Jason Isaacs has opened up about the “insane” response he got from the police when he reported that he was the victim of an ongoing stalking ordeal.
The 61-year-old White Lotus actor dealt with a stalker who pursued him for the best part of a decade from 1998.
Speaking in a new interview, Isaacs revealed that he “went mad” during that period because the police assumed his stalker – a young woman – must have been romantically involved with him, even though he had never met her.
“I was terrified my house would be burned down or I’d be stabbed. And because it was a young woman the police didn’t take it seriously for a long time.” he told i. “She might read this, which is disturbing.”
Isaacs recalled that in one incident, his stalker was arrested outside his home, released by mistake and then reappeared at his front door.
He said the police had several “insane” responses, such as changing his name and occupation.
“A different officer advised to ‘just knock her out’. “They were next to useless, the police,” he said. “They kept insisting I must have had an affair with her. And I’d never met her.”
He likened the ordeal to Richard Gadd’s experience of being stalked, which is the subject of the award-winning series Baby Reindeer. In the series, Gadd’s character Donny is laughed at by the police when he reports that he is a victim of stalking.
“I should have written a film about it. Baby Reindeer is maybe slightly more dramatic but not much.”
Isaacs was navigating the stalking ordeal while dealing with addiction to alcohol and drugs, and trying to get clean.
The Harry Potter actor was clean by 35 but didn’t publicly reveal his difficulty with addiction until 2020, when he opened up about it in an Instagram post.
He said that during his period of addiction, his ideal state “was a coma”.
“I was functioning: God knows I was working very successfully as an actor. How small my life got and how paranoid I got, I hid from everyone except my then girlfriend, now wife,” he said.
“I managed to put on a very good show in the world until I shut the front door and [my wife] saw what was left of me.”
The actor said that he has “replaced drugs with tennis” and is also an adrenaline obsessive.
In the latest season of The White Lotus, Isaacs stars as businessman Timothy Ratcliff, who is being hounded by journalists enquiring about his financial history due to a scandal brewing with his ex-business partner, Kenny.
In The Independent’s four-star review of the series, Nick Hilton writes: “At its heart, The White Lotus is two things: a great piece of writing and an even better exhibition of casting. The cast here is ludicrously stacked. There’s the American family led by patriarch Tim (Jason Isaacs), who’s flirting with financial ruin, his acerbic wife Victoria (Parker Posey) and their brood (Sarah Catherine Hook, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sam Nivola).”
If you have been affected by this article, you can contact the following organisations for support: actiononaddiction.org.uk, mind.org.uk, nhs.uk/livewell/mentalhealth, mentalhealth.org.uk.
If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch.
If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call or text 988, or visit 988lifeline.org to access online chat from the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you
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