Jason Isaacs wants to make it clear that The Patriot is not a historically accurate movie.
In fact, the actor says that Harry Potter — the franchise he starred in about a young boy wizard who discovers magic is real — is actually closer to reality than his 2000 military drama set during the American Revolutionary War.
“I must tell people that Harry Potter is slightly more historically accurate than The Patriot,” Isaacs tells Entertainment Weekly. “And any history teacher who’s showing it to their kids, they better tell them how much bulls— it is. It’s made up.”
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Jason Isaacs
Isaacs is quick to clarify that he’s not dunking on the popular movie, directed by Roland Emmerich and also starring Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger.
“It’s an amazing movie, and it moves a lot of people,” he says. “But no one should be thinking it’s history.”
Isaacs starred in The Patriot as cruel British officer Colonel William Tavington, the villain who fought against Gibson’s American hero Benjamin Martin. While the characters were very lightly based on real historical figures, they were heavily fictionalized. The story itself was also fiction, with only some key scenes and moments inspired by real events.
The actor then went on to star as Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films, playing the evil father of Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) first in 2002’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets before returning for multiple movies throughout the franchise. Johnny Flynn will next play the role in HBO’s upcoming TV series.
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More recently, Isaacs starred in The Death of Stalin, the 2017 political satire directed by Armando Iannucci about the power struggle in the Soviet Union following Stalin’s (Adrian McLoughlin) death. And the actor says that’s another film that’s more historically accurate than The Patriot — he just wishes more people actually watched it.
“There’s a lot of people who didn’t watch Death of Stalin because they thought it was a serious film about the death of Stalin, not a genius piece of political satire from the creator of Veep,” Isaacs says. “And so anyone’s that not watched that and wants to watch one of the funniest films they’ve ever seen in their life, they should watch it, and know that it’s all true.”
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