Oscar Isaac finds life without his mother "painful".
The ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ actor’s beloved mother Eugenie died in February, a month before he and long-term partner Elvira Lind tied the knot and two months before the birth of their son Eugene, and he admitted the shift from being a song to a father was very "dramatic", especially as he’d hoped his mom would still be alive to see her grandson.
He told Esquire magazine of the change: "It happened in a very dramatic way. In a matter of three months my mother passed and my son was born, so that transition was very alive, to the point where I was telling my mom, ‘I think you’re going to see him on the way out, tell him to listen to me as much as he can…’
"It was really tough because for me she was the only true example of unconditional love. It’s painful to know that that won’t exist for me anymore, other than me giving it to him. So now this isn’t happening, but now it goes this way."
The 38-year-old actor is currently starring in a production of ‘Hamlet’ and agreed to take on the title role in the Shakespearean tragedy because it resonated with him at a time when his partner was pregnant and his mother was ill.
He said: "There were a lot of things that really connected on a very personal level.
"[Performing] is how I’m able to function. The only way that I’m really able to process stuff is through reflecting it."
While his mother was ill in a Florida hospital, Oscar comforted her by reading aloud to her from the play.
He recalled: "I would just read the play all the time, do bits for her. Me doing Shakespeare was her favourite thing.
"I didn’t know how to process any of this, but this I knew how to do."
And the ‘Ex Machina’ actor hopes his performance in the play "honours" his beloved parent.
He said: "It’s for my mom that I’m doing it. It’s to honour her life, but also her death, which was so awful…
"I know it happens to everybody, but it’d never happened to me. I know people’s mothers have died, but this was mine."
And when he delivers the famous ‘To be or not to be’ soliloquy, Oscar thinks about his son because the little boy gives him a huge reason to keep living.
He said: "You have a child, and you must — you must for their sake — you must say yes to life."
Oscar Isaac misses his mom
