Jason Isaacs & Gillian Anderson Researched Deeply For Their "Beautiful" New True Story-Inspired Drama The Salt Path

Published Sep 10, 2026, 1:30 PM EDT

Grant Hermanns is a TV News Editor, Interview Host and Reviewer for ScreenRant, having joined the team in early 2021. He got his start in the industry with Moviepilot, followed by working at ComingSoon.net. When not indulging in his love of film/TV, Grant is making his way through his gaming backlog and exploring the world of Dungeons & Dragons with friends.

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Jason Isaacs pulled out all the stops to authentically bring his real-world figure to life in The Salt Path.

Based on Raynor Winn's memoir of the same name, the film chronicles Raynor and her husband Moth's challenging chapter of their life as they're evicted from their home due to a bad financial investment, and subsequently decide to venture along The South West Coast Path, a 1000 km-long journey taking them along the English coast. In addition to having little money to live on, the pair also grapple with Moth's new diagnosis of degenerative corticobasal degeneration, which impacts his physical abilities along their track.

Alongside Isaacs, The Salt Path's cast includes Emmy winner Gillian Anderson as Raynor, Ted Lasso vet James Lance and Doc Martin's Hermione Norris. Helmed by Marianne Elliott in her feature directorial debut, the film has garnered largely positive reviews from critics since its world premiere at 2024's Toronto International Film Festival, with particular praise directed at Anderson and Isaac's performances, with the drama also being a hit in its United Kingdom theatrical run.

Now, in honor of the movie's wide theatrical release in the US, ScreenRant's Grant Hermanns interviewed Jason Isaacs to discuss The Salt Path. When asked about the research done to authentically depict Moth's CBD, the Emmy and Golden Globe nominee explained having "looked up everything there was" about the condition, which he learned as being "an umbrella diagnosis." As such, he then turned to Moth himself in order to "know specifically what his symptoms were":

Jason Isaacs: It's a neurological condition, so his memory is not that great at times when he's not well. Ray, thankfully, kept a journal, so I know what that was. And also, there were markers along the way on this walk. We were shooting out of order, so although I don't like to be technical, it was really important for me to know at what point his leg started to bend when it wouldn't bend for a long time. At what point he could pick up the rucksack, because he couldn't form a fist for a long time, as well as the physical things, and to know stuff that we don't necessarily show on camera. Whether he could or couldn't go to the toilet by himself, and what Ray had to do for him.

Isaacs went on to praise Moth as being "such a lovely man," while also remarking on how the real-world figure is "totally self-educated" and having "read 1000s of 1000s of books," calling him a "walking Wikipedia." The Harry Potter franchise alum further lamented CBD for having impacted his mental abilities, as he "couldn't remember anything," and further "couldn't read when they first started the walk," thus adding another emotional wrinkle for the couple in their journey.

However, it also made for an even more heartwarming evolution in Raynor and Moth's walk when the pair came across an arts festival, "where they were so hungry and so desperate" and the latter stood on a crate and began reading from a novel he brought with them, surprising them both:

Jason Isaacs: He couldn't read up till that point, and they hadn't noticed that his faculty had come back. So, I needed to know from him what he could do at various stages, and try and chart it because we weren't going to shoot in that order. So, we'd get to a scene, and I'd go, "Can I use my hand at this point? Can I pick up the rucksack at this point? Can I go to the toilet by myself at this point? Can I remember what point he is having difficulty finding words, and at what point the words start flowing? At what point does he get jokes?" He's always trying to cheer her up. "At what point did his suicide urges go away?" So, I needed to know about his internal landscape and external. Then, you put all that stuff in, then you try and forget it, because you have to try and be in the moment. And also, I'm at the mercy of nature, and wanting to be a good dance partner to Gillian. So whatever Ray is doing, whatever her mood is, what he really is at every point was someone who wanted to make sure his wife felt okay. So, that's the kind of preparatory infrastructure of it all.

Isaacs & Anderson "Madly Loved Each Other" While Filming The Salt Path

ScreenRant: Obviously, The Salt Path is based on the memoir of the same name, and I know that when it comes to book adaptations, some actors will just stick to the script and working with the director. Others will properly do a deep dive into the source material to really figure out this character. I'd love to hear which side of the approach you took when approaching Moth as a character.

