Long before he was pickin’ up roles in Star Wars and Dune, actor Oscar Isaac was pickin’ it up in the ska sense.
Over the last couple weeks, footage has emerged of the Guatemalan-American star playing in various ska bands throughout the ’90s and early 2000s, years before he would portray Poe Dameron in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. One of the groups was called The Blinking Underdogs, and as one Twitter user pointed out, they had the opportunity to open for Green Day back in the day.
This wasn’t a one-off, though. The Blinking Underdogs is a pretty ambiguous-sounding punk band name, but his other acts had monikers like The Worms, Closet Heterosexuals, and Petrified Frogs, which are so spot-on that they could have come from a ska-punk name generator. In a past interview with Jimmy Kimmel, Isaac confirmed that one of those groups got the opportunity to open for ska legends The Mighty Mighty Bosstones.
[editors-picks id=”1068098″]
“We played on a stage at a festival about five hours before [The Mighty Mighty Bosstones], but that was a great thing to have on your resume,” he joked during said discussion.
According to this feature on Tribeca Film’s website, Isaac formed and fronted The Blinking Underdogs while he was at school at the University of Miami. And per their still-active (!) MySpace page, they were influenced by Goldfinger, Sublime, Reel Big Fish and Fishbone.
Check out some footage of Isaac rippin’ it with The Blinking Underdogs and The Worms after the jump. In case you’re hankering for more musical Isaac content, check out his indie group NightLab or revisit the Coen Brothers’ 2013 film Inside Llewyn Davis, in which Isaac plays the titular ’60s folk songwriter.
Outside of music, the 41-year-old was just tapped to star as Solid Snake in the upcoming Metal Gear Solid movie. He also has a major role in Denis Villeneuve’s highly anticipated Dune, which following a pandemic-related delay, will likely premiere on HBO Max in 2021.
Still thinking about Oscar Isaac’s ska band that opened for Green Day and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones in the late 90s. pic.twitter.com/lOSOXK5Vzs
— machine gun handsome_pal (@handsome_pal) December 21, 2020
