Jason Isaacs Is the Master of the Serve

Jason Isaacs does not want to talk about The White Lotus. This is not because he does not revere The White Lotus, or its creator, Mike White—he is a staunch partisan of both. It is because, at present, he has briefly adjourned from acting to become a full-time traveling spokesman for The White Lotus. And upon hearing that yours truly writes frequently about tennis, his fanaticism for the sport alights so acutely that we spend nearly 40 minutes dissecting Patrick Mouratoglou’s UTS League, the preternatural joy of Carlos Alcaraz’s game, and the only career ambition that Isaacs has left to contend with: tennis commentator.

However, as we are in fact convened in the Luxury Collection Hotel in midtown Manhattan to talk about season 3 of The White Lotus—which Isaacs also loves and is currently starring in—we must get down to business. Isaacs joins the Lotusphere as Tim Ratliff, a southern financier and family man on vacation at the series’ namesake resort in Thailand. Eastern-infused tradition abounds, and rich guests are encouraged to set aside both their existential dread and electronic devices during the course of their stay. Instead, Tim spends most of the season’s early episodes skulking around the hotel grounds in dad-on-vacation shorts, holding furtive conversations on the cell phone he’s not supposed to have. Trouble is afoot, and the percussion of anxiety resonating in Tim’s psyche is forming an avalanche.

The 61-year-old Isaacs’s body of work spans decades, including notable turns in The Patriot (2000) Peter Pan (2003), and Black Hawk Down (2001). “I’m old. I’ve been in a lot of things,” he tells me. “Some of them are great, some of them are watchable, and many of them are just absolutely unconscionable.” But when he’s in public, he claims to fly mostly under the radar, even in the midst of Lotus mania. “I have an instantly forgettable face,” he adds. “Which is fine by me.”

When Isaacs is recognized in the wild, it’s usually for his time as Lucius Malfoy, the flaxen-haired patriarch from the eight Harry Potter films, the last of which released in 2011. Lucius was, for the less familiar, head of the semi-villainous Malfoy clan and father to Draco, the snide teen with whom Harry Potter frequently rumbled at Hogwarts. Isaacs does not wear a blonde wig as a matter of lifestyle, but millennial parents always know an early-aughts phenomenon when they see one.

“The kids will have no idea why the fuck they’re being dragged up to the cosmetics aisle in Sephora or wherever it is I’m out getting tampons for my daughter,” he says. “They’re just staring as their parents are going, ‘Do you recognize him? He’s a wizard.’ And they’re going, ‘No, I don’t.’ ”

Ahead of episode 3, which is out now and rife with moments to pick apart on Reddit, Isaacs and I sat down to speak about what it feels like when Mike White’s genius ruins your taste, perfecting Ratliff’s southern drawl, and the third-greatest day of his life.

Florence Sullivan“This third season of White Lotus is about the spiritual obstacle course I engaged with a long time ago,” Isaacs says. “How do I feel grateful every day?”

ESQUIRE: How are you feeling about season 3 so far?

JASON ISAACS: They’re all different from each other, but I think it’s certainly the richest, deepest, and most profound season yet. I was amazed watching it—at the things I hadn’t picked up while reading it—there’s not a wasted syllable. Things that seem irrelevant early on all come back. It’s all part of the fabric of the existential themes of the show. Not that Mike ever forgets to shock or amuse, but he’s really dealing with serious questions of identity and self here, particularly through my character and through the prism of rich people who think they can buy themselves spiritual advancement.

You pick Thailand for a reason—not for the palm trees. There’s real monasteries and real meditation. And there’s those who come and bring that Western approach of “Can I find enlightenment in five days? But also, I need a feather pillow.”

Have you ever subjected yourself to a digital detox?

I gave my phone up once. I took my wife and my youngest daughter—our eldest one wouldn’t come—on a white-water rafting trip down the Colorado River. And there were no signals. In fact, there wasn’t even a signal for a satellite phone. For five days, we lived in nature’s rhythms. We slept when the sun went down, we rose when the sun came up, and we washed in the river. It was so beautiful. And I resolved, as all people resolve in that context, to be much more sparing with my phone and switch it off once a day. That lasted about 30 seconds.

