White Lotus star Jason Isaacs calls out superstar as 'worst bully ever' as he details 'bad behavior' on set

Jason Isaacs, the British actor known for his prolific career alongside Hollywood's biggest names, got candid about the troubling 'bad behavior' he's witnessed on set throughout his decades in Tinseltown.
At 62, Isaacs boasts an impressive resume, having starred in major films such as Armageddon with Ben Affleck and Bruce Willis, The Patriot with Mel Gibson, Black Hawk Down with Josh Hartnett, 2014's Fury with Brad Pitt, and, perhaps most famously, the Harry Potter franchise alongside a host of A-list stars.
Isaacs shared stories about some of the wild antics and difficult experiences he's had with co-stars, including one prominent actor who once pushed him out of a shot, in a revealing interview with Vulture.
'Oh Jesus. Did worse than that. Was the worst bully ever and a global icon,' Isaacs said.
He continued. 'Did all the old tricks of doing a completely different performance off-camera than on.
'Yeah, it sucked. I'd never seen anything like it. Before, I would've licked the ground that this person walked on.'
He didn't stop there, describing other examples of toxic behavior on set.
'Mostly, what I judge on set is bad behavior,' he continued. 'It's selfishness, cruelty, bullying, or people complaining to the person who's getting them dressed, who doesn't get in a year what they earn in a day to pick their filthy underwear off the floor.
'That, or not turning up, or going home early, or thinking they know better than the director, or being on crack and calling prostitutes to their trailer.
'I come across all that stuff.'
When asked why he didn't name any of the offenders, Isaacs explained, 'I'm not so stupid as to even give hints or clues about who those people are.'
He added, 'Because I have stories. I know where all the bodies are buried.
'I often fantasize about doing a junket and telling the truth, and when I win the lottery, possibly that will be the case.'
However, Isaacs emphasized that exposing the truth about colleagues or on-set experiences serves little purpose beyond self-sabotage, noting, 'Acting is all about secrets.'
In the same interview, Isaacs, who appears in the third season of the hit HBO series Whire Lotus as wealthy businessman Timothy Ratliff, revealed just how much he and his castmates were paid per episode.
'That's absolutely true,' he told the outlet, confirming that they earned $40,000 per episode.
He added, 'Generally actors don't talk about pay in public because it's ridiculously disproportionate to what we do — putting on makeup and funny voices — and just upsets the public
'But compared to what people normally get paid for big television shows, that's a very low price.'
Still, Isaacs admitted he was just as excited as fellow cast members— like Patrick Schwarzenegger and Parker Posey —to join the buzz-worthy series.
'But the fact is, we would have paid to be in it. We probably would have given a body part.'
Isaacs was asked whether, given his long resume, he had any complicated feelings about earning the same as less-experienced actors like Schwarzenegger.
He replied, 'Do I mind that I wasn't paid more than other people? I never work for money. I mean, I've done all right.
'People will think I have huge stockpiles of money but sadly, what I've done rather immaturely is expand my outgoings to match my incomings and pretty much spent everything I've earned over the years.'

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The Guardian

18 minutes ago

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‘It's hard to find work': Marlee Matlin on making Hollywood history but waiting for change

In 1987, at the age of 21, Marlee Matlin became the youngest person ever to win a best actress Oscar. Footage of her victory appears early in Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, a new documentary on the trailblazing actor's life and career: Matlin, remarkably fresh-faced even for 21, in her very 80s purple dress, her brunette hair swept up by a floral headpiece, black-rimmed glasses on, appears stunned as William Hurt, her co-star in Children of a Lesser God and her boyfriend at the time, reads her name. Thunderous applause. The camera captures fellow nominee Jane Fonda mouthing 'that's so great' as Matlin, the first and still only deaf actor to win the award, approaches the podium and kisses Hurt. As she delivers her speech in American Sign Language (ASL), she seems almost too shocked to emote, overcome with the gravity of the moment. Matlin's win was indeed groundbreaking, a watershed moment for deaf representation. 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'I wanted to return to her Oscar-winning moment twice,' Stern, a deaf actor herself, told me through an interpreter, 'because sound does limit people. There are a lot of things that I feel hearing people miss when they are just listening with their ears and not listening with their eyes.' When I first watched Matlin's win, I assumed, as Stern expected, that 'it's this roaring applause, so we're celebrating'. Without sound, the picture is clearer. 'You could see in that moment how scary it is,' said Stern. 'And it's right there. It's been in front of us this whole time.' Stern's intrinsic understanding of the deaf perspective was the reason Matlin, who went on to a long career on such shows as Seinfeld, The West Wing, The L Word and, most recently, the Oscar-winning film Coda, decided to make the film at all. 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42 minutes ago

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Daily Mail​

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• Daily Mail​

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