BLUE MEANIE

Oscar Isaac on playing the X- universe’s first mutant

The name Apocalypse suggests that he’s all about destruction – but is there more to it than that?

Well, he’s the embodiment of the biblical apocalypse, and what that’s about is Jesus Christ returning and destroying the world, and saving those that escape the wrath of God. And remember that Apocalypse doesn’t mean destruction; it actually means the revelation. It’s to reveal, to lift back the curtain – and that became a refrain. He’s revealing not only the plan, but revealing each person’s individual power to themselves; their full potential.

How on earth do you research playing a role like this? Can you?

I read quite a bit of the Bhagavad Gita, a lot of the conversations that Krishna has when he reveals himself as God. It was fascinating, cos a lot of that’s about being a warrior. There’s all these myths we’ve created throughout time to have an understanding of weird, fundamental, primal things. Some dialogue ended up getting in there from the investigations Simon Kinberg, Bryan Singer and I were doing. There’s a line where Apocalypse says, “I am born of death.” The idea that God and religion are born from the rituals around death. One of the things you see as man evolves is that burial sites became more complex, and those rituals and the ideas of God are linked. It’s pretty dark for a comic book movie, but I really dug exploring that!

You’ve worked on Star Wars and this – has either turned up in your dreams?

Yeah, it all sticks around, rambling around in the unconsciousness. I had a dream that Harrison Ford had a back issue, and we were walking along and he noticed I was walking funny. Then he fixed my back by doing weird jump kicks off my shoulder and head!

That’d probably get him in trouble with the Health & Safety Executive… Hey, I felt great afterwards though!