Moon Knight Cinematographer Details Why Oscar Isaac Is An 'Amazing Collaborator' - Exclusive
With a resume made up of more than 60 projects over the past three decades (per IMDb), cinematographer Gregory Middleton has had the opportunity to work with several talented actors and directors. Middleton's credits boast a variety of different series, including "Game of Thrones," "The Killing," "Fringe" and "Watchmen," and with his latest series, "Moon Knight," he paired for the first time with actor Oscar Isaac.
In "Moon Knight," Middleton is the director of photography for four of the Marvel Studios miniseries' six episodes for executive producer-director Mohamed Diab. Ahead of the finale of "Moon Knight," Middleton reflected on his experience collaborating with Isaac on the latest on the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe project. In the miniseries, which is streaming exclusively on Disney+, Isaac plays Marc Spector, a former U.S. Marine and mercenary who is the avatar of Khonshu (voice of F. Murray Abraham), the Egyptian god of the moon. When he summons the suit and powers of the cloaked superhero, Marc is able to serve justice for those who've been victimized.
Marc's mission seems fairly straightforward, but running interference with his abilities to become Moon Knight is his dissociative identity disorder — meaning that for part of his life, he identifies as Steven Grant, a nebbish, British museum gift shop clerk who is fascinated by Egyptian history. But when a terrifying cult leader, Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke), divulges his plans that threaten the world, Marc and Steven find themselves at odds since Marc needs control of their body to stop his adversary.
It's difficult enough for an actor to convey the emotions of one character, let alone two, which is why Middleton was impressed by how Isaac collaborated with him and Diab to bring the dual characters of Marc and Steven to life.
Middleton was impressed by how Isaac handled 'twice the work' on Moon Knight
Gregory Middleton told Looper in an exclusive interview that everyone on the "Moon Knight" production had to stay separated because they shot the series during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Oscar Isaac met the challenges brought about by COVID head-on and was immediately ready to get down to business.
"The thing about Oscar was the heavy lifting he had to do to figure out how to play these two characters, how to make them distinct and also be the same person and how to map this journey," Middleton said. "You shouldn't underestimate the effort involved in figuring out how to act [as] two players that are playing against each other, that all have their own unique journeys. It's twice the work. Also, you have to program someone else; in this case, his brother, Mike [Hernandez], to play that person while he's doing one performance."
Middleton said from a technical standpoint, he and Mohamed Diab would meet with Isaac for blocking to figure out whether Marc or Steven would drive the scene, and then coordinate their shooting schedule as such.
"He's an amazing collaborator and absolutely great storyteller on his own. He's thinking about the story, not just about how to make it sense for the first character," Middleton said of Isaac. "Blocking with him, that's also one of the most fun things is to figure out, 'Okay, what would Mark do here? And what would Steven do here? And how they would do that?' We start to get a feel for what each character and they say, 'Well, if this happens, then maybe we should do this shot in this technique, maybe this is motion control of the two of them together, because now, maybe Marc is driving this and Steven is chasing.'"
All six episodes of "Moon Knight," including the miniseries' finale, are streaming exclusively on Disney+.