MovieChat Forums > Oscar Isaac Discussion > Confused his origin.

Confused his origin.

posted 11 years ago by faded_hated_overrated
6 replies | jump to latest

I'm always fascinated about people's ancestry/origins. When watching Drive, I thought his character, Standard Gabriel, was quite obviously 'Hispanic', yet the actor seemed more like he was of some Arab/Middle Eastern/Persian origin. That was an amusing thought to me, as quite often I would be used to the other way around.

But then I came to his page, and saw that he is, indeed, Hispanic - and I was surprised. Maybe if I had seen some of his other work, I would have realized it.

Guess "Hollywood" can confuse our images enough that we switch them around sometimes.

Just thought to share. I guess he could convincingly get the look, at least (and seems to have gone for it, in Body of Lies).

[–] Dr_Dmitri-Yuriev 11 years ago

His father is Cuban of Israeli ancestry, that's probably where he got his middle eastern look?

[–] Mykle_Ykle 11 years ago

Possibly. However, Persian and Arab features are very present in Hispanic and Brazilian communities. My paternal uncles all look Arab.

[–] Naughty-God 11 years ago

He's not of Israeli ancestry.

[–] scovazze 11 years ago

He's fascinating in this sense; I saw him for the first time in the amazing (and underrated) movie AGORA' by Alejandro Amenàbar; Oscar played an ancient Roman, and to my Italian eyes he looked absolutely credible as an Italian, he was really like those perfectly chiselled statues (and was dashing). Perhaps he'll never play a convincing Viking, but he is quite a chameleon.

[–] maharani78 9 years ago

I thought he looked very Jewish in Ex Machina and assumed he was before I found out Isaac was just his stage name.
He could pass for being from a lot of different places which is obviously very useful for an actor.

[–] CranberryNoVodka 9 years ago

He has French ancestors and some other European ancestry, like many white Latinos.

A bit of the old ultraviolence...