Oscar Isaac Discusses Moon Knight’s Depiction of Trauma

Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Moon Knight episode 5!

After weeks of dropping hints about the source of his D.I.D., Moon Knight’s latest episode finally revealed the full rundown Marc Spector’s tragic backstory. In Moon Knight episode 5’s walk down memory lane, Marc created his Steven Grant persona in order to shield himself from emotional and physical abuse at the hands of his mother. And with the grand finale just two days away, Oscar Isaac recently spoke with The New York Times to shed new light on the creative process.

This wasn’t the first time that Marvel has tackled the subject of grief. But unlike WandaVision, Moon Knight is more overt in its depiction of mental illness, and that played a big role in convincing Isaac to join the show in the first place. The series has taken several liberties with its source material . But that’s because creating an authentic portrait of dissociative identity disorder was more important.

RELATED: Moon Knight Episode 5 – What Did You Think?!

“Once Mohamed [Diab, a director on Moon Knight] and I started talking about what it could be if we could put our lens on it, we were like, it’s way more important that we’re true to D.I.D. than to some kind of comic-book back story,” said Isaac. “When you do the research on what causes D.I.D., it’s not like one thing. It’s not, you watched something horrible happen and suddenly you break out into all these different personalities. It’s from sustained trauma and abuse over time. This is a survival mechanism that clicks into place for someone who’s experiencing that. That they’re able to fracture their mind to survive it is kind of astounding.”

Throughout the interview, Isaac noted that he was exhausted by previous franchise films for X-Men and Star Wars. However, it sounds like the creative freedom on Moon Knight has renewed his enthusiasm.

“They are such big, huge films,” said Isaac. “As fun as they can be, you’re outputting a lot of energy and then you leave and you’re just exhausted. That was part of the fear. I didn’t anticipate how much creative flexibility there was going to be — how much energy it gave me back.”

The  of Moon Knight hits Disney+ this Wednesday, May 3.

Are you happy with how the series is handling Marc’s illness? Let us know in the comment section below!

Recommended Reading: Moon Knight Vol. 1: From The Dead

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