Moon Knight star Oscar Isaac gave an explanation for his character Steven Grant’s English accent.
When the first footage for Marvel Studios’ newest original series Moon Knight first dropped, some fans were caught a bit off guard from Oscar Isaac’s accent as Steven Grant. For one, most audiences are familiar with the acclaimed actor’s work in the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy as Poe Dameron as well as his work with numerous acclaimed filmmakers such as the Coen Brothers, Paul Schrader, and Denis Villeneuve. In most of the films he’s acted in, Isaac has utilized his American accent.
Well, it turns out Oscar Isaac had thought of the idea given that his character Steven Grant was based in London, England. In a means to distinguish his accent from Moon Knight’s primary identity Marc Spector, he felt that using an English accent would also lean into some of the English dry humor he’s enjoyed in series such as the original U.K. version of The Office and An Idiot Abroad, both of which he cited as influences during this week’s Moon Knight press conference.
Oscar Isaac asked the Moon Knight creative team why the series was set in London, to which he then explained was due to the fact that too many of the big events in the Marvel Cinematic Universe are set in New York. After all, the record-breaking Spider-Man: No Way Home and Marvel Studios’ last live-action series Hawkeye are both set in the Big Apple. Given the London setting, he explained the reason for his English accent, which he suggested to Kevin Feige upon preparation for the role:
“I think of an expat in London … I mean, I love English humor like The Office … there’s just so much of that humor that I find so funny. And I thought … maybe there’s an opportunity to maybe make something — what if we make him English? What if Peter Sellers was approached with a Marvel project, what would he do? So I started thinking about that, and that led me to Karl Pilkington from An Idiot Abroad, and not so much for the accent, but just for his sense of humor, and you can’t tell if he knows he’s being funny.”
It is understandable why Oscar Isaac accepted the role of Moon Knight even after he sought to take a break from big franchises after working in the Star Wars franchise for over half a decade. Out of most superhero roles available, fewer are more alluring to an actor than one that involves an unreliable protagonist with his own personal psychological issues. Sure, most superheroes deal with their own distinctly human qualities, but rarely do we get a chance to be put in the point-of-view of a protagonist with dissociative identity disorder; let alone, in a superhero story.
Here is the synopsis for Moon Knight:
The series follows Steven Grant, a mild-mannered gift-shop employee, who becomes plagued with blackouts and memories of another life. Steven discovers he has dissociative identity disorder and shares a body with mercenary Marc Spector. As Steven/Marc’s enemies converge upon them, they must navigate their complex identities while thrust into a deadly mystery among the powerful gods of Egypt.
Starring Oscar Isaac, Ethan Hawke, Gaspard Ulliel, and May Calamawy, the series is set to make its Disney Plus debut on March 30th.
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