It's pretty easy to fool Poe Dameron. Before Oscar Isaac joined the Star Wars galaxy with The Force Awakens, he got pranked by his A Most Violent Year co-star Albert Brooks. Apparently Brooks would be a solid recruit for The First Order -- Isaac said the veteran actor got him good when pretending to be Episode VII director J.J. Abrams:
I was doing A Most Violent Year, and I found out that J.J. [Abrams] wanted to meet with me for a part and that I needed to fly to Paris. I remember, I actually still have the voice message saved, 'cause I remember in between shooting I got a message from an unknown caller, and it was a voice. It was like, 'Hey Oscar, it's J.J. Ya know, you don't have to come all the way out to Paris. What're you gonna do, play a droid? You don't need to be doing that. Actually, this is Albert Brooks.' Because Albert was in the movie, so he really had me going for a second there, and I'm very happy that I still have that voice message. But yes, then I ended up going out to Paris and I met with [J.J.] and Kathy Kennedy and Lawrence Kasdan.
Nice. It's always fun to read about on-set shenanigans, and it sounds like Albert Brooks' prank call was well executed. Props to him for that.
Oscar Isaac shared his Albert Brooks anecdote while breaking down some of his most memorable film characters for GQ. Most of his conversation about A Most Violent Year was praise for Jessica Chastain. But when the conversation turned to Star Wars, this memory -- and saved voicemail -- immediately sprung to mind.
Still talking about The Force Awakens, Oscar Isaac continued to say what happened next in his audition with Kathleen Kennedy and Lawrence Kasdan. They pitched him this heroic character who died spectacularly, since that was the original plan for Poe Dameron.
As Oscar Isaac previously explained, when faced with that character trajectory, he was conflicted. On one hand, it's Star Wars! On the other hand, he had just done that kind of thing with The Bourne Legacy, when he set things up for the main characters, then died in a spectacular way. When he called the producers back to say he would take the role, they said they had changed their minds and Poe would now be in the entire movie.
Resistance X-wing fighter pilot extraordinaire Poe Dameron ended up being a fan favorite, so we're glad it all turned out this way. Poe not only survived Episode VII, he returned for The Last Jedi, and we know we'll be seeing him again in Episode IX next year.
In the same GQ video, Oscar Isaac spoke about his "excruciating" experience filming X-Men: Apocalypse. Thankfully, life as Poe Dameron does not sound as rough. He'll fly back onto screens with director J.J. Abrams in Star Wars: Episode IX on December 20, 2019. Here are more movie releases to look forward to in 2019.
