Oscar Isaac has recently shared which British comedians were influential in helping him create one of his various characters required for his upcoming role in the MCU series, Moon Knight. The series is the very first Disney Plus live-action MCU show from Marvel Studios promising and promoting a brand-new superhero who has never quite been seen before.
Part of the originality that Moon Knight is bringing to the MCU is that the show is shedding light on the darker side of living with a mental illness, while at the same time pronouncing those who do suffer with their mental health to be indefinite superheroes. Marvel Studios’ Moon Knight follows the character of Steven Grant (Isaac), a reserved gift-shop employee who becomes plagued with blackouts while subsequently resurrecting old memories he had in another life. Isaac has a unique challenge ahead of him with this role in particular, due to the fact that his character lives with Dissociative Identity Disorder. This equates to Isaac needing to do extensive research in terms of what DID really looks and feels like - both physically and emotionally. However, it also means that Isaac has the task of playing multiple different characters within one physical being. As an actor, he has to find a way to distinguish one character from another while also still adding some level of cohesiveness throughout to string the entirety of the role together. His Moon Knight character has two main personalities, or ‘alters,’ that he switches back and forth between like a light switch.
The first one being the shy, gift shop clerk named Steven Grant and the troubled mercenary, Marc Spector. Spector begins to leverage control, wreaking all kinds of destruction and distress in his life. His DID becomes even more triggered and stimulated when he begins to channel the mighty powers of the Egyptian moon god Khonshu. Thus, Isaac also has to end up portraying and taking on the personality traits of Moon Knight, as his character falls privy. In a recent interview with NME, Isaac opened up about the odd inspirations that he relied on in order to be able to tap into the more kind, polite side of his character. He stated, “I thought, ‘what’s an energy that I haven’t seen in the MCU before?’ Like, what if someone asked Peter Sellers to be in a Marvel movie? Then I thought of Karl Pilkington - I was watching a lot of An Idiot Abroad, not so much for the accent, but for the comedy of it, you often don’t know if he knows he’s being funny."
While these may seem like surprising sources of inspiration, Isaac had solid reasons for why these comedians shaped his Moon Knight performance. “There’s something a little naturally introverted about [Pilkington], which I really liked a lot - I also listened to Russel Kane, the comedian, because he comes from Enfield,” Isaac said. “I put in a bit of Russell Brand, even though he’s much more loquacious. Then, really, it was about finding the character’s emotional place - like why he is kind of mumbly and inward.”
Marvel Studios has been more open towards incorporating comedic relief, especially in key moments of high suspense for audiences. Therefore, knowing Isaac has intentionally added comedic elements into this more serious, darker toned series is rather refreshing.
Moon Knight is available for streaming through Disney Plus on March 30th, 2022.
Source: NME