Jason Isaacs: Well, I read the book and I looked online to see if there were interviews, and then I met Moth, and that changed everything for me. Gillian and I went down and spent time with Moth and Ray, and they're such an amazing couple. Moth, particularly — Gillian will have to speak [about] Ray, as Ray's quite guarded. But Moth is the most lovable, the most social, the most convivial. He's like a handsome Father Christmas. [Chuckles] He's got this shock of white hair, and he just wants you to have a good time. My first meeting with him was like this, on Zoom, and I watched it back because there's a technical aspect to this film for me. For those viewers who don't know the true story, it's about a couple who lost everything: their house, their money, their future. And in that same week, when they were suddenly bereft of everything, he also realized that this condition he thought was arthritis was actually a terminal neurological condition called corticobasal degeneration. So, I asked him about those things before I went to meet him, and as an actor, you get licensed to ask people about the most difficult things in your life. When you realize you're going to die, what's it like forgetting things, and what is it like when your bowels pack up and your wife has to get you dressed in the morning and your legs don't work? I watched this Zoom back, and we were laughing, laughing and laughing and laughing. And I thought, "God, what a d--k I am laughing!" I realized, "No, he wanted to make me comfortable." Moth is such a lovely, generous man. He wanted me to feel comfortable, so he made a joke about everything, made it seem hilarious that he couldn't do these various things. His wife had to do it for him, but he's a manly man, proud man, and he lost his ability to provide. Obviously, because they lost everything to provide for his children, any kind of future was erased, and then he lost his ability to be a man in so many ways. His wife had to do so many things for him, and his generosity and his optimism, and or at least the fake optimism he had when that happened to them at first, to try and keep his wife's spirits up, although he felt suicidal and responsible for it all. It's just an amazing thing, and he's an extraordinary man. So, normally, if there's a real life story, you go into as much as you can, see what you can pick up. In this instance, just meeting him and then seeing them together, how much they love each other, how something like this could have driven people apart — you know, tragedies and trauma in family often separates people. This drove them even closer together, and they're so different from each other. So yeah, that was the research, such as it was, reading the book and looking at the script. The script doesn't have a lot in it. There's not a lot of talking in the film. Nature was a massive part of healing in their relationship, and actually in his condition, amazingly, miraculously. So, it was just about releasing myself into trying to channel him, loving Gillian, and seeing what nature could do. Because nature, frankly, had a lot to do with this film. There were days we had to hide from the wind and the rain and the hail, and days where we were blistering in the sunshine, like they had. Except they had it for six months, and they had nowhere to go afterwards at the end of the day.

ScreenRant: So, in talking about Gillian Anderson, we mentioned it before, but Raynor and Moth have a very specific dynamic, a very unique set of opposites, but they attract so well. What was it like finding that rhythm and that rapport with Gillian throughout this process?

Jason Isaacs: Well, it's odd at first, because Gillian's a friend of my wife's, and I didn't really know her well. But we have to be insanely in love, completely in love. It wasn't odd as soon as we started work at all, because we met them. Once you meet them, that's our job. We're sponges. We're parasites, actors. [Chuckles] We're parasites for the externals, what they look like, how they dress. But also, you can watch the dynamic, and you go, "Oh, I get it. They're just completely in love with each other, they think each other is fabulous." So, we did that. Moth and Ray are very different. Moth is so outgoing. Put him in the crowd; he'll be found. And a couple of times when we've had screenings for stuff, because it's been a very successful film in England and Europe, he's to be found in the crowd taking photographs, people chatting, always making people laugh, never telling them — I know what pain he's in, but he's never complaining about anything. Ray's to be found in the corner, shy and slightly guarded. In the morning, I put loud Motown music and disco music on in the makeup trailer, if I can. We're all singing along, it's karaoke. [Chuckles] I'll chat to anyone. I do magic all the time, I've always got a pack of cards in my hand. Gillian likes to sit in the dark and quiet, so she'd turn her coat around backwards, even on top of a mountain, and just sit there in quiet. [Chuckles] I would be talking to the strangers, many, many people we met shooting who were walking the path, because they'd read the book and were incredibly excited when making the film I would chat to them all and take selfies, whatever. We were probably perfectly cast for it.

So, what was it like working with her? She's a great actress. There's the people who can do it and the people who can't. She just can. And it's funny when you do something with people and it works well. They go, "How did you work on the chemistry?" It's a question you get asked quite a lot. I don't know. We were trying to be Moth and Ray, and they madly love each other. So me and Gillian madly loved each other when we're making the film. Frank Zappa said writing about music is like dancing about architecture. I can talk about acting and talk forever about what you do, but I don't really know. You can talk about it technically, but what really happens is you just try and be the thing, be that person in that situation. You try and trick your imagination and your heart. When people are crying, you're not going, "Ah, if I squeeze that bit, water comes out my eye." No, you're upset. You're trying to pretend [in a movie], sure, it's all pretend, but you're pretending as fully as you possibly can, which means you're really feeling it. And you didn't have to pretend that it was difficult climbing up boulders with one leg with a backpack. [Laughs] We were doing it. Also, I was carrying the equipment half the time. This is a small crew, you can't drive trucks up to where we were shooting. You're on the edges of cliffs all the time, and baths. So I'd be carrying mics or tripods or whatever it was. Any time I felt like complaining about what was going on, I was reminded that this lovely man was doing it and dying and destitute. So, I really don't think the actor who had a hotel room to go to at the end of the day should start moaning about it. [Laughs]

ScreenRant: Well, hey, it turned into a really worthwhile experience for me to watch, because you and Gillian were absolutely astounding in it. I can't praise enough how much I loved you both.

Jason Isaacs: It's nice to be in a film that is all about some harrowing thing, but relentlessly positive. It's about love, the power of love, and the power of nature, and the power of optimism. There are a lot of films — and I like watching them — that are about much darker and more troubling things, and this is about what matters, and what matters is a beautiful thing.

The Salt Path is now in theaters!

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  Raynor Winn

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  Moth Winn

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  James Lance

  Grant

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  Hermione Norris

  Polly

After being diagnosed with a terminal illness and losing their home, a husband and his wife embark on a year-long 630-mile trek along the coastlines of South West England.