The Untold Truth Of Oscar Isaac

Seemingly out of nowhere, a bearded, curly-haired Oscar Isaac appeared as the lead in the 2013 film "Inside Llewyn Davis." In the Coen brothers' movie, he could do it all — play guitar, sing, act, and give smoldering looks. While auditioning for the role, Isaac reportedly told the directors, "most actors, if you ask them if they play guitar, they'll say they played guitar for 20 years, but what they really mean is they've owned a guitar for 20 years" (per The New York Times). Not Isaac, who landed the role and immediately became one of the most buzzed-about names in Hollywood. For good reason — it was the start of his run in films like "A Most Violent Year" and "Ex Machina." 

Then came his highest-profile role as Poe Dameron in "Star Wars" episodes VII, VIII, IX. In 2021, Isaac appeared in another international blockbuster, "Dune," alongside stars Timothée Chalemet and Zendaya. Even with less than ten years in the spotlight, Isaac resonated with both audiences and critics so much that The New York Times placed him at fourteenth in the 25 best actors of the 21st century.

The on-screen charm of Isaac extended into many aspects of his personal life. But he wasn't always in full command, going through a difficult upbringing and dealing with tragedy during his rise to fame. Fortunately, he learned some impressive skills along the way to help him become leading man material. Hop in the X-wing fighter for the untold truth of Oscar Isaac.

When he was just an infant, Oscar Isaac and his parents came to the U.S. from Central America. "As his father completed his medical training, the family moved from Baltimore to New Orleans," The Guardian detailed. "We were never in one place for more than, I would say, three to four years," Isaac told the outlet. As a result, the boy dreamed up an imaginative origin story — he remembered telling his classmates in school that he was Russian. One day, Isaac even went home and asked, "So Dad, we're Russian, right?"

Sadly, while living in Louisiana, Hurricane Andrew destroyed the family's home. "I remember having dreams about that house," the actor confessed to The Guardian. After the storm, Isaac and his family relocated to Miami, Florida. There, Isaac began to discover his passions, including music and acting. "It just hit in a very specific way that when I found play-acting — mimesis, imitation — suddenly, that felt like a way of understanding the world," he said about becoming a thespian. Isaac added that acting helped him grow as a person, and it eventually became a necessity in understanding life and emotions.

Oscar Isaac was only in first grade when the teacher barricaded his desk due to his frequent performances. The innovative student transitioned to puppet shows after that. Per The Globe and Mail, young Oscar's privacy screen was "a cardboard car-windshield shade."

In contrast to his heroic, good-guy character in his "Star Wars" films, Oscar Isaac grew up as a troublemaker. As a young boy in a Miami private school, he reportedly rebelled against his family's religious values. "I set off a fire extinguisher in the gym, defaced a mural, just stupid stuff," Isaac admitted to The Globe and Mail about his time in grade school.  

The actor recalled of his earlier days, "It felt good when I made kids laugh, so I'd do it a lot." But his hijinks eventually caught up with him, and Isaac was expelled.

In high school, the actor continued his rule-breaking ways. He explained on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" that as a 17-year-old, "I was being told that I wasn't gonna be graduating with my high school class because I failed P.E." Isaac confessed that the reason he failed his physical education course was because it was the first class in the school day. As a result, he had to attend summer school with other "lazy degenerates."

Part of Oscar Isaac's impressive physical features are his beard and hairstyles. Although he's played roles clean-shaven, Isaac is especially renowned for his perfect facial hair. In preparation for his "Inside Llewyn Davis" audition, the actor grew his beard. Isaac explained to Rolling Stone that the beard helped "droop the face a little bit." For his next major role in "Ex Machina," Isaac once again grew a beard. The actor told Entertainment Tonight that it only took him a few months to fully grow out his look. Aware of his ability to easily transform on camera, Isaac said, "I guess I'm one of those faces where facial hair changes it drastically, as well."

As for his hair, it can be both a blessing and a curse. Isaac revealed on "Conan" that while filming "Star Wars," the producers didn't want his hair too curly. So, he remembered "there was a lot of adjusting of the hair" on set. Even other actors can hardly believe Isaac's perfect coif. During production, he caught his co-star Harrison Ford staring at his hair. Isaac shared that the veteran actor then told him, "You're wearing a wig." When Isaac told him that it was the real deal, Ford walked away in disbelief.

Then, for the 2021 film "Dune," Isaac sported another incredible beard. A professional groomer told GQ, "The beauty of his beard is that it's a natural color, so he embraces his gray."

