The right hook

In the latest adaptation of Peter Pan, British actor Jason Isaacs who plays the nefarious Captain James Hook and the timid Mr Darling talks to RIZAL JOHAN on the challenges he faces on the set. 

THERE was an air of cool, calm collectedness around Liverpool-born actor Jason Isaacs as he walked into the interview room at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles recently. It was the third and final day of interviews that had been taking place for some of the cast and crew of the film, Peter Pan, and Isaacs, who plays two roles in the movie – Mr Darling and Captain James Hook – seemed not the least bit exhausted by it all. He, in fact, carried on like it was the first round of interviews. 

By Hollywood standards, Isaacs is no box-office draw. He is primarily known as a supporting actor and has appeared in many a Hollywood film most recently as the villainous Lucius Malfoy in Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets. He gained attention, however, when he appeared as another villain besides Mel Gibson in The Patriot. Known for playing bad guy roles ever since, Isaacs shows there is another, funnier side to him in Peter Pan as Wendy’s repressed father, Mr Darling.  

“I’ve never understood why people offered me serious parts (laughing). Always seemed very odd to me. But one of the things I’ve found in my career is that whatever you do, if you do it reasonably successfully, people would want you to keep doing the same thing.  

British actor Jason Isaacs plays Wendy's father Mr Darling and the nightmare version of ther dad, Captain Hook.

“After The Patriot for instance, I’d been offered the same part, virtually, over and over again. But I thought The Patriot was a great version of it and I didn’t take any of the stupid, badly written bad guys afterwards. I don’t blame Hollywood or directors for not offering me new and different challenges all the time because they don’t know what I can do. (Peter Pan director) PJ (Hogan) I’ll always be grateful to because he offered me a chance to do something that I hadn’t done before,” he said.  

Originally, when the late author J.M. Barrie wrote the play for Peter Pan a century ago, the same actor played the dual roles of Mr Darling and Capt Hook. And since the filmmakers were faithfully adapting Barrie’s classic, they had retained the idea of a single actor playing the two aforementioned roles. Isaacs commented on why it was done so in the first place.  

“I think Barrie deliberately draws a kind of hazy line about whether this night is real or an adventure in Wendy’s mind. He plants the seed that it may well be in Wendy’s mind. And then, you know, it was a play on stage and it wasn’t our idea, he (Barrie) made sure that the same actor always played Mr Darling and Capt Hook. It wasn’t to save money or dressing room space, you know.  

“To my thinking, this is not a definite answer but just the way I think about it, that Wendy needs to work out what she’s going to do about this growing old business. She’s terrified of becoming a woman and becoming a woman means getting married, having kids, and that’s what it meant to them in the old days. So she goes to a place in her mind where there’s a creature who’s never going to grow up; who represents the very worst and the very best things about never growing up. He can play forever but he’s selfish, he doesn’t have feelings.  

“And then there’s a creature who represents the very worst and maybe some of the very best things about growing up but it’s scary. So it’s a nightmare version of her dad ’cause that’s what little girls think about when they think ‘Who am I going to marry?’ Little girls ask their dad ‘Will you marry me?’ all the time.” 

Playing the “nightmare version” of Wendy’s father, Capt Hook, was no easy task for Isaacs as the role was physically demanding what with the sword fights and flying required of the actor. But it got rather complex in some instances, especially where Wendy (Rachel Hurd-Wood) was concerned. 

“The scenes between Capt Hook and Wendy are creepy because as grown ups, you know I’m a dad and I have a daughter, and they were odd to play because this little girl is strangely attracted or seduced by the man who is a more animal-like version of her father. In some ways she wishes her dad were Capt Hook. He (Wendy’s dad) is so timid, so buttoned up and concerned about what everyone thinks.  

“One thing about pirates, they don’t care about what anyone thinks, Capt Hook most of all. He really doesn’t care what anyone thinks of him and she wishes her dad was like that. Maybe he’d be more attractive if he was.”  

As for the stunt work required of Isaacs, he found flying to be the most painful and hardest to endure. 

Originally, when the late author J.M. Barrie wrote the play for Peter Pan a century ago, the same actor played the dual roles of Mr Darling and Capt Hook.

“It was difficult. The stunt work was difficult. The most difficult thing was flying, which was very painful and uncomfortable. It’s like getting a giant wedgie, they attach a wire to this incredible tight harness which cut the blood to your legs then they lift you up and it cut the blood of from everywhere else. And you’re kind of hanging by bits of your body that shouldn’t be taking your weight. And we’re all up there from February to July all day.  

“Jeremy (Sumpter, who plays Peter Pan) got down every hour cause he’s a kid and had a break and also he’s not as heavy as me and for someone like me, I was glad that I already had a daughter,” he smiled. 

Although Isaacs had some experience with sword fighting, the right-handed actor had to relearn all that he knew about duelling as the character Capt Hook required Isaacs to fight with his left hand instead of his right. This was because Capt Hook’s right hand consists of a hook ? literally. And as the dreaded Capt Hook, he only battles his bitter enemy, Peter Pan (Sumpter).  

