“It was so meaningful to me”: the 2013 role Oscar Isaac compared to “being born”
Oscar Isaac found himself onscreen in his greatest performance.
Getting a breakout role is not something that every actor gets to experience early on in their career. While there are a few enticing examples of stars who received a role made exclusively for them before they had real experience in the industry, most actors have to wait several years, even decades, in order to get a part that gives them a chance to showcase the extent of what they can do. It’s not even always a guaranteed success, as sometimes a role can seem perfect on paper, but the rest of the film disappoints.
Oscar Isaac didn’t necessarily have a bad career before 2013. He had worked twice with Ridley Scott, shown his skills as a musician in the dramedy 10 Years, and had a juicy role in the hit arthouse action thriller Drive. However, it wasn’t until he was offered the titular role in Inside Llewyn Davis, a period musical drama from Joel and Ethan Coen, that he felt like he had truly fulfilled his potential.
“It felt like I was being born,” Isaac admitted, “To not only get the chance for the first time to play a leading role, but for it to incorporate my other love, which is music and guitar and singing, and to have [the Coen brothers] guide me was amazing.”
Inside Llewyn Davis was a film that benefited from Isaac’s inherent talents, but he also said that he learned a lot working with two of the best directors of all time.
“It was like an education,” he said, “It was so meaningful to me, and then all these doors opened up, and I was asked to do things. I am eternally grateful I was able to be part of that movie”.
Inside Llewyn Davis had a fascinating release, as it came out late in 2013 and didn’t receive as much awards recognition as was expected, especially when considering how beloved by the Oscars the Coens have been. However, it was soon after that the film began rising in many Coen fans’ reputations as one of their best, and certainly among their most personal. While the Coens rarely try to explain what their films are about, Inside Llewyn Davis is such a moving study on what it is like to be an artist that anyone who has ever pursued a creative field can relate to it.
This might be why Isaac was perfect for the role, as it wouldn’t have worked nearly as well had Llewyn been played by a famous actor who was associated with success. In the film, Llewyn is literally a second-rate player who is overshadowed by other, more successful musicians in the folk scene, including Bob Dylan, and that Isaac was himself an underappreciated actor at that time made the performance even more powerful, as the pain and frustration he brought to the role was completely genuine. Llewyn is not always a likeable character, but nothing Isaac did with his performance felt untruthful.
Despite being overlooked for an Academy Award nomination, the actor’s career began to open up, where he soon had the opportunity to reunite with many of his co-stars on the film, appearing alongside Adam Driver in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, and recently co-starring with Carey Mulligan in the second season of the Netflix series Beef.
