Jason Isaacs is having a bit of an era. Mostly because he’s in The White Lotus right now, but even MORE mostly because he just had a full frontal moment in the latest episode and everyone’s a bit gagged. My mind is being pulled from pillar to post between The White Lotus penis (which may or may not be a prosthetic) and another wand as we all hit Harry Potter fever again because of the HBO reboot. Well, in a wild crossover of vibes Jason Isaacs did a video explaining how he was actually behind a lot of the Lucius Malfoy design himself – and I had NO idea!?
He literally made all the iconic choices himself
@esquire #JasonIsaacs had a vision, ok?! #harrypotter #luciusmalfoy ♬ original sound – Esquire
When you think of Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films – you think of not just his iconic silvery long white hair. Classic Malfoy uniform on its own. But even another thing distinct to Lucius Malfoy – his concealed wand inside a very extravagant cane – was Jason Isaacs doing too!
Speaking to Esquire for their TikTok, Jason Isaacs explained “None of it was there originally. I went to the set a month before shooting, and they showed me a guy in a pinstripe suit with hair like this [pointing at his own]. I went to the hair and makeup department and said I was hoping for a wig. And they said, ‘Well, Dumbledore has a wig.’ And I went ‘is it a one wig film? From Warner Bros?’
“They said ‘No, why would you want one?’ And I said because he wouldn’t want hair like a muggle. He’d want long blonde hair. My son has long hair. They said ‘You don’t have to have blonde hair’ and I said ‘no, but I’d like it.’ They said ‘Well, we don’t have anything for you to show the director’. And I said ‘well what about that?’ It was like a tinfoil wig there that you’d buy from the gas station.
“I said ‘can I borrow that’ and they said ‘if you like’. And I put it on and went to the costume department. They said we’ve just got you a business man’s suit. And I went, really? I was hoping to wear fur, velvet, capes. And they said ‘why? He’s a businessman?’ And I said ‘no he’s not, he’s a rich aristocrat and he would never want to dress like a muggle.’”
Isaacs then explained how there was an old curtain he wrapped around himself to go and show director of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Chris Columbus. “I went down to set, Chris Colombus was directing the pixie scene with Lockhart. Turned round and the assistant said ‘we’ve got Jason here for a look.’ And Chris said, ‘Where?’
“I said ‘it’s me’ and he was like what is that on your head. And I said well it would be, if you approve it, long blonde hair. He asked me if I saw the sketches, I said I saw them and thought they were great but I was thinking long blonde hair. He asked me ‘is that a curtain’ and I went ‘it is a curtain, but imagine it as a velvet or fur lined cape.’”
When Colombus asked if there was anything else, Jason Isaacs said he said Lucius Malfoy design needed one more thing: “I was thinking I’d have a cane. And my wand could come out of the cane.” Colombus said “wands just appear” and Jason Isaacs said “I’ve seen it, it’s great: I think mine could appear from my cane.”
Isaacs then said Colombus thought on it for a moment and said “I think the toy guys are gonna love you.”
And thus, Lucius Malfoy was born. It’s hard to imagine this was never the OG plan for how Lucius Malfoy would have his design in the films, but clearly Jason Isaacs had it all locked in from the start. King.
For more like this, and the latest pop culture updates, like The Tab on Facebook.
Featured image via Esquire on TikTok and Warner Bros.