Ironically, Isaacs was afraid of Sumpter to an extent, during the swordfight sequences and recalled a rather painful experience on the set of the pirate ship, the Jolly Roger. 

“It was scary (fighting with Sumpter). He’s a nutter because he always wanted to do things for real all the time. And also I had to learn to swordfight with my left hand and I’m right-handed, so you know it was very difficult for me. Took me months to get up to speed. 

“And when we were fighting, they had metal swords and rubberised swords. Rubberised swords are very heavy because they had metal inside and rubber on the outside. And Jeremy always wanted to use the metal swords because they were a bit lighter and he’s young. And some part of me wanted to use the metal swords as well because it’s my left hand but I’m not stupid. I’ve worked with Jackie Chan (in The Tuxedo) and even he doesn’t use metal swords in fight sequences, he uses the rubber swords.  

“So we had this discussions with Jeremy and he’s like ‘Oh please, c’mon please, I can’t, I just can’t do it!’ (The director) P.J. (Hogan) would be slightly doubting going ‘Well, Jason ?’ and I’d go ‘PJ, no! Just no! It’s just not going to happen! Never! I’m using the rubber swords,’ and they’d go ‘Oh alright then.’  

“And I remember one particular instance when we had this discussion and it was settled, we use the rubber swords. Two seconds later, Jeremy does this double spin, back handed, smacks me in the face by mistake, I get lifted off my feet and land the other side of the ship, my face swells up instantly like a pumpkin. There’s blood, my moustache pops off and Jeremy’s mortified, he’s incredibly upset, he’s all apologies and in tears and I go (in mock swollen lips speech) ‘Jeremy, it’s alright, don’t worry, I’ll live but do you think we could maybe never discuss the metal/rubber sword thing again,’ and he says, ‘Yes, of course!, of course! I’m so sorry’.  

“The next morning I get to the set and I have some stunts to do and Jeremy goes, ‘Hey can we use the metal swords?’ and I go ‘what is it with him?’ And whatever it is, he’s Peter Pan. He’s the most lovable rogue I’ve ever met and whatever he did, it was just impossible to stay angry with him because he was just so charming.”  

Besides being injury prone, Isaacs also had problems with Capt Hook’s flamboyant costumes which weighed him down. 

“I thought the costumes were magnificent. It’s funny, I was inside them and only when I saw the film did I appreciate quite how ? the splendour (costume designer) Janet (Patterson) had created for Capt Hook and also the reality of Edwardian London, they were amazing frocks.  

“Mr Darling’s clothes I asked to be a bit small for me, the collar’s a bit high and tight so that he couldn’t really breathe because Mr Darling was very repressed and the opposite for Hook with open collars because he was relaxed and much more animal, so you can see the sweat coming off his collarbone and he’s not buttoned up at all, quite the opposite. But the fabulous costumes of Capt Hook weighed as much as a four-bedroom house and I was crippled by them everyday but now that I’ve watched the film, I appreciate why I needed three and a half miles of velvet on my back. It’s an exaggeration but they were very, very heavy and the hats were heavy and I’d get neck aches and stuff but it was all worth it in the end.” 

Working with children was not a problem for Isaacs who professed a love for children. And there were enough children to go about on the set of Peter Pan. Besides Sumpter and Hurd-Wood, there were a handful of The Lost Boys and Wendy’s two brothers as well.  

“I’ve always loved kids and entertaining them. When I was in drama school, I would entertain at children’s birthday parties during the weekends with magic and puppets and games. And I have seven god-children you know. When I was a student, I came over to America and was a counsellor on a summer camp for kids and when I go around to friends’ houses I’m invariably found upstairs in the room with kids playing games or in the garden playing football.  

“After doing so many adult films for so long, things that are rated or have lots of violence or swearing in them, it’s just been a pleasure the last couple of years, how much impact it has on children being on the Harry Potter films and now hopefully, Peter Pan. It’s such a thrill to me that I can give a thrill to children.” 

Even on a professional level, Isaacs found working with children to be challenge.  

“I find it very refreshing, there’s none of the normal actor nonsense. Children don’t have any craft in the sense that they don’t know technical things, they don’t know how to fake things but that just means you have to make it real. Acting is only let’s pretend anyway so you have to make the game as real as you can and really capture their imagination. And when you do that, they’re fantastic.  

“They’re embarrassingly good, you know, and when you don’t do that and they’re not good, (then) it’s your fault. It’s not their fault. It’s my responsibility to create the right atmosphere, and to get the right reactions out of them and if they don’t do it it’s because I’m not doing it right. I’m not engaged enough.”  

Being in demand as a Hollywood actor has its ups and down for Isaacs as it requires him to be away from his friends and family for long periods of time. There was a note of restrained sadness in his voice as he talked about where he is based, which is in London, England. 

“Yeah, technically (I’m based in London). I was away for 13 months doing this (Peter Pan). So, you know, it’s tricky, leaving your life for that long. It’s not like you’re going away for a couple of weeks. You go away for that long; people build their lives without you. You come back and you go ‘Oh, my great friends and my lovely god-children,’ and they go ‘Yeah, who are you again?’”