The Mirror reported in 2010 that pop icon Madonna had a crush on Oscar Isaac. But according to the report, Isaac was already in a relationship. Allegedly, Oscar was "engaged to childhood sweetheart Maria Miranda after proposing in December 2007." Earlier in 2010, Isaac alluded to having a spouse in an interview with Vanity Fair. To cope with filming the intense battle scenes in Ridley Scott's version of "Robin Hood," Isaac said it "helps to have a wife who can listen to you be like, 'Oh my god' for three months."

By 2015, Isaac was still secretive about his love life. GQ reported that he was "so private about his private life that the mere use of the word girlfriend leads him to try to take it back the next day." But a few years later, everything changed for Isaac. In March 2017, he married Elvira Lind, a documentary filmmaker. They have a son named Eugene, who was born in April 2017, per GQ. According to the actor, he married Lind party because "she's Danish — she's not a citizen, and she was very pregnant, and there was an element of figuring out 'Well, where are we going to be?'" He explained that Danish culture doesn't place a high priority on marriage because of "equality of the sexes." But he and Lind talked about wanting to be closer as a family, and they tied the knot. For their honeymoon, the newlyweds visited the Caribbean.

At the 2021 Venice Film Festival, Oscar Isaac caused major swooning after appearing on the red carpet. He and actor Jessica Chastain had a flirty moment with each other, as seen in a video posted by Madame Figaro. The pair embraced and posed for photos to promote their HBO series "Scenes From a Marriage." Then, Isaac lowered his head and appeared to go in for a kiss on Chastain's arm. The move caused a huge smile from both actors and whistles of excitement from the crowd. After the hot moment, the internet went wild. 

One of the funniest parts was that upon video replay, it looked more like Isaac was smelling Chastain's armpit than trying to kiss her arm. He joked to Entertainment Tonight, "Look, if there's an armpit right next to me ... what else are you supposed to do?" Even though both actors were married to other people in real life, their chemistry partly came from a shared history. Both Isaac and Chastain were students at The Juilliard School, the prestigious New York performance school.

"Oscar and I have been friends — we went to college together," Chastain said in an interview on "Today." "We've been friends more than half of our lives, and we know so much about each other," she explained about the chemistry between her and Isaac. Chastain added, "We know how to make each other laugh without even saying anything. We can almost read each other's minds."

Oscar Isaac showed off his impressive singing and guitar skills in "Inside Llewyn Davis," even alongside professionals like Justin Timberlake. Though Isaac was playing a folk singer, he actually had musical experience in a completely different genre. The actor played in several ska bands, a style popularized by Gwen Stefani and No Doubt. 

One of the bands that Isaac played in was called the "BlinKing Underdogs." In an interview for the "It's Erik Nagel" show, Isaac explained that the group wrote their "Trailer Park" classic about an actual trailer park in Florida. But the band ultimately split up when Isaac left to study in New York. At least one other member found success after the end of BlinKing Underdogs. Isaac said the band's bass player went on to join the music group Orgy on tour.

While talking to The Globe and Mail, Isaac recalled his high school days playing in "crazy punk banks." The future actor admitted that even though that music scene was notorious for debauchery with drugs and alcohol, "Temptation wasn't my thing, so I always felt a bit removed from everything." One reason was because Isaac and his family were evangelical Christians. The young man "aligned himself to the straight-edge movement, a splinter group from the Washington, DC, punk scene," The Telegraph reported. "Sometimes I look back and think maybe I missed out a little. But I had no interest in going off the rails," Isaac confessed.

Oscar Isaac is a man of many faces. With the ability to easily change his hair and beard style, plus his handsome features, Isaac looks like he could be from anywhere. Director Bryan Singer once called Isaac a "global human" based on his appearance and the nationalities he portrayed in entertainment, per The Guardian. As of 2017, Isaac played "European, Egyptian, Polish, English, French, Mexican, East Timorese, Welsh, Indonesian, Greek, Cuban, Israeli, and Armenian" characters. But his true origin is Central America. Isaac was born as Óscar Isaac Hernández Estrada in Guatemala, the son of his father from Cuba and his mom from Guatemala. The family then moved to the United States when Isaac was just five years old.

The actor also expressed a global approach to his portrayals when speaking with Rolling Stone: I'm interested in telling stories about the human experience that are not necessarily just about my personal circumstances. So how do I
navigate that? I feel like I've been able to."

