Oscar Isaac has opened up on researching to prepare to take on the role of Moon Knight in the Marvel series of the same name, streaming on Disney+ from today (March 30).
Protagonist Marc Spector aka Moon Knight is a mercenary living with dissociative identity disorder. In a recent interview with 'Fandom', Isaac explained he wanted to make sure the protagonist's mental health condition would take center stage in the series.
Oscar Isaac On How He Prepared To Play Someone With Dissociative Identity Disorder In 'Moon Knight'
"We had a lot of discussions about [Moon Knight's psychology] because I think it's important that his disorder wasn't just his backstory or a plot point but actually was the entire focus of the whole thing," Isaac said.
He said he researched the language of those living with dissociative identity disorder, finding it "very dreamlike and symbolic".
"That the language of the show, the language of the storytelling, was all connected to what is happening to him internally; the internal struggle," Isaac continued.
"And I found that the more research I did about dissociative identity disorder, the more I saw that the actual language used is very dreamlike and symbolic … there's talk about organizing principles; sometimes they're a castle or a labyrinth, witches, dark clouds, forces, so already the language used to describe the feeling of that internal struggle is quite mythological.
"I found that if we could key into that and connect everything that’s happening in some symbolic way to that internal struggle we would succeed."
Oscar Isaac Has Played Another Marvel Character Prior To Moon Knight
The role of Moon Knight isn't the first Marvel role Isaac has played. In 2016, the actor played villain the titular villain in 'X-Men: Apocalypse', a role he said he had always been attracted to.
"I was really into Apocalypse because I grew up in a very religious household [where] all they'd talk about was the end of the world, the actual apocalypse," Isaac said.
"So for me, that there was a comic-book character that was the villain that symbolized the apocalypse, the four horsemen and all that, it just freaked me out, so I was really attracted to him."
Debuting today on Disney+, 'Moon Knight' also stars Ethan Hawke in the role of Arthur Arrow and Maya Calamawy in that of Layla El-Faouly.