Jason Isaacs is a good interview. Funny and opinioned, he isn’t afraid to tell it like it is (“quite frankly, most films are crap and most writing’s crap”) and he knows his way around an anecdote. That he manages to be like this while wolfing down a plate of steak, fried chicken and salad (“It must be nice for you, watching me talk with food sticking out between my teeth”) while dressed head-to-toe in a pirate costume just shows you what a professional he is.
Of course, it helps that he’s able to wield his cutlery without sporting Hook’s famed prosthesis. “God, it’s a pain,” he laughs. “It’s bloody hard to load a musket or use a telescope when you’re deficient in the hand department to the tune of one.”
So how do you prepare o play a mad pirate with one mit, a hatred of pre-pubescent boys and a morbid fear of crocodiles? “You do research,” says Isaacs, matter-of-factly. “I read about pirates - although there’s actually very little written on the subject - and I read a lot of JM Barrie as these characters appeared in other stories before Peter Pan. Groundwork like that’s really important to me because when a bad guy works, it’s because they’re real and people believe them. So when you play Captain Hook, you have to find something in the fantasy land to identify with.”
And what human qualities does the not-so-good captain have? “He’s a neurotic mess, Hook. He doesn’t understand why things aren’t going his way in the world when they really ought to be. He’s an egomaniac with an inferiority complex. And the same goes for Mr Darling.”
Ah yes, Mr Darling - Isaac’s second role in the film. When Pan was first performed on stage, Barrie insisted the same actor play both the homicidal Hook and the children’s repressed father as they are basically the same person. As Isaac explains, “Leave Mr Darling on an island for 10 years and you’d up up with Captain Hook. If Hook’s unbridled man, Darling is bridled man. And if either of them is to work on screen, they have to be played truthfully.”
This talk of truth and neurosis doesn’t sound very kid-friendly. “Well, when I read the book, I didn’t feel like I was reading a kid’s book,” continues Isaac. “Look, this is a story in which a boy fights a grown man to the death. One of the big challenges for me was to make a film good enough for grown-ups to sit and watch and get something out of. I think we’ve done that.”
When it was announced that there was a live-action version of Peter Pan in the works, many wondered whether the people involved hadn’t heard of a little something called Hook. Isaacs, however, doesn’t see a problem. “The production’s helped a lot by the fact there’s never been a live-action Pan before. “
“But what about Mr Spielberg’s box-office bomb?”
Isaacs pauses for a moment. “Well, the thing with Hook is that it’s…”
“Crap?”
?No, it’s not crap, but it’s a film about Robin Williams having a mid-life crisis. It’s not a film about Barrie’s Peter Pan. That hasn’t been done on film before. Until now.”
With his mountain of food finished and every subject kicked over from the perils of working with animals (“You can be great in take 36 but they use take 37 because the dog did what it was supposed to do”) to Black Hawk Down’s box-office failure in Somalia (“It wasn’t really made for that audience”), Isaacs is off to lock swords with young master Sumpter again.
“Look,” he whispers conspiratorially on his way back to the set. I do a lot of interviews but your magazine [Empire] id the only magazine I actually read, so let’s make this good, eh?”
So you don’t read any other magazines at all?
“"Well, sighs Isaacs, “obviously I flick through the Korean Gardening Gazette but that’s only to do the crossword…”
On the face of it, Peter Pan is soaring along very nicely. Of course, a sizeable obstacle lies smack bang ahead in the form of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. With the first part of Peter Jackson’s epic set to open opposite Hogan’s offering on Boxing Day, it remains to be see whether cinemagoers can stomach more than one helping of fantasy entertainment at the same time.
But while LOTR is an awesome opponent, it’s arguable that things could have been worse for Hogan had his happy band and the boy who never grows open gone toe-to-toe with the boy who lived. Alas, the box-office battle the world had been wafting for - Pan vs. Potter - has been put on hold with it being announced that JK Rowling’s wizard won’t be returning to Hogwarts until June 204.
Not that Jeremy Sumpter’s too concerned about the possible opposition. As he practices his swordplay with Isaacs, it’s obvious that this is a young man who would relish the chance to trade blows with the short-arsed sorcerer.
“Sure, it would be a very cool fight with him. Harry has the magic but I have the upper hand in swordfighting. So, yeah, I could kick Harry Potter’s ass!”