in that second tier of Hollywood star, those actors who still have to attend cattle calls to get the second- or third-billed character roles and the not-so-fat pay cheques.

"It's dangerous and I think it's true of men, generally, that you have a sense of self worth which correlates pretty directly to how successful you are professionally," Isaacs said.

"There have been times where I've not wanted to answer the phone or see any of the people I've known for a long time - people who are not even the slightest bit interested in whether I've been working or making money - because I feel I don't have anything to offer."

That's not likely to be the case after Australian director P.J. Hogan's Peter Pan is released on Thursday.

The early indications are that Isaacs delivers a tour de force as not only the villainous Captain Hook but also as the downtrodden Mr Darling. It will be for the fearsome-looking Hook, though, that he will be remembered.

"The hook itself, just the actual hook, is amazing," Isaacs said. "You only need to look at it to know that this is a different film. In the other films, it's like a big curtain ring; this is a talon, this is a killing instrument.

"The challenge for me playing Hook was to make him as complicated or as interesting as [author J.M.] Barrie made him.

"It would be very easy to do a cartoon version of him, but in fact this is a guy who is constantly irritated by and terrified of being old. He finds youth, the notion of youth, his own lost youth and lost opportunities, almost unbearable.

"So that's pretty easy to access for a man who's just turned 40."