Do you meditate?

I don’t meditate. What people get from meditation, I get from two other places in my life—the only two times in my life I’m not thinking a thousand different things. One is when I’m acting, because then I’m in someone else’s moment, and the other is when I’m on the tennis court. All of life is a tennis metaphor, and I have to really work hard to not make everything I say filtered through the prism of what happens on the court. I could make this whole interview about my Thai tennis experience.

Tell me everything.

Playing tennis in Thailand, the conditions were like doing a Tough Mudder course. As soon as you leave your room, all of your clothes are completely soaked. I’d play in the middle of the day and not be able to hold my racquet because of the sweat. Only when I finally started taping all my fingers up in a very elaborate ritual could I hold my racquet. It changed my tennis completely, and now I always want to tape my fingers up. You could cook eggs on those hard courts. I’m not exaggerating for comic effect—the soles of your shoes start to melt out there. But what you have to develop is a style of minimal tennis, one where you think, How quickly can I end the point? A bit like Djokovic when he’s injured or Federer towards the end of his career.

Florence SullivanHow close did Isaacs get to his onscreen children, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sam Nivola, and Sarah Catherine Hook? “I really love those idiots,” he says.

Do you have a two-handed backhand?

No, I’m too old. But now I’m going to show you something. I don’t know what this interview is going to look like—it’s going to be really embarrassing.

It’s going to be great.

I have two children, and there is no question that the greatest days of my life are the days that they were born. However, in very close competition, is this. [Holds up phone.]

Is that Stefanos Tsitsipas?

Yes. That’s me and Stef hitting. He’s been number three in the world.

How did that happen?

There’s a tournament called the Boodles, and the first year I went, I went to this exhibition on the grass courts. I was with Andrew Castle’s daughter, Georgina, who’s an actor and a tennis player, and of course Andrew Castle was a famous British tennis player. I said to the organizers of the tournament, “Any chance we can have a hit after this on the courts there?”

We watched Stefanos play Sascha Zverev, and then a guy came up and said, “I’ve got your racquet and some clothes.” And I went, “Okay, for both of us?” And he said, “Oh, I thought you wanted to play with one of the players. Stefanos is a Harry Potter nut.” My response was, “What?” They hadn’t realized I was just asking if I could hit with Georgina. But I assured them, “Oh no, no, fuck that. I’ll absolutely dump her and I’ll drop her like a dead weight.” And I went down and played with Stef. He’s such a wonderful player.

Florence SullivanThe 61-year-old Isaacs’s body of work spans decades, including standout turns in The Patriot (2000) Peter Pan (2003), and Black Hawk Down (2001).

Before White Lotus, what was your favorite thing you’d worked on?

Mass. It was so emotional and intense and beautiful, and it’s about something I believe in. People completely misunderstood and thought it was a depressing film about a school shooting. It’s not—it’s a very uplifting film about the power of forgiveness and freeing your heart. I like extreme, intense, and emotional experiences. It’s one of the reasons I’m an actor: to be able to walk in other people’s shoes.

When I talk to young actors and they want to talk about their life or career, I’m always saying the same thing: “The journey is everything. Don’t ever do a job because of what you think it’s going to do for you. Don’t ever do anything in life because of what you think is coming down the road.” This third season of White Lotus is about the spiritual obstacle course I engaged with a long time ago. How do I feel grateful every day? How can I be aware of the things I have and try to leave things a bit better than I found them?

Your character, Tim, is from North Carolina. Have you spent time there?

In South Carolina, yes. Just over the border. And I went to North Carolina to eat all the time.

