Oscar Isaac readies to be a big-screen hero in Star Wars
LOS ANGELES— Spoiler alert: Oscar Isaac’s X-Wing pilot Poe Dameron does not break into song in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Isaac won awards the last time he sang onscreen, in the 2013 Coen Brothers’ film Inside Llewyn Davis, and he charmed the Twitterverse last week when he sang a duet of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” with his Star Wars co-star Daisy Ridley. But Poe keeps his music on the inside.
“Poe? He’s got inner song happening all the time,” Isaac said in a recent interview.
Though Isaac didn’t add music to Poe’s repertoire, he did come up with a backstory for the character that’s now part of Star Wars lore.
In the original 1977 film, the fictional planet Yavin was actually Guatemala’s ancient Mayan city of Tikal. Isaac was born in Guatemala, so he decided that Poe must be from Yavin.
“Sure enough, Lucasfilm heard that and when it came time to do Shattered Empire, the comic book, that was part of the story,” Isaac said.
The actor also worked with director J.J. Abrams to develop Poe’s character in The Force Awakens, but in keeping with the hyper-secrecy shrouding the film, Isaac won’t offer any specifics.
What Isaac will reveal is that he prepared for the role by reading real-life accounts of Second World War fighter pilots, whom he describes as “the closest thing to superheroes that we have.”
“They soar above all the rest of us at incredible speeds and they have to have so many things clear in their minds,” he said. “So the fact that they can do this and survive and excel gives them a sense of invincibility, a sense of immortality. And some swagger.”
Isaac may need some of that swagger himself when his roles in Star Wars and X-Men: Apocalypse make him a bigscreen hero. He said he’s not looking forward to the possibility of big fame, but he is enjoying seeing his image as an action figure.