Jason Isaacs reveals why the true terrorism story of Hotel Mumbai is more hopeful than horrific

While the white-knuckle ride of Hotel Mumbai doesn’t shy away from the brutal reality of true-life terror, leading man Jason Isaacs says it’s ultimately a hopeful film about humans showing their best when things are at their worst.

Jason Isaacs believes that messages are better suited to fridge magnets and bumper stickers than to movies.

But the British actor, best known the oily Death Eater Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies, recognises that sometimes actors are gifted with films that have the capacity to challenge and inform audiences as well as entertain them — and they are the ones that make his sometimes superficial profession worthwhile.

Isaacs stars as a debauched Russian businessman in the new Australian film, Hotel Mumbai, based on the 2008 real-life terror attacks on the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in the Indian city, in which 31 people were killed but countless others were saved thanks to the bravery of staff and simple heroism of some of those caught up in the three-day ordeal.

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UK actor Jason Isaacs plays Russian businessman Vasili in Hotel Mumbai.

“When real life lends you a story with a beginning a middle and an end with classic characters and the kind of narratives that you would kill to find in drama and in fiction, those are the times that you want to be glad that you are in the business,” Isaac says.

“For me as an actor, there are many jobs I do that I enjoy and people enjoy watching but they go ‘that was fun — where should we eat?’ And this is a film that really stays with you and gives you something to think about, and possibly stays with you long enough to give you other choices when the first instinct might not be in your or anyone else’s best interests.”

While the film’s Australian director Anthony Maras, who shot in his native Adelaide as well as on location in India, hopes that audiences will be reminded of the things that unite us rather than divide us, Isaacs hopes they will reconsider clichéd Hollywood notion of what constitutes a hero.

In the actual attacks, the hotel staff, many from the local slums, put their own safety at risk by declining the opportunity to flee the hotel in the face of extreme Islamist gunmen to save hotel guests.

Maras and his co-writer John Collee researched the event thoroughly to do justice to the extraordinary events, interviewing survivors and families of those killed, as well as gaining access to the phone recordings and transcripts of the terrorists and their handler.

“I want people to start conversations and somewhere on a subliminal level I hope it reminds them that heroes don’t take on 100 people with a pencil,” says Isaacs.

“Life isn’t Die Hard but it is possible to be generous and selfless and kind and tolerant because this stuff isn’t going away.

“Terrorism, war, situations of enormous stress are not going away and it’s who we are in those moments that define us. So I think it’s really important and of great value to the world to tell these true stories about what we can be and what are capable of.”

Actors Jason Isaacs, Nazanin Boniadi, Dev Patel, Tilda Cobham-Hervey and filmmaker Anthony Maras from the film 'Hotel Mumbai' pose for a portrait at last year’s Toronto Film Festival. Picture: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images

Isaacs’ character Vasili is a composite of several real people involved in the attacks, and he says he was fortunate enough to meet and talk to a number of survivors, witnesses and the families of the deceased.

He says he felt similar responsibility to when he played a US Ranger in Ridley Scott’s 2001 war thriller Black Hawk Down, which recounted the true life story of US incursion into Somalia that went terribly wrong and resulted in the deaths of 19 soldiers.

He recounts the story of how colleagues and relatives of those killed in Mogadishu exhorted the actors to “tell our story true” and says the filmmakers behind Hotel Mumbai similarly determined were to illustrate the simple acts of bravery amid the terror without resorting to unlikely action sequences.

“It was a responsibility we felt all the time and it was a long time since I had felt that, but I felt that on this film too,” he says.

“And I think all of us did and the way that manifested itself is that when you are recreating these scenes it was important to be what everybody was there and not pull out kind of Hollywood moments.”

While the white-knuckle ride of Hotel Mumbai doesn’t shy away from the brutal reality of those murdered in cold blood in the name of religion, both director Maras and Isaacs believe that it’s ultimately a hopeful and optimistic film about the innate goodness of human beings and how they can come together and show their best when things are at their worst.

Jason Isaacs, Nazanin Boniadi and Anthony Maras attend the Hotel Mumbai premiere at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Picture: Phillip Faraone/Getty Images

“I don’t know what the situation is in Australia — but certainly across Europe and the UK and America — hatred and divisiveness is everywhere and we are all being told that we are nothing like each other and there is so much that separates us and every tribal group should hate everyone else,” says Isaacs. “But actually in this real life situation — and not in some Hollywood concoction when the chips were down and the very worst things that could ever happen to a human being were happening, people stood together and supported each other across impossible divides — racial, religious, economic.

“If you believe the nonsense we are told about how selfish and venal we all are and it’s all about survival of the fittest, it’s hard to credit what happened over those extraordinary three days.”

Hotel Mumbai opens Thursday.