This is Fresh Air. I'm Tanya Mosley. And my guest today, award-winning actor Oscar Isaac, was still deep inside one of the most consuming roles of his career, playing Victor Frankenstein, when director Lee Sung-Jin came calling for him to star in the second season of his Netflix series Beef.

In Beef, Oscar plays Josh, the manager of an upscale Los Angeles

Country Club. He's polished and charming, but underneath that smooth exterior, his life is falling

apart because he's stealing from the club, and underneath the facade, his marriage is also

falling apart. Oscar said at first he had a hard time connecting

to this character. But it helped when an acting coach told him to try to bring the character

of Victor Frankenstein into the role. How would Victor feel being trapped inside of Josh's small

life? This is exactly what Oscar needed to step into the character.

In this scene from the series, Josh and his wife, Lindsay, played by Carrie Mulligan,

are home after spending the day at the country club. They get into an argument, which turns

into a full-blown fight, with both of them saying the worst things a married couple could say to

each other. It's intense.

You like doing that stuff. You like doing it. I hate it. I've just gotten really good at

pretending. You get privileged access to Titans in every industry and you love it.

Who are these Titans? We get to be friends with politicians and CEOs. We had dinner with Bono. This is the thing. You think that they're your friends, but they're not. Your staff. You're an employee. They pay you to be around. Well, one of us has to get paid. Maybe if we had a little more income, I wouldn't have to do this job that you find so repulsive. Well, I gave you my entire inheritance and we're still completely underwater.

If you bring up my mother right now, I will lose my... I do not regret a dime we spent on her.

Oscar Isaac is a Golden Globe winner who has moved between indie films and global franchises from Shakespeare to Star Wars.

His films and TV work include Inside Lewin Davis, Dune, Card Counter, scenes from a marriage and most recently Frankenstein.

Oscar Isaac, welcome back to fresh air. Thanks, Sonia. Very happy to be here.

We're going to get to that intense fight in just a second.

I said, when we were shooting that, I said, I hope that on my in-memorium clip, it'll just be me

screaming, we had dinner with Bono. I know, right. But, you know, first I want to talk to you

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