Moon Knight actor Oscar Isaac nearly turned down the chance to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe because of his time in the Star Wars galaxy.
"I had so much hesitation. So much," Isaac told THR. "I was like, 'I just finally got out of a long time of being a part of the Star Wars universe,' which I loved doing, but it definitely took up a lot of my time. So I was excited to get back to more character studies and smaller films. But this came my way, and my instinct at first was like, 'This is probably not the right thing to do.' But there was just something about the Steven character that was speaking to me a little bit."
Isaac played Resistance pilot Poe Dameron in all three of the Star Wars sequel movies. The character was originally supposed to die in 2015's The Force Awakens, but Isaac convinced director J.J. Abrams to allow him to live. By 2019's The Rise of Skywalker, Poe had risen to the rank of General and led the Resistance's aerial assault on Exegol to engage Emperor Palpatine's Sith Eternal Forces.
In Moon Knight, Isaac plays Steven Grant, a British gift shop worker who suffers from dissociative identity disorder. Grant's other personalities include the ex-mercenary Marc Spector and the superhero alter-ego Mr. Knight. Some scenes in the show require Isaac to perform opposite himself as different personalities converse, and Isaac found this to be the most challenging aspect of filming Moon Knight. "I think probably the biggest challenge [in Moon Knight] was sometimes I was acting with myself," Isaac confirmed. "And I think the technical aspects of figuring out how to do those scenes, how to do the choreography for those scenes, that was a big technical challenge."
The character of Moon Knight was created by Doug Moench and Don Perlin and first appeared in the 1975 comic Werewolf by Night #32. When it came to bringing Grant to live action, Isaac was instrumental in the character's development. The actor explained that he created a version of Grant that he practiced at home, and although it wasn't the same Grant as seen in the script, Marvel adapted despite initial reservations. "[T]hey didn't know what the hell I was doing," Isaac said of the reaction of Marvel Studios President, Kevin Feige. "And they weren't sure it was going to work at all. But you know, in the end I'm glad we did that, because everyone says it kind of makes the show."
Moon Knight premieres on Disney+ on March 30.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter