-Welcome back to "Late Night." We're here with Oscar Isaac.
Like a lot of Juilliard graduates,
you've already managed to mention that you went there.
-Yup. [ Laughter ]
Number one rule of Juilliard, always talk about Juilliard.
-But you were writing and performing in
your own plays as a kid.
This made sense.
-I did. I did.
Yeah, I wrote play, a musical in fifth grade
where I played a platypus.
I went to a Christian school. -Uh-huh.
-And so it was about Noah's ark. -Oh, wow.
So you played a --
It was Noah's ark from a platypus's perspective?
-Yeah, from a doubtful platypus, because he just didn't buy it.
-Oh, that's a very good take.
-Yeah, I had to have some conflict.
-For a fifth grader, yeah. -Yeah.
-So all the other animals were on board but the platypus?
-The platypus was like, "Uh-uh, I don't believe this crap."
And then he drowns.
[ Laughter ] -Does he really?
-That's what God does.
-Oh, wow. -No, no, he doesn't drown.
He, luckily, you know, made a --
-Yeah, I bet at the last minute, he was like, "Oh, yeah."
Because I will say, that's a risky animal to say,
"I'm not coming."
Because the way a platypus looks,
I think they're like, "We're fine.
I think we can be fine without a platypus."
-Right, right. Yeah.
-And you made your own films as well?
-Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, as I showed at the "SNL" thing.
-Yeah.
-I was really into karate movies, so I would
do a lot of videos of me just like, kicking my friends.
-That's great. -Yeah.
-You know, I was very lucky.
I feel like my parents loved movies.
They loved comedy.
They liked sharing it with their kids.
-Yeah.
-Your dad is the same way, right?
-Big time, yeah. He would always, you know,
this was when we had a Betamax.
He'd come home every Friday night with, like,
a brown case with a new movie in it.
So the video store was always this, like, amazing Mecca.
And we had one down the road called "Hooked on Videos,"
and I'd go there all the time.
And they had a "Street Fighter II" arcade game too,
where I would always play there with my friend.
And I got to know the guy, so he would let me get videos
that I definitely shouldn't have been getting at 11 years old.
-What's an age-inappropriate movie
you watched as an 11-year-old?
-"Deer Hunter." -Yeah, that's not --
-Probably not.
-Almost no one is ever like, "Kids section?
Where do we put it?"
-Yeah. It was right next to "Garfield".
Yeah, that really made an impression,
that whole Chris Walken Russian roulette scene.
-Did you find --
because I feel like because my parents introduced me to,
especially on the comedy side, more adult comedy,
it was very hard for me to watch comedy for kids.
I feel like I outgrew that faster than my peers.
-Yeah, I think after "Deer Hunter,"
"Transformers" was a little difficult to go back to.
-Yeah, yeah.
You're like, "They're not risking anything."
-Where's the Russian roulette scene
with Optimus Prime?
-Right.
We've talked, again, about singing.
You were in a band.
-I was. -Can you verify --
Your band did pretty well. Opened for Green Day.
-Technically. -Okay.
[ Applause ]
-We played --
-They're clapping too much for "technically."
-We played -- [ Laughter ]
Hey, it's more than a lot of people did.
-It's more than a lot of people, that's right.
-We played at the same festival on the same day.
-Okay. -A couple hours apart.
A few hours apart. -Same stage?
-Maybe not the same stage.
[ Laughter ]
I don't remember exactly.
-I feel like you'd remember if it was the same stage.
-Maybe not the same stage.
It may have been a trailer with like,
a little, tiny, like, scaffolding on it.
-Gotcha.
So they were on a stage, and you were on a moving trailer
that pulled in the background.
-At the same time.
-And somebody yelled, "Keep it down!"
So you mentioned you went to a Christian school.
Your family, you had a very religious upbringing.
-I did. How about you? -No, not at all.
-No? -Yeah.
-Just non-believing?
-Yeah, we were just fully non-believing.
The rest of the neighborhood called us the platypuses.
[ Laughter ]
-Uh-huh. But now!
-But now, we're like, "Oh, no, no, no."
-Yeah, yeah. -How did that manifest?
Were there things that you were taught as a kid
that seem weird now, that you had to outgrow?
-[ Laughing ] Yeah, all of it.
All of it was weird. -Yeah.
-And a form of spiritual abuse, I would say.
No, look, there were some really beautiful things as well.
But, yeah, you know.
I think there's a lot of commonality
with a lot of immigrant families that, you know,
come to this country, and they find their community
with these kind of very religious groups.
But it was weird.
It was weird to grow up with exorcisms at home sometimes.
-Like, people would come over them for them?
-Yeah, like, I remember them exorcising my grandma.
-Oh, wow!
-Not like this kind of exercising.
It's like, yeah.
-And did you at the time, as a kid think, like,
"Yeah, they should.
Grandma could use it."
-"Grandma needs an exorcism.
I feel like she's been really annoying lately."
-Yeah, I mean, like, let's at least give it a try.
It can't get worse.
[ Laughter ]
-Yeah, pretty much. Pretty much.
It was a lot of weird stuff. -You grew up in Florida.
Weird jobs before you found your path to being an actor?
-Not many.
Never really been able to do much else.
I worked at a golf club for a couple of months.
-Uh-huh.
-I worked in a movie theater for a couple days.
-Okay.
-The longest job I had was as a transporter at a hospital.
-Okay. How did you get a job like that?
-Because my dad worked at the hospital as a doctor.
-Okay. So he got you a job? -He got me a job.
Right after high school,
I was going to community college in Miami
and working as a transporter.
So I would take, like, bodies to the morgue.
-Wow! -Yeah.
-That seems like --
I guess I don't know why I'm surprised that would be
something that somebody who had just got hired did.
[ Laughter ]
But then, I guess on the other hand...
-You're not going to hurt them. -Yeah, exactly.
[ Laughter ] -You know?
-That's a good point. -Yeah, right?
You know what was interesting, is that they would put them --
they had a very special stretcher.
It looks like a regular stretcher,
but you'd put the body underneath
so nobody would know. -Oh.
-When you're, like, wheeling it around.
-So like room service food. -Yeah, exactly.
It was like, to keep it warm. -Yeah, yeah.
[ Laughter ]
-That was my first job, actually.
Like, when I arrived my first day.
-Uh-huh.
-They were like, "Alright, you're going to go with Sam
to bring the body down to the morgue."
-How many would you --
Now this is a weird question that sounds like
this is what I've wanted to ask the whole time
you've been out here.
-How many bodies?
-How many would you say you brought down there?
-"How many we talking about? [ Laughter ]
Like, more than 50?" -Would you say more than 50?
-What did they smell like?
-Would you like to hang out with some like-minded people?
[ Laughter ]
If I had a Facebook group, would you join?
Anyway, um --
I think the rest of this conversation,
we should have off camera.
I want to say how lovely it is to have you here, as always.
Thank you so much, you guys. -Thank you.
-Oscar Isaac, "Moon Knight," streaming now on Disney Plus.
We'll be right back.