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Oscar Isaac's brother also played Marvel's Moon Knight for Disney+, we just never saw the footage
Portraying Moon Knight's separate personalities was a "technical mind puzzle" for Oscar Isaac. Fortunately, he had family on set to help him out
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"That was a lot of hard work," said Oscar Isaac at New York Comic Con 2022. The "that" he's referring to is filming Marvel's Moon Knight, which is understandable if you've seen the Disney+ series. If so, you know that Isaac plays not one, but three roles, which would be a challenge to even an actor of Isaac's impressive talents. Fortunately, Isaac had help from a familiar source.
That source, he revealed, was "my brother, Michael Benjamin Hernández."
Some context: In Disney+'s Moon Knight, Oscar Isaac plays Marc Spector, Steven Grant, and Jake Lockley respectively. In order to keep those characters straight in his mind, the Poe Dameron actor would have to come to set with a precise idea of which one he'd be portraying for that day.
"There were times where I'd have to show up," Isaac says, "and I'd have to kind of figure out, 'Alright, who do I want to play first? How am I going to play the scene?'"
The only problem? Sometimes, those characters would have to interact. And while Isaac couldn't be in two places at the same time (read: he has not yet taken The Substance), he called for his brother's help in rehearsing the interactions between characters.
"Well," Isaac says of his brother, "he's the closest thing there is to me, and he's a great actor. So he'd come on set and we'd rehearse the scenes. We'd take turns playing the different parts."
If you're a fiend for Marvel casting, this is a confirmation that there was, in fact, another actor that played Moon Knight. Of course, we'll likely never see that behind the scenes footage (if it even exists), but still, it's fun imagining the brothers going back and forth as what will turn out to be one performance. But don't get us wrong - Hernández was only one of Moon Knight's many faces for rehearsals. Once filming began, Isaac switched tactics, filming the scene by himself as the other character's lines were fed to him via earpiece. Still, he was keeping his brother's turn in the respective roles in mind as he was playing them.
"I'd have to remember what he did," Isaac said, "And then I would do my version [...] and then I just acted to nothing. It was just a technical mind puzzle to do. it was a lot of hard work."
Sounds like it, Oscar, though it was probably easier with somebody you love on set. At the very least, you've got someone who understands what you're going through. And absent a separate personality installed by the god Khonshu, a brother fits that role pretty well.
Moon Knight is streaming on Disney+ now.
Consider this a meta post-credits scene for Marvel fans - the four key articles you need to read next to continue the thrills:
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