Villain turns the other chic to darken Harry Potter's life

By Marshall Fine
Westchester (N.Y.) Journal News

Short hair? Pinstripe suits? For the snotty wizard Lucius Malfoy?

Lucius Malfoy (Jason Isaacs) and his son Draco (Tom Felton) go up against Harry Potter in the new film "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets." Warner Bros.

"The original idea was for him to have short, dark hair with blond tips," Isaacs says by telephone. "There was also talk of pinstripe suits. I said, 'Absolutely not.' "

Instead, Isaacs sweeps onto the screen with shoulder-length white hair, sneering at Harry Potter and the Weasleys from behind rich, flowing capes. Now that's what a wizard should look like, Isaacs says.

"It's not often you get to play a wizard," says Isaacs, 39.

So it's the long, blond hairdo and the sweeping robes for Malfoy. Who does Isaacs think he resembles in all that hair?

"I look like Iggy Pop or Jerry Hall," he says, "or perhaps early Cher."

Wizardry, of course, has other perks: "I remember on my first day, I had a scene with Richard Harris and, at the end, I flounce out of the room. And after I did, Chris (Columbus, the director) said, 'You forgot to close the door.' I said, 'Could I just wave a hand at it and make it close?' And he thought a second and said, 'OK.' It was a riot."

The film introduces Malfoy for the first time to the Potter world; Lucius' son, Draco, a classmate of Harry Potter, is in both films and all four of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels. Lucius, however, doesn't appear until later.

Isaacs had never read the Potter books when he was offered the role of Lucius: "I thought there was something suspect about my friends, who were reading these children's books," he says. "Then I auditioned for this part and bought the books. When I looked up again, it was three days later and there I sat, unwashed and unfed, having read them all. I think of them now as the crack of children's literature."

Their appeal is now obvious to Isaacs. For starters, the books make wonderful fun of the British boarding school system. For another, they deal with universal themes: loyalty, friendship and adventure. And, of course, there's the element of magic.

"There's no one who hasn't wanted a wand to wave at people who annoy them," he notes. "And flying dreams are very common. But she's also a great storyteller. Why do these books work? You might as well ask why one song stays with you forever and another doesn't capture your imagination."

Isaacs also points out that he was persuaded to pursue the role in part because of his seven godchildren.

"All of the children I know phoned me up and ordered me to take this role," he says. "They were angry that I would even think of not doing it. These kids knew every flagstone of Hogwarts castle."

Isaacs considers himself an accidental actor. He did plays in college but assumed he would study law after his undergraduate years: "I gave no more thought to being a professional actor than to being a professional footballer. And Manchester United wasn't calling me up to try out."

On a lark with friends, he auditioned for acting school and the rest is history.

Though he's appeared in a number of British films and TV series in the past decade, the role that brought him to the attention of American audiences was the villainous Col. Tavington in "The Patriot," opposite Mel Gibson. Since then, he's played American soldiers (in "Black Hawk Down" and "Windtalkers"), a drag queen (in "Sweet November") and a suave secret agent opposite Jackie Chan in "The Tuxedo."

In other words, he's purposely avoided villain roles — yet is somewhat chagrined that Tavington is what people remember him for. Now he's playing Lucius Malfoy — and following it by playing

Capt. Hook in a live-action film of "Peter Pan," currently filming in Australia.

"Here it is, 2 1/2 years — and four or five films after I played Tavington — and there's this assumption that I only play villains," he says. "I thought, 'I'll only do the one and get away from it.' But Tavington made people so upset."

Meanwhile, Isaacs must wait until at least 2004 to again don Lucius Malfoy's flowing tresses, when "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" is scheduled to be filmed.