Despite shortening his full name for a simpler stage name, Isaac didn't hide his ethnicity as he started to become more famous. Though the actor explained he loved his family from the two countries, he didn't feel comfortable being the face of Guatemala or Cuba. "No, I don't want to represent," Isaac said about his heritage. "To speak for a group of people is not something I've ever felt comfortable doing," he admitted to The Guardian. According to the actor, "I don't represent anybody except this organism that I happen to be."

Just as his career was starting to take off, Oscar Isaac's mom began struggling with health issues. "At first, we didn't know how ill she was, and she didn't either," Isaac explained to The Guardian. He started to turn down roles to spend more time with her until eventually, she became so ill that he took a break from acting. Isaac remembered that "as things progressed, it was much easier to say no to things. At a certain point, it was like, clearly: 'I'm not going to be doing anything.'" 

It was the right move, as Isaac was able to spend precious time with his mom. The actor brought her as his date to the Golden Globes and the two traveled to Madrid, where Isaac worked on "The Promise." Isaac told The Guardian, "It's like a great movie for moms. ... I showed it to her, and sure enough, she's like: 'I love it, Oscar. I love it.'" He and his mom spent six months together until she died in February 2016.

In addition to the genuine time Isaac spent with his mom, the actor grew closer to his future wife, Elvira Lind. In an interview for GQ, Isaac remembered about Lind, "...my mom was ill, and so I saw her carrying my child, bathing my sick mom — seeing her do that, I just thought: I want to be with this person forever and ever."

Joining the "Star Wars" franchise was life-changing for Oscar Isaac. But instead of starting in a galaxy far, far away, his journey began in France. Director J.J. Abrams invited the actor to the legendary Café de Flore in Paris for a meeting in 2014. Abrams set his sights on Oscar Isaac to play fighter pilot Poe Dameron, a "wonderful, daring, sardonic, brave, loyal," the director told GQ. 

The two sat together at the cafe, and Isaac had a mini audition, reading lines from the script directly off Abrams' iPhone. Reportedly, the two men hit it off and "talked into the night about the story and what the role might become" (per GQ). In the interview, it was mentioned that the role of Poe sounded quite similar to Han Solo in the original trilogy. Abrams allegedly responded, "I would like to think there's room for more than one rogue in 'Star Wars.'"

Isaac joined the cast, but his character wasn't supposed to have a happy ending in the trilogy. Originally, the director planned to kill off Poe. During another talk with Abrams about accepting the role, "I said that I wasn't sure because I had already done that role in other movies where you kind of set it up for the main people and then you die spectacularly," Isaac told Esquire.

In 2016, The Cut declared that Oscar Isaac was the internet's new boyfriend. The charming actor joined a list of other famous boyfriends of the internet, especially British actors, including Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hardy, Tom Hiddleston, and Idris Elba. The general love affair with Isaac started during his press tour for "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." Vanity Fair recapped many of his charming moments with co-stars Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, and Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o — the voice of Maz Kanata.

In an interview for Rolling Stone, Isaac explained what it was like to be the object of desire for so many fans. "The Internet never struck me as being into monogamous relationships," he explained. "It's very promiscuous, the Internet." 

The actor even survived a brief scandal when a Tumblr user posted a photo of Isaac wearing a T-shirt referencing the novel "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. Paper proclaimed about the internet's boyfriend, "we all have to break up with him now." In his defense, Isaac said he just wore the shirt because he thought the design looked cool. He told Rolling Stone about the temporary backlash, "I didn't think wearing the shirt was saying I agreed with all her politics. I'm not a libertarian!"

The story behind Oscar Isaac securing the lead role in "Inside Llewyn Davis" is almost as impressive as the film itself. The Coen brothers' movie was based on "The Mayor of MacDougal Street," a memoir by folk musician Dave Van Ronk. Before auditioning, Isaac was filming a scene for another movie when he spotted a curious extra playing a drunk man. 

"In between takes there was a guitar laying around and he picked it up and started playing. And he was incredible," Isaac remembered in a Rolling Stone interview. Intrigued, Isaac asked the man about his guitar skills, because the audition for "Inside Llewyn Davis" was approaching. According to Isaac, the extra revealed he used to play with Van Ronk. He then invited Isaac to his home and said, "I live on McDougal Street."

The chance encounter continued at the extra's place, where he and Isaac listened to old records of Van Ronk. The man also showed Isaac how to play guitar in the style of the late Van Ronk. "He started teaching me this Travis-style picking, which I was not aware of — didn't know how to do it," Isaac explained. Having found the perfect mentor, Isaac began taking guitar lessons from the man and the two played at open mics in New York City. Then, "the last day before the audition I played for him and then he looked at me and goes 'I see the big guy behind you giving the thumb's up,'" Isaac said.

