Oscar Isaac on Human-Robot Sex and 'Star Wars' Droids
Domhnall Gleeson and Oscar Isaac in ‘Ex Machina’ (A24)
Oscar Isaac has spent parts of the last five months giving interviews, ostensibly in support of December’s period crime drama A Most Violent Year and the sci-fi drama Ex Machina, which hits theaters on Friday. During every interview, however, Isaac has also engaged in a sort of journalistic cat-and-mouse game with reporters looking for any sort of insight about his role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the very secretive sequel that isn’t out for another eight months.
“They’ve all got little clever ways to try to get me to say something,” Isaac reflected during a conversation with Yahoo Movies in New York. “They ask me like, how does my character in Star Wars compare to my character, Nathan, in Ex Machina? And they don’t.”
So, consider this a little scoop, because we aren’t beneath trying to get insider info ourselves: Poe Dameron, who we glimpsed piloting an X-wing fighter in the first Force Awakens trailer, is nothing at all like Nathan, the tech genius billionaire Isaac plays in Ex Machina. In the new drama, Nathan locks himself away in a remote bunker for years to create next-level artificial intelligence in the form of alluring robots (one played by Alicia Vikander) who he programs, among other things, to have sex with him. Then, in the form of a twisted social experiment, he invites a young programmer (Domhnall Gleeson, who happens to star in The Force Awakens as well) to come down to the bunker to meet his creation.
Ex Machina, written and directed by Alex Garland (28 Days Later, Sunshine), is a small and claustrophobic film that asks a lot of big questions; namely, how much should we feel for a robot if it looks like a human — especially one as enchanting as Vikander? Isaac spoke with Yahoo Movies about the film’s big philosophical themes, learning how to green-screen act for Star Wars, and how he got another one of his new high-profile franchise roles: the baddie Apocalypse in next year’s X-Men: Apocalypse. There’s also an exclusive clip from the film, as an extra treat.
In Ex Machina, you’re playing a genius, billionaire tech mogul, the founder of the next Google/Facebook. Was there any real mogul you had in mind?
No, I went to different places. This guy, Nathan…he’s a savant. [But] there was something street smart about him that I liked. That led to me to someone like Bobby Fischer. He was from the Bronx, self-taught genius chess player, but really f—ed up. And then Stanley Kubrick was another person who was also from the Bronx, also self-taught, also a genius at chess and a genius photographer, and an incredible person. It was a mesh of those two guys with a lot of the bro billionaire talk.
What’s the best and most engaging way to show someone thinking on screen, beyond having the person talk his thoughts out loud?
I think speed of thought is important. Something that I did — and it wasn’t super pleasant for either Domhnall or myself — I actually have a friend who is a brilliant brilliant physicist, who drinks a little too much. One of the things that he does is that he rarely lets anyone finish their sentence. He’s right on top of it, he knows where you’re going. I also played a lot of chess before and during the shoot. I’m not great, but it just gave me the feeling, the actual sensation of having to think moves ahead.
Are audiences supposed to care about the robot in the movie? In a way, the movie lets the audience participate in a Turing test: Do you see the robots as people and care about how they feel?
I’d definitely say the movie sides with the robot. I think the robot to a certain extent is a victim in the situation. It makes you just question what consciousness is. When you say “OK, the machine is not human, we know it’s not human. But it can think and feel, so therefore, does it have rights automatically?” Just because it wants to get out [of the laboratory], is that enough of a reason to let it out? And then you think, “How important is consciousness?” Don’t dogs have consciousness? So you say, “Yeah but that’s a lesser consciousness.” But so what?
I remember seeing the movie Her and thinking, ‘Well, I guess if he’s happy with Samantha, the Siri-like ‘bot, then good for him.’
It forces you to make an argument. So you say, “It’s not cool because he’s not actually interacting with a person.” Well, what’s a person? They have to have a body. Well, what if they’re physically a vegetable, but they can still think, are they still a person? Or, what if you could take out a brain and put it in a box, is that still a person?
Oscar Isaac in ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ (Lucasfilm/Disney)
I’m curious how people will respond to the sex with the droids.
In Star Wars you mean.
That’s a big spoiler!
Ooops!
But really, do you wonder how people will respond to Nathan having sex with robots he’s made?
For him, you can’t have consciousness without sexuality. Those things are not mutually exclusive, he believes. So if I make a robot, I need to give it sexuality. If I’m going to give it sexuality, I’m not hanging out with anyone else, so I might as well make them hot and have sex with them. And by having sex with them, I increase their consciousness. It’s super dark, especially if you believe they’re self-aware. Do they want to have sex? Does it then become robot rape? It definitely opens up all those things, but Nathan is unrestricted with any kind of moral questions at that point.
We debate whether artificial intelligence is human or not, but then if C3PO or R2-D2 gets threatened, you get stressed or sad if they get hurt—
Exactly.
But then you think, they’re just tin and metal, really.
And then suddenly they’ll rip an arm off, and you’re like, “Oh no!” But then you’re like, “He doesn’t seem to be that much in pain, so what are we looking at here?”
I know Alicia Vikander had motion capture scenes in Ex Machina, so you’re acting against her in real life. But then you go act against a droid or a prop in Star Wars, is that hard to get in the mind space?
Not really. It’s all make believe. With whomever I’m acting, whether it’s a droid or Alicia or whoever, you’re putting yourself in those imagined circumstances. It’s the same muscle that you have to work.
Even if they don’t give something back?
Well, of course it’s more helpful — I’ve worked with some actors that are way, way less alive than the robots, so you never know what you’re going to get. But it’s usually more fun when you don’t know what’s coming at you.
And green screen is another new challenge. Was that difficult the first time?
A little bit, yeah, because it’s an extra layer of self-consciousness that you have to get over. But the trick is always to get yourself to a slightly more childlike state where you could be anywhere and believe in this make believe thing you’re doing.
You have so much going on. Your schedule must be insane. X-Men: Apocolypse is next, right?
I have some down time, but I’ll start that up next month in Montreal.
You were a fan of the maniacal ancient villain, Apocalypse, who you will be playing, right?
X-Factor was the first comic book that I collected as a kid. And not a ton of them, because — and I’m still this way — serial entertainment is a little tough for me because I have commitment issues. So like six episodes in I’m like OK, that’s good. But yeah, I was a big fan of it. But also I was obsessed with the End of Times and The Revelation, so when I saw a comic book that was an embodiment of the second coming and the end of the world, I was like, woah!
Did you go after the role or did they come to you?
A little bit of both. I definitely was like, “Hey man, I’m really into this character. I don’t know if he’s going to be in anything but it seems like he’ll be the logical next villain so let me know if that comes up.” And they were like, “Yeah he did come up, and you’re at a place now where they’re kind of interested in you.”
Are you ready for Star Wars and X-Men to make your blow up, fame-wise?Yeah, you also can never tell how things are going to do or what things are going to be. And I think for me too is what’s fun is that I like to physically change quite a bit from role to role too. And also with my body of work at this point, I’m not concerned that I’ll be put in this box.
Watch the trailer for ‘Ex Machina’ below:
