White Lotus star Jason Isaacs says he didn’t mean what he said about this year’s Best Actress Oscar winner Mikey Madison and The Substance star Margaret Qualley.
The English actor, 61, walked back a controversial remark he made in response to questions about whether his full-frontal scenes in the hit series featured his actual penis or a prosthetic.
“I said the wrong words in the wrong way,” Isaacs told Variety. “I used the phrase ‘double standard,’ which I didn’t mean at all. There is a [different] double standard—women have been monstrously exploited and men haven’t.”
In an interview on CBS Mornings last week, Isaacs was asked whether he used a prosthetic penis in his role as Timothy Ratliff in the show’s third season.
“A lot of people are debating it. It’s all over the internet,” he responded. “And it’s interesting because the best actress this year is Mikey Madison at the Oscars. And I don’t see anybody discussing her vulva, which was on [the screen] all the time.”
“It’s interesting that there’s a double standard for men,” the actor went on. “But when women are naked, Margaret Qualley as well, in The Substance, nobody would dream of talking to her about her genitalia or her nipples or any of those things. So, it’s odd that there’s a double standard.”
Isaacs quickly drew backlash over the comment, which fans slammed as “tone-deaf” and “off-base.”
The actor explained that his response was an attempt to “lightheartedly” brush away repeated questions about his penis so it wouldn’t become the focus of his White Lotus interviews or “take away from [creator] Mike White’s brilliance.”
“It came out wrong, and I was tired—I’d done so many interviews,” he said. “I absolutely should not have mentioned those two actresses, whom I respect enormously. Mikey Madison I’m a massive fan of. My point wasn’t that men have had a harder time than women—that would be absurd. Women have had a monstrous time on camera forever, and I hope to God that is changing.”
Isaacs mused that part of the reason why so many penises—at least three—have made appearances on the show this season is to “redress the unfair balance” of nudity on screen.
“Women have been exploited forever in cinema and made to be gratuitously naked and asked totally inappropriate questions,” he said.
Though he admitted a lapse in judgement, the actor held firm in his belief that questions from journalists about his penis are “embarrassing and inappropriate.”
“I had been asked so many times in the same day by journalists, ‘Are you wearing a prosthetic?’ Which means, ‘Have I seen your actual penis? It’s very important for me to know if I’ve seen your penis.’ It just strikes me as a bit weird and slightly obsessive,” he said. “I thought I could have fun batting it off, but I batted it off very poorly.”
