At this year’s Sundance Film Festival I landed an extended video interview with Jason Isaacs. He was in Park City to help promote writer/director Nikole Beckwith's drama Stockholm, Pennsylvania. In the film, Saoirse Ronan plays a young woman raised by a kidnapper (Isaacs) who now struggles to acclimate to her actual parents 20 years after first being separated. While most of the film focuses on Ronan's character, Isaacs definitely makes the most of his screen time and shows why his character would have had such a hold over her.

During the interview, Isaacs talked about the experience of making Stockholm, Pennsylvania, seeing it for the first time at Sundance, how the project came together, his upcoming USA show Dig and what it’s about, making London Fields which also stars Johnny DeppStar Wars RebelsAwake, his reaction to finding out J. K. Rowling was writing the script for the Harry Potter spinoff Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and a lot more.

Here's what he had to say followed by the time index to provide an overview of the conversation. And click here to watch my video interview with Saoirse Ronan.

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Jason Isaacs Time Index

  • :10 – Super Bowl talk. Isaacs discusses his intense dislike of American football, which he says is “like rugby but for people who need pads in case they get hurt”.
  • 2:00 – He explains how he got involved in the project, which got its inception in the Sundance Labs and made the Black List. Describes the film.
  • 3:30 – How does he like to prepare for a role? Talks about specifically getting into the headspace of his character in Stockholm, Pennsylvania.
  • 4:50 – The experience of seeing the film for the first time at the Sundance world premiere. Talks about the Sundance atmosphere.
  • 6:40 – Talks about attachment parenting/therapy and an episode of This American Life about it.
  • 7:40 – His USA show Dig. Says in television the most important thing is who it’s from, and this show is written by Gideon Raff (Homeland) and Tim Kring (Heroes). Describes it as a Da Vinci Code-style thriller.
  • 9:30 – Talks about the advantage of a smaller number of episodes.
  • 10:20 – Was he in John Wick? Says he met about it, but didn’t actually do it.
  • 10:45 – Discusses the film London Fields, which also stars Johnny Depp. Says he doesn’t want to give too much away, but he doesn’t have a lot to do with the other actors.
  • 12:10 – Star Wars Rebels. Talks about The Inquisitor’s lightsaber.
  • 13:00 – Awake talk. Says it was a non-network show.
  • 14:22 – His reaction to finding out Rowling was writing the script for the Harry Potter spinoff Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
  • 15:30 – What’s coming up this year? Says he’s under contract with USA so he has to wait and see what happens with Dig.

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