What Languages Does Oscar Isaac Speak?
Naming every actor who has played a major role in a superhero film or TV series would take a while. A few actors have played key roles in the DC and Marvel universes. But only one has portrayed notable superheroes in productions by all three Marvel entertainment studios: Oscar Isaac.
He played Apocalypse in 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse for 20th Century Fox. In 2018, he had a cameo in a post-credits scene of Sony’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, in which he voiced an alternate Spider-Man from the future. And this year, he stars in Marvel Studios’ Moon Knight with an unexpected accent and a sneak peek at another language. It might make you wonder, what languages does Oscar Isaac speak?
Oscar Isaac’s background
Most people know Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron in the Star Wars sequels. The American actor was born in Guatemala City and grew up in Miami. His mother is from Guatemala, and his father is from Cuba.
Isaac first played the X-wing pilot in Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015. He reprised the role in The Last Jedi in 2017 and The Rise of Skywalker in 2019.
Isaac has an impressive resumé, with starring roles in films such as Ex Machina, Inside Llewyn Davis, and Triple Frontier. In addition, he won a Golden Globe in 2015 for his role in the miniseries Show Me a Hero.
Isaac has also produced or executive-produced several projects. One was the acclaimed HBO Max drama Scenes From a Marriage, in which he also starred opposite Oscar-winning actor Jessica Chastain. He earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor – Television Motion Picture.
What languages does Oscar Isaac speak?
In a 2021 Wired video with fellow actor Pedro Pascal, Oscar Isaac answered the internet’s most searched questions. One was, “What languages does Oscar Isaac speak?”
With a flirty raised eyebrow, the actor jokingly replied, “The language of love.”
But in a recent interview with SiriusXM, Oscar Isaac explained he’s bilingual. The actor has had the opportunity to speak Spanish in a few productions. One was filmmaker J.C. Chandor’s A Most Violent Year, which co-starred Chastain. In addition, Isaac spoke a few lines in Spanish in Netflix’s Triple Frontier, which Chandor also directed.
And most recently, the actor uttered some Spanish in Moon Knight (more on that later).
Isaac said he’s grateful for stories where he can use his Spanish skills.
The interviewer also pointed out that Isaac has some Shakespeare experience on his resumé. He portrayed Romeo and Hamlet in New York and explained there’s an art to playing Shakespeare. Isaac attended the prestigious Juilliard, where he “learned to speak Shakespeare” to dissect the flow of dialogue used for the Bard’s characters.
Where did Isaac’s accent in ‘Moon Knight’ come from, and where does he speak Spanish in the Marvel series?
The story behind Oscar Isaac’s British accent in ‘Moon Knight’
Moon Knight debuted on March 30 on Disney+ with Oscar Isaac in the lead role. When he decided to give one of his characters, Steven Grant, a British accent, some fans weren’t pleased. For viewers who didn’t mind, the accent was still the subject of much discussion.
Moon Knight tells the tale of Marc Spector, a man with dissociative personality disorder who created another personality, Steven Grant, to cope with childhood abuse. He’s also the superhero Moon Knight, an avatar for the Egyptian moon god Khonshu.
The kerfluffle over Steven’s accent began with the release of the first trailer for the series. Though the teaser promised an exciting ride, the internet wasn’t prepared for Steven Grant to speak with a British accent. Some commenters suggested the accent could be purposefully bad because Steven is a figment of Marc’s imagination.
If Steven thought he was from Britain, it was possible his backstory was made up. Marc uses an American accent, implying he’s from the United States.
Using the British accent was Isaac’s idea. According to Moon Knight writer Jeremy Slater, the actor wanted a way to differentiate between the two identities. In an interview with Empire, Slater explained that an early script illustrated the difference between the two identities using only mannerisms.
Isaac took it a step further with the varied accents. Moon Knight director Mohamed Diab has said every facet of Isaac’s performance was deliberate.
In the same interview with Empire, Isaac defended the decision to use the accent. The actor explained it was never meant to be an authentic British accent — it was the character’s take on the accent.
The actor said he stood by the “sound of Steven 100%.” He explained it wasn’t without reason. The accent was a statement about where Steven was from, where he’s living, and his assumed heritage.
Where does the actor speak Spanish in ‘Moon Knight’?
You’ll have to watch the post-credits scene of the Moon Knight season finale to hear Oscar Isaac utter one line of dialogue in Spanish. The scene reveals yet another of Marc Spector’s alter egos, Jake Lockley, who says, “Today is your turn to lose,” in Spanish.
As with Steven Grant’s accent, Isaac deliberately chose to have Jake speak another language.
“I saw an opportunity to bring something of myself to it that’s not just trying to pay service to some idea that was in the comics — the thought of, ‘He’s just going to have the one line that he speaks; it should be in Spanish,'” he explained to Marvel.com.
“There’s something that’s ominous about him, the kind of control that he has versus, you know, both Marc and Steven that have been so off foot. It just feels like it was just a really fun chance to let the instinct of, after having played these two guys, imagining what else could be in there and the excitement of shooting that scene.”
The complete first season of Moon Knight is streaming on Disney+.