Okay, because the accent that he has—

It’s Durham. It’s not just North Carolina. It’s very specific. The Internet exploded with people going, “This is the worst accent I’ve ever heard in my life.” But then there’s also people from Durham commenting, Spot-on. Or, What are you talking about? He sounds exactly like my dad, or my dentist, or my swim coach, or whomever. So I feel slightly validated, although I can’t pretend that those thousand little barbs don’t hurt. I want to write back to each of them individually, and go, “Listen to this sample, then compare it to my voice.” But it’s not really my job, and I shouldn’t be reading their comments.

The journey is everything. Don’t ever do a job because of what you think it’s going to do for you. What was it like on set?

I became very close to my screen kids, Patrick [Schwarzenegger], Sarah Catherine [Hook], and Sam [Nivola]. I really love those idiots. When we all first arrived, we were at the Four Seasons in Koh Samui, where we shot some of the season. It’s a huge compound, and we took the whole thing over, which meant gigantic luxury villas that came with butlers. The older actors got them. I was given one with Walton [Goggins], but Walton had a side villa of his own that he never left. He sat on his balcony smoking, drinking, and getting into character. He has a very interesting, semi-Method approach to things. His work is brilliant, but he also didn’t really want to come and hang out with me in my giant villa. So the kids would come over almost every day and we would play cards and we would watch movies and we would—

Your fake kids?

My fake kids, yeah. We’d play games, we’d laugh, and we just got to know each other very well. I really came to adore them, and then when my real kids arrived, they wanted to hang out with them because they were young. And suddenly, I realized, Oh, wait, my closest friends on this set are 21 and 28.

What about Mike White?

When people talk about Mike White, they talk about his writing but forget that there’s a billion stages during which telling a story onscreen can go wrong. The music can be wrong, the costumes can go wrong. Anything can knock it out. I had a wig once in a show that looked like a placenta, and even if the rest of the show had been arrived from God, it was still unwatchable because of this wig.

Mike oversees everything. And he directs the actors with such a gentle touch, like a cranial osteopath. You go in for cranial osteopathy and you think, “Wait, we’re paying for this? The guy’s barely touched my head.” But a light touch makes all the difference, all the subtleties of characterization and tone. I think that Mike might really have peaked on episode 8. It doesn’t mean that next season won’t be great too, but I can’t wait to see episode 8.

Florence Sullivan“Be aware–and this is not telling you anything about what’s coming up—Mike has gotten richer and bolder,” warns Isaacs of The White Lotus season 3’s home stretch.

You haven’t seen the finale?

I’ve seen the same as you: episodes 1 through 6. I haven’t seen the others. I’ve read them. I skim-read them once when I was first offered [the role], and only my own scenes. I didn’t want to know what happened to other people because a) my character didn’t know, but b) I’m a fan of White Lotus and I want to watch it. But after seeing the first batch of episodes, I was absolutely salivating for the others. I was furious they wouldn’t send them to me. I wanted to blackmail them…. Who would you kill?

Maybe Michelle Monaghan’s character, Jaclyn?

I don’t know if you’re saying that as a question, but you’re going to get nothing from me.

Honestly, I have no idea.

It’s not like [White] kills people who deserve it or people who don’t deserve it. There’s no pattern to who he decides dies. Be aware—and this is not telling you anything about what’s coming up—Mike has gotten richer and bolder. I don’t mean richer with money. I mean more textured as a writer, empowered to explore whatever he wants, however he wants. It doesn’t stop him from entertaining. But it does mean that he’s always been too clever to repeat himself.

He’s a good enough writer that there are these micro and macro stories that live side by side. The only thing that I regret about doing this is that it’s totally spoiled me. I’m lucky. I’m an actor who does occasionally get work, and everything that comes in, I read it and go, “Well, that’s not Mike White. That’s not as good as the thing I’ve just finished. So I’ve barely done anything since we wrapped, and the things that are on offer to me right now I’m not inclined to do. I think, Wait a second. Have I literally shifted professions? All I do is now tell people how great Mike White is and give interviews about it. Should I go back to work?

Photographed by Florence Sullivan

Styling by Gareth Scourfield

Grooming by Rheanne White

Shot at The Luxury Collection Hotel Manhattan Midtown.