Oscar Isaac Defends His Most Criticised Film Role
Oscar Isaac opens up about the harsh reception to Life Itself, sharing why he stands by his performance and how personal loss shaped his work during filming.
Oscar Isaac has long been recognised as one of the standout talents of his generation, with his breakout turn in Inside Llewyn Davis showing just how much depth he could bring to a role. While his time in the Star Wars sequels kept him busy, he still managed to squeeze in a string of smaller, more personal projects. Isaac’s choices have always hinted at a desire to work with certain directors—whether it was taking on a morally grey lead in The Card Counter with Paul Schrader, joining George Clooney for Suburbicon, or building a solid working relationship with Alex Garland on Ex Machina and Annihilation.
So, it made sense when Isaac signed up for Life Itself, a film from Dan Fogelman, who’d already made a name for himself on telly with This Is Us and Galavant. The film looked like a throwback to the kind of character-driven dramedies that don’t get made much these days, and the cast list was stacked: Olivia Cooke, Samuel L Jackson, Olivia Wilde, Mandy Patinkin, Annette Bening, Antonio Banderas, and a bunch of rising stars.
Backlash and Critical Response
Despite the good intentions behind Life Itself, the film copped a hammering from critics when it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2018. Even the harshest reviews, though, tended to single out Isaac as a bright spot. The general feeling was that Fogelman’s strengths were better suited to TV than the big screen. Still, Isaac admitted to Indiewire that he hadn’t seen the backlash coming.
“I was surprised that there seemed to be a full-on critical narrative to it,”
he said.
“It’s some of the better work that I’ve done.”
Many felt the film’s emotional beats didn’t quite land, coming off as a bit forced. But Isaac’s portrayal of a bloke wrestling with overwhelming grief was often genuinely moving. That rawness was no accident—he’d just lost his own mum at the time, and it deeply influenced how he approached the role.
“I’m really proud of the places that I went and being able to sustain it, really dealing in a personal way with grief,”
he shared.
“It was insane that I even decided to do that, considering what I was in the middle of during that moment of my life.”
Personal Loss and Professional Growth
Life Itself was meant to be a contender for awards after its Toronto debut, but it quickly faded from view and flopped at the box office. For Isaac, it was a tough pill to swallow, especially given what he’d gone through to deliver his performance. Still, the experience didn’t hold him back from moving on to bigger projects.
He’s since earned some of the best reviews of his career for his take on Victor in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, and he’s lined up for the much-hyped second season of the Netflix anthology Beef. Isaac’s knack for picking interesting roles and working with top-notch directors has kept him at the top of his game, no matter what the critics reckon.