In October 2018, Oscar Isaac thought he’d take an extended break from acting after wrapping Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in a few months. However, in January 2019, his intentions quickly changed when he joined Denis Villeneuve‘s Dune as Duke Leto Atreides I. Isaac had already expressed his interest in Dune to Villeneuve a couple years earlier, so his change of plan was more than understandable. And shortly after he wrapped Dune, he also couldn’t resist the opportunity to play Paul Schrader’s latest protagonist in The Card Counter, which began its production in early 2020 and finished in July 2020 after the industry-wide pandemic shutdown.

So when Moon Knight came his way in the fall of 2020, Isaac had reservations about joining another franchise without having a proper hiatus from tentpole projects. But once he took a look at the character of Steven Grant, he immediately became intrigued by the museum gift shop salesman who discovers that he has Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) and shares a body with Marc Spector/Moon Knight, a former mercenary who now does the bidding of Khonshu, the Egyptian god of the moon and vengeance.

“I had so much hesitation. So much,” Isaac tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I was like, ‘I just finally got out of a long time of being a part of the Star Wars universe,’ which I loved doing, but it definitely took up a lot of my time. So I was excited to get back to more character studies and smaller films. But this came my way, and my instinct at first was like, ‘This is probably not the right thing to do.’ But there was just something about the Steven character that was speaking to me a little bit.”

To play two different versions of the same character, concurrently, Isaac needed a version of himself to pull off the effect of being his own scene partner, so he called in his younger brother, actor Michael Hernandez, for reinforcement.

“[Michael Hernandez] would play whichever character I wasn’t playing in the moment,” Isaac says. “So, sometimes, I’d have to arrive on set and decide which character I wanted to play first. And I’d rehearse it as that character, and then I’d play the other character and give notes to my brother. And then I’d figure out the blocking, the energy, all of that stuff, and make those decisions before cameras rolled, which is tough. Usually, as an actor, the thing that you really look forward to is the unexpected. That’s how you find spontaneity. So that was one of the big technical challenges of the show.”

In a recent conversation with THR at Moon Knight‘s virtual junket, Isaac also discusses the English actor who inspired his portrayal of Steven, who was originally conceived as an American expat in London.

So I have to admit that I was a bit surprised when you signed on to Moon Knight.

Me too!

I wrongly assumed that you’d take a long break from franchises after the major commitment that was Star Wars. Did you have any hesitation about jumping back into a franchise without a lengthy gap in between?

I had so much hesitation. So much. (Laughs.) It was exactly that. I was like, “I just finally got out of a long time of being a part of the Star Wars universe,” which I loved doing, but it definitely took up a lot of my time. So I was excited to get back to more character studies and smaller films. But this came my way, and my instinct at first was like, “This is probably not the right thing to do.” But there was just something about the Steven character that was speaking to me a little bit. Ultimately, for me, it’s about if there’s space to create something. The size of it doesn’t really matter. Is there space to really delve into a person, a psyche, and to tell a story from the point of view of that person? So I investigated it more and more, and I started doing a deep dive into DID [Dissociative Identity Disorder] and what it is to struggle with it. And I realized that the language that’s used to talk about DID is quite fantastical language. It’s such a complex psychological thing. You use that kind of Jungian talk. It’s dream logic and dream talk. So it felt like it was quite an organic place to talk about that from a very internal point of view. And then when I found Steven, this characterization, it was almost like, “What would Peter Sellers do if he was asked to be in a Marvel movie?” (Laughs.) So it just kind of lit a little flame of inspiration, and when I brought a lot of those thoughts to Kevin Feige, to my surprise, he was so open about the collaboration. It just speaks to his willingness to bring in people with very strong points of view and to have that kind of collaboration.

In the many scenes where you’re interacting with yourself as Steven Grant and Marc Spector, was someone else reading Marc or Stevens’s side out of frame?

Well, it was really technically challenging. So what I ended up doing was I had my brother, who’s an actor, come out. Michael Hernandez. So he came out, and he would play whichever character I wasn’t playing in the moment. Without giving too much away, as it goes on, [Marc and Steven] share the screen with themselves. So, sometimes, I’d have to arrive on set and decide which character I wanted to play first. And I’d rehearse it as that character, and then I’d play the other character and give notes to my brother. And then I’d figure out the blocking, the energy, all of that stuff, and make those decisions before cameras rolled, which is tough. Usually, as an actor, the thing that you really look forward to is the unexpected. An actor across from you does something different, and you react. That’s how you find spontaneity. So that was one of the big technical challenges of the show.

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Moon Knight premieres Mar. 30 on Disney+.