Jason Isaacs says his wizard needs therapy.

Jason Isaacs says his wizard needs therapy.

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

English screen actor Jason Isaacs plays the devious and possibly evil wizard Lucius Malfoy in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets from underneath a long blond wig.

It's his latest memorable bad guy. He stole many a scene in The Patriot as the sadistic Colonel William Tavington, and his next role is Captain Hook in a new adaptation of Peter Pan, which he is now shooting on Australia's Gold Coast.

A transtasman call finds him taking a break from filming ...

Q. Hope you've got the phone in your good hand, otherwise there could be a nasty accident.

A. I do.

Q. You seem to be making a career of people who frighten small children.

A. Well, actually, in Peter Pan I get to play Mr Darling and Captain Hook the way J.M. Barrie originally intended it. I get to charm them and scare them at the same time.

Q. What's it like becoming part of the Harry Potter juggernaut?


A. It is huge, but it is weird because the huge thing is not something that has anything to do with my job. It's odd because some American interviewers have said, "So what is it like to be a part of such an enormous franchise - you had such a successful weekend". My weekend was going to a bird sanctuary.

My job was in March and April for a few weeks pretending to be someone dressed in a ludicrous long wig and some velvet capes. This stuff that happens a long time later is nothing to do with me. It's about men in suits who I'm sure are rubbing their hands with glee. I am happy for them, only because it means we get to do our jobs again, which is telling some stories.

Q. It's quite a club you've joined being in that cast.


A. That is one of the great things about being in Harry Potter for a British actor. Just to get the call to go in and meet on it was exciting enough.

To sit in the make-up chair and look left and see Maggie Smith and look right and see Richard Harris ... I had to keep pinching myself and see if it was real.

Q. His passing obviously gives this a certain sadness.


Obviously it's a terrible loss in terms of the films, but just in terms of personal company it's heartbreaking. We'll miss the laughter because he was really a raucous, wicked, mischievous, filthy old rogue.