Jason Isaacs

How did you get into acting?

Oh bloody hell. I don't know. I think I was probably always a liar; I just get paid for it now. I went to university and I was a bit out of my depth, socially. I was surrounded by a lot of very posh people. They all sounded like Hugh Grant and I didn't. In the first week I auditioned for a play, drunk, in the day I was joining all the clubs, I was joining the wine and cheese and parachuting club as well. I just loved it, I just loved everything about the group of people you were suddenly very intense with and how you were unpicking what made human beings tick, together, and there was a place to go to every night, as opposed to the bar. I haven't ever really fallen out of love with that process, researching who people are, what they do and why they do it and telling stories.

How do you feel when you're performing?

In the moment of acting you don't feel like anything, you feel like the person, as much as you can. It's all a trick of the imagination. As far as I can, as much as I can force myself to or allow myself to, I feel like Jackson Brodie when I'm being Jackson. I feel as much like the character as I can allow myself to relax into, so I feel angry, upset, driven, curious, whatever the hell it is. I feel like them. I mean that's the game of it. It's a game, it's all play. It's not something you put on, it's something hopefully you allow out.

full PBS interview here.