Few movies can be as high profile as "Star Wars" films, which led to Oscar Isaac's international stardom. But he started in much smaller roles, both in film and television, which you may have missed. Isaac appeared in a 2006 episode of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" in one of his first times on screen. He also played the shirtless Prince John in Ridley Scott's adaptation of "Robin Hood." In the movie "Drive" starring Ryan Gosling, Isaac is the one playing Carey Mulligan's boyfriend. With each role, Isaac honed his craft. "I was focused on getting good, getting better," he told The Globe and Mail. "I always knew it was a matter of time till I got a role I could excel in," he added.

Isaac was a natural in theater too. As a thespian, he played the male lead in "Romeo and Juliet" in the famous Shakespeare in the Park program. Sticking with Shakespeare, he also played the role of Proteus in "The Two Gentlemen of Verona."

Only the most diehard comic book fans could have recognized Isaac in the 2018 animated "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse." During an interview for Wired, fellow actor Pedro Pascal explained how he was confused as to why Isaac was listed as "Interesting Person #1" in the credits. In the after-credits scene, Isaac provided the voice for Miguel O'Hara/Spider-Man 2099.

Oscar Isaac and Elvira Lind welcomed their first child together in 2017. The couple named their son Eugene "in honor of Isaac's mother, whose middle name was Eugenia," People reported. Sadly, Isaac's mom died two months before Eugene was born. When it came time for the birth, Isaac revealed that he felt comfortable in the delivery room. 

During an interview on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" Isaac explained, "I did alright. I worked at a hospital — my dad was a doctor and so I'd kind of been used to some of that." Once his son grew a little older, Isaac told the host what life was like as the dad of a nine-month old. The actor admitted he wasn't getting much sleep those days. Plus, the little guy was super active when awake. "He's crawling. He's moving furniture around," Isaac said about his son. Though the actor admitted that after the holidays in 2017, he realized his apartment was far from baby-proofed. "This is a death trap," Isaac said about his home in New York.

In 2019, Isaac and Lind welcomed their second child, another boy. The actor was 40 years old at the time, per People.

In addition to wowing audiences on screen, Oscar Isaac also impressed with his generosity and participation in philanthropic efforts throughout his career. For example, Isaac appeared in "The Promise." The 2017 film about the "Armenian Genocide in Turkey at the outset of World War I" was extra special in its charitable mission (via The Hollywood Reporter). During the film's run in theaters, all proceeds were donated to "to nonprofit organizations, including the Elton John AIDS Foundation and other human rights and humanitarian groups." 

In an interview for Business Insider, Isaac explained what it was like to work on the movie. "To be a part of something that does shed light on this horror that occurred is very special," he said. "And on top of that, to be part of something that's so philanthropic, where the producers really put their money where their mouths are. One-hundred percent of the proceeds go to charity — that's unheard of," Isaac explained.

As one of the faces of the rebooted "Star Wars" franchise, Isaac helped in a campaign for associated charities. In a video for "Star Wars: Force for Change," the actor bantered with the cute robot BB-8 to help encourage charitable donations. Isaac was also once a speaker at a Letters Live event in London. As reported by the Daily Mail, Isaac appeared on stage in "a series of live performances for charity where celebrities read from letters of note."

After appearances in "Star Wars" and "X-Men" movies, Oscar Isaac talked about his move from indie to high-profile roles. "I believe people can say that I've sold out, but I think there's a different feeling nowadays about 'hey man, you've got to hustle,'" he told Reuters. According to the actor, America "is based on the hustle, hustle for your dollar, whatever you've got to do, and you give props to the person that hustles the most." This hustle certainly paid off for Isaac, who as of 2021, was worth an estimated $10 million.

Even with the impressive bank account, Isaac appeared to not spend much on living arrangements. As of 2017, he lived "in Williamsburg in Brooklyn, in the same one-bedroom apartment he had before he caught the Coen brothers' attention," The Guardian reported. In his modest "single guy's apartment," among Isaac's most prized possessions were his speakers, he said on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" Isaac explained that he had floating speakers equipped for optimal sound but admitted that "if you just kind of touch the stand, they would fall over." Once he had an infant son, Isaac's wife convinced him to remove the potentially dangerous electronics.

As detailed by Esquire, Isaac lived in the one-bedroom apartment with his wife, son Eugene, and "their Boston Terrier French Bulldog-cross Moby." At the time of the interview, the outlet suggested the family was planning an "imminent move to a leafier part of Brooklyn."