FRANKENSTEIN Star Oscar Isaac Covers GQ’s ‘Men of the Year’ Issue

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GQ revealed its next Men of the Year cover featuring the “Leading Man of the Year,” Oscar Isaac.

Oscar discusses the story behind being cast in Guillermo del Toro’s FRANKENSTEIN, where he drew inspiration from throughout the filming process, his upcoming documentary project (directed by his wife), and whether or not he’d do another STAR WARS.

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On what Oscar drew inspiration from when portraying Victor Frankenstein…

“I think our version, this Victor, has a lot of rage in him. Defiance was a word we used a lot—a lot of addicts, that’s one of the main things they have. Defiance against circumstances, against themselves, against their past. So the fun thing with Victor is I played him like an addict, even though the only thing you see him ingest is milk, as a way to get Mom’s milk back.”

On how del Toro pitched the idea of FRANKENSTEIN…

“I went to his house, just to meet. We sat in his kitchen and ordered take-out Cuban food, and we’re sitting there eating rice and beans and pork, and we just started talking about our fathers. We started talking about our dads, and the pain and the joy and forgiveness, and becoming fathers ourselves and what’s inherited, as far as pain and trauma. And how one moves forward in relation to that kind of a past and either trying to run away from it or trying to fix it or change it or holding onto a lot of these resentments. And at the end of that conversation, he said, ‘I’m making Frankenstein, and I think you need to play Victor.’”

“I’m like, Maybe he’s just having an aneurysm right now, or who knows—maybe he just says that to everybody, that’s like his pickup line.”

On making another STAR WARS…

“I mean, I’d be open to it, although right now I’m not so open to working with Disney, but if they can kinda figure it out and, you know, not succumb to fascism, that would be great.”

On how Isaac and del Toro kept the set of a dark movie light…

And the set was joyful. We were laughing all the time. He basically directed me in dirty jokes, and we only spoke in Spanish to each other. I think because there was so much joy and lightness, we were able to go full tilt with the darkness as well. It’s an emotional Mexican melodrama that we made. This is a very European story told in an extremely Latin point of view. At one point I was like, “That is a lot, man. Is this too much?” And he is like, “Look, cabrón, it is not an accident that my Victor’s real name is Oscar Isaac Hernández.”

On Oscar’s surprising muse for playing Victor Frankenstein…

There’s a great, great behind-the-scenes of Prince—I think it was the performance for the Special Olympics. Watching the way he walks up onstage and is quite quiet, but moves around in his little black high-heeled shoes—I definitely took a lot of inspiration from that. How to move effortlessly through a space and own it and create.

GQ’s Men of the Year issue hits newsstands November 18 and the annual celebration to toast this year’s honorees takes place in Los Angeles on November 13.

[Photo Credit: Tyrell Hampton/GQ Magazine]

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