Belonging on the fringes

I’ve been an outsider all my life, which I think is very useful and healthy in general terms but particularly so in terms of my job. It’s important to be able to identify with those on the fringes. As a small kid growing up in Liverpool, I was set apart because my family is Jewish. In the years after we moved to London [when Isaacs was 11], I felt different because I was so obviously northern. And at university [he read law at Bristol], everyone else seemed to be public school and full-on confident or Hugh Grant-ish and I was neither. When I come to think of it, the only group I’ve ever felt a secure part of is my own current and immediate family [he and his partner have two young daughters].

A Mersey state of mind

My great-grandparents came to Liverpool by boat with scores of other Russians, Ukrainians and Poles. Family lore has differing versions as to why they settled there, helping to found the city’s Jewish community. One theory is that they were actually bound for the US, had been told they’d arrived in New York and disembarked. I’d like to think they weren’t that stupid and had either had enough of the conditions on board or simply couldn’t afford to go any further, perhaps thinking they’d get work locally for a while, save up and then journey on. Something about Liverpool obviously convinced them to stay, though. Even I absolutely think of myself as being from there, despite having left when I did.

Coming from a band of brothers

I grew up in a testosterone-fuelled environment, the third of four brothers [his siblings became a doctor, a lawyer and an accountant respectively]. As an adult, I’m shocked at the levels of energy and destruction that boys unleash. We never sat down for a minute and were always being competitive and aggressive with each other. As a result, home didn’t feel like the safest place, because, in a stereotypically Jewish family way, we argued with each other all the time. You had to fight your corner at every turn. Yes, it sharpens you, but it’s also destabilising. I’d never want to show my emotions or admit weakness. I had a lot to unlearn on becoming an actor. We brothers are hugely supportive of each other now.

Taking things as they come

I’m enormously lucky to have worked consistently in this profession [discovering his acting talent while at Bristol, he went on to study as a post-grad at London’s Central School of Speech and Drama].

But honestly, you’ve got to take whatever success comes your way with an enormous pinch of salt. Very little is within your control [he is best known for playing Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter series of films, and was most recently nominated for Best Actor in a Mini Series for The State Within at the Golden Globes]. People may scream for your autograph when you walk down the red carpet at the Baftas, but I still take the night bus home.

Bearing witness when it’s needed

I’m not a big fan of gathering people together in a room to make them feel bad about something. But, in these scary and revisionist times, I do think it’s important to be reminded of what we’re capable of as human beings, and also it’s vital to keep track of what governments are doing, supposedly in our names. “Look, remind, reflect and react” is a pretty good way of approaching any situation, not just one as overwhelming as the Holocaust. n

Holocaust Memorial Day is held on January 27 to commemorate the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. For more information, visit www.hmd.org.uk

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