A few months ago, I pointed out how actor Jason Isaacs was wearing everywhere the yellow ribbon, which signifies a demand that Hamas release our hostages, unlike almost all other celebrities.
New York Magazine recently interviewed him, and the subject came up:
Your parents ended up emigrating to Israel in 1988 when you were in university. You wore a yellow pin honoring the October 7 Israeli hostages at The White Lotus premiere in February.
I always wear it if I’m on a red carpet and a press line.
Public sentiment on Gaza seems to have shifted a lot since then. I wonder where you are right now on the issue?
Where I am is either a full magazine or no comment about it, because two or three sentences in a profile are not enough to deal with the issues. I wear the hostage pin because there are innocent people who were taken from their homes. Most of them are peace activists who lived in border communities where they were ferrying sick kids to hospitals and working with people from Gaza constantly. There are Holocaust survivors, there are children who were taken, there are people being starved and tortured and raped who have no access to the Red Cross. People are rightfully talking and thinking about all the civilians that are in danger everywhere else. But those people in tunnels, it’s now 600 days they’ve been there, they’ve been forgotten entirely. And so I wore the pin once and the hostages’ families got in touch with me and they thanked me enormously. I now am aware that they are watching me and that it matters to them. If my son or sister or daughter or father was being kept in a tunnel somewhere and weighed 25 kilos now, or may have been strangled or shot, and it felt important to me that some actors somewhere wore the yellow hostage pin, then who am I to not wear it?—
The argument that you make for the ribbon is a humane one. Why don’t you think more actors have worn them?
Because just for wearing it, I’ve been called a Zionist baby killer, a Zionazi. Even a yellow hostage pin for innocents is deemed political, which it isn’t.
Jason also had some very interesting things to say about his relationship with his The Patriot co-star Mel Gibson:
Playing the evil redcoat William Tavington in Emmerich’s The Patriot in 2000 was considered your breakout role. I’ve gotten the sense that you have complicated feelings about the movie’s star, Mel Gibson. Given what he’s said about Jews, it surprises me that you seem to like him.
He was very charming personally, and he’s intelligent and self-deprecating. He’s said and done some things that are unconscionable and unforgivable. I was invited by my friend to some charity cricket event for Australians in film. And he said, “If you come, Mel will.” And I said, “I don’t want to see Mel.” I hadn’t seen him since that terrible antisemitic outburst when he got stopped by the police. And my friend said, “Come on, mate. We’ll get loads of money for charity.” So I went, and Mel was there, and he called “Jace” across the room, very friendly. I went, “Rabbi Gibson, how are we?” He came up and he said, “I was really drunk, man. I was trying to get him to hit me or shoot me or something. I’m having a terrible time.” And he proceeded to unload some very personal things. He’s not my friend, but — maybe to my eternal shame — I forgave him instantly because he was there making himself vulnerable.
Should we forgive those like Mel Gibson who let their ugliness slip out when they’re hammered?
No, you can’t forgive everything from everyone. I’m not saying I forgive Mel. I’ve seen him once a decade for five minutes. We text each other once in a blue moon about something or other. I don’t know what to do with the fact that he put a character into The Passion of the Christ which is essentially a Jewish demon that doesn’t exist in the gospels. I have no idea what to do about him. But if he knocked on my door tonight and said, “Look, my hotel’s canceled. Can I stay?” I’d say, “Yes,” probably.
Jason is a bigger person than most.
