Jason Isaacs gets his own back

Jason Isaacs was sure he knew why he'd been summoned to Los Angeles for a meeting about The Patriot. 'The star is wavering,' he thought. 'It's to make someone else sign,' he was convinced. 'It was obviously going to go to someone else.' Hollywood up to its old tricks? A self-effacing but not unreasonable assumption. But there was no star with cold feet, no one holding out for more money.

Just Jason Isaacs up for the role of Colonel Tavington, sadistic British commander of the dragoons during the American War Of Independence. 'So I went in and did the scene, then asked to do it again but they wouldn't let me,' says the very familiar face from British TV and films Brit, Hollywood and gigantic (eg Armageddon). 'I was thinking, "I've flown 6,000 miles and you won't let me do it again. Either I've got this or more likely this was a complete waste of time."'

Clearly, the team behind Independence Day and Godzilla (director Roland Emmerich and producer Dean Devlin) had recognised Isaacs's talent but made him sweat it out for two weeks before informing him. The Los Angeles Times was also impressed, calling Isaacs a 'wonderfully convincing villain, possibly the year's best' while Time gushed about his 'ferocious candour'. In person, of course, Isaacs could not be less villainous. 'I was always the bullied, never the bully. I've had punches thrown at me many times but I've never thrown one back, so this was a great piece of catharsis for me.'

Isaacs, 37, is still high from this particular filming experience, so much so that he confesses he could get 'quite soppy' just talking about it. There is nothing soppy, though, about the real soldier on whom Tavington is based, Colonel Tarleton, whom Isaacs calls 'a big war hero back in England.' He wrote his memoirs after the war which were best-sellers. But he was pretty much the most despised and unpopular soldier in the whole conflict. His famous boast was that he had killed more men and f***ed more women than anyone else in the conflict. Sadly, they weren't keen on filming that latter part.'

As for criticism that The Patriot's portrayal of the British officers is inaccurate and overly sadistic, Isaacs does not concur. 'This film doesn't represent the Brits as being an appalling and evil force. And if you look at any of our war conduct abroad, it doesn't bear too much scrutiny anyway. Look at Arthur "Bomber" Harris. He's a huge hero in Britain but ask the residents of Dresden how they feel about him. What this film represents is my being an appalling and evil man. Lord General Cornwallis [Tom Wilkinson] wants to conduct the war in a civil way, as civilised as wars can ever be.' As for treading the overly worn path of English villains in Hollywood films, Isaacs retorts that 'if you're making a film about the American Revolution, you don't really have a choice. A gentle and sensitive Englishman would kill the movie. And one of the good things with my character is that you do see him stripped down and humiliated by Cornwallis - so I found him to be quite three-dimensional. And great fun, of course.'

While Gibson was obviously the biggest star in sight by a mile, Isaacs reports, 'There were no shows of ego at all. If you were making the sandwiches and had a good idea for a scene, you could collaborate. Mel, for instance, did every bit as much work for me off-camera as he did on-camera - big stars don't usually show up for that kind of stuff. He asks everyone on set questions and listens. He sees someone with a bad back, he gives them a massage.' And he plays practical jokes galore, right? Wrong. Isaacs thinks that reputation 'doesn't characterise' Gibson at all. 'If you saw him on set, you'd see him telling these terrible crap jokes, laughing loudly all the time and laughing twice as loud at other people's even worse jokes. But it's all done with a serious intent because acting is play. You have to keep yourself loose and irresponsible and childish, even when you're doing a serious part. When Mel and I have this big fight scene, it's "chop, chop, slash, blow, punch". If you go, "Oh f***, I was meant to head-butt there, sorry can we stop?" they'd probably go, "No problem. We'll just reset those 200 horses and put that building back up and tell those thousand guys to go back over the hill." You can't do that so you have to free yourself of any tension that might cause you to.'

Serious stuff. But Isaacs might have been doing a serious job for real had he not been side-tracked while studying law at Bristol University. Shortly after enjoying his 'first encounter with subsidised alcohol' he 'was staggering round the student union building in those early weeks when they try to get innocent young students to part with money and join all these clubs and societies. So I joined the hang-gliding club and various others and ended up wandering into an audition.' They asked if he could do a Liverpool accent and, being a Scouser, he was hired on the spot. 'A big mistake because I'd never done any acting before but this director took me aside every day and taught me about acting.'

Corny as it sounds, Isaacs found himself. 'I could release myself into acting in a way that I was not released socially.' He had not initially warmed to university life where, it seemed, he was surrounded by 'all these Ampleforth boys who were used to living away from home, having bank accounts and sleeping with people. I wasn't even used to the sex. They all seemed to be having so much of it.'

Dispensing with all legal aspirations once he completed his degree, Isaacs attended London's Central School Of Speech And Drama and began scoring professional acting jobs almost immediately. He starred in two series of Capital City and made his film debut in The Tall Guy opposite Emma Thompson and Jeff Goldbum. He has since starred in The End Of The Affair, Dragonheart, Event Horizon, Soldier and Shopping. And, of course, Armageddon which remains his biggest and most bemusing Hollywood experience to date. On being offered a role in the film, Isaacs was told he would need to start work the following Tuesday. Responding that he had five weeks to go on the film Divorcing Jack, Isaacs remembers 'a horrible silence down the phone from America, followed by someone saying, "I don't think you understand. This is a Bruce Willis project." And I said, "I don't think you understand. This is a David Thewlis project."' So badly was Isaacs still wanted that he was offered a different role, a smaller one that would accommodate his schedule.

The first day he arrived on set, put his Professor Quincy suit on and did his scene, much to the apparent delight of director Michael Bay. 'He said, "That was great. How did you do that? I said 'action' and you were like this totally different guy. Is that theatre training?" Of course, I thought he was kidding. Then he said, "Are you on the whole shoot? We need you on the whole shoot." So I was there every day hanging around Billy Bob Thornton with a clipboard. No time off, no extra lines, no extra money. It totally sucked.' Except for Billy Bob - 'a hilarious, totally filthy man. He kept me sane.'

Isaacs, it seems, does not need to keep himself sane, though his BBC documentary-maker girlfriend of '12 1/2 years' might have something to do with it. He is sweet, charming, funny and normal, insisting his own life feels 'very safe and boring' compared with the ones he lives on screen. 'I get to lead these extraordinary existences vicariously. I mean, I've never had a fight, never killed anyone, never been killed, obviously. And I haven't had anything like the kind of wild sex I've had with men, women and beasts on screen and stage.'

On that kinky note, Isaacs has to leave to return to the San Francisco set of his new film Sweet November starring Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron. 'I'm in drag in it and currently learning to walk up those steep hills in high heels and deciding how big my boobs should be which is the subject of much artistic debate at the moment. If they match the size of my shoulders, they'll be enormous.' Rather like Jason Isaacs's career prospects right about now.