On the June cover of Rolling Stone, the Internet’s Boyfriend, aka Oscar Isaac, was upstaged by his apathetic dog, Toby. But inside, the Guatemalan-Cuban actor showed why he’s earned his moniker – though Oscar’s sure the Internet’s fascination with him is fleeting. “The Internet never struck me as being into monogamous relationships,” he told RS. “It’s very promiscuous, the Internet.”
Oscar opened up about his career trajectory, his parents, and his “butt nose.” Disappointingly, the interview didn’t touch on his genius Hot Cheetos hack, but here are our biggest takeaway from the Rolling Stone feature:
1
On that Ayn Rand shirt:
“I liked the design,” he said. “I didn’t think wearing the shirt was saying I agreed with all her politics. I’m not a libertarian!”
2
On his X-Men costume:
In X-Men: Apocalypse, Oscar plays the titular villain, who is one very blue dude. Every day on set, he wore prosthetics, blue makeup, high-heeled boots, and a 40-pound suit. In between takes, he had no choice but to hang out in a cooling tent. “I would do some acting and then go to my tent and try to breathe and not freak out that sweat was pouring into my ears and I couldn’t touch them. It was rough. But the challenge of basically doing Kabuki theater in a film was crazy.”
3
On his Guatemalan-Cuban background:
Much is said about Oscar’s Guatemalan background, but he is also half Cuban. His father left Cuba for the U.S. before the revolution, and then he headed to Guatemala for medical school. That’s where he met Oscar’s mom, and where the actor lived for the first five months of his life. He dropped his last name – Hernandez – because he didn’t want to be pigeonholed as an actor. “They define you – ‘Latino actor, we’ll just bring him in for Spanish commercials,'” he said. “I’m interesting in telling stories about the human experience that are not necessarily just about my personal circumstances. So how do I navigate that? I feel like I’ve been able to.”
Oscar is very aware that people want him to “carry the [Latino] torch,” which is why he takes offense to the things Donald Trump is saying about immigrant populations. “The problem is it’s less about the guy that’s saying it, and more that he’s being the mouthpiece for a large part of the population. Because that’s me, that’s my family. We’re immigrants. What could be positive about it is that Trump could help to rally a lot of disparate parts of Latin America together. Because Latino is not a race – it’s a culture. There’s Chinese Latinos, there’s very white Latinos, there’s very dark Latinos, there’s black Latinos. There’s all sorts of variants – it’s not one thing.”
4
He was a troublemaker.
When his parents split up, Oscar Isaac went through some tough times. Before that, he disrupted class so much that his teacher barricaded his desk to stop him from being a nuisance. But it didn’t stop. According to RS, “He turned it into a venue for puppet shows.”
5
He played a young Fidel Castro.
After high school, he bounced around a bit. He went to community college, worked at a hospital, continued playing in ska bands, and he started getting into theater. It led him to an off-Broadway play, where he starred as a young Fidel Castro. One day, Oscar took a stroll through Manhattan during the play’s run, and he ended up passing by Juilliard and apply on the spot.
6
On Poe Dameron:
Oscar Isaac’s turn a Poe Dameron in Star Wars: The Force Awakens further cemented his position as a Hollywood star – though he prefers not to think of himself in that way. Originally, J.J. Abrams killed off his character, and Isaac opposed it. When he finally came around to it, Abrams said he’d keep him around. (Possibly until 2020, btw.)
Some of his Poe’s funniest lines, Oscar improvised. He admits that, “We’re making shit up as we go.”