White Lotus star feared ‘Baby Reindeer style’ stalker would ‘stab him or burn his house down’ & police said ‘quit fame’
THE White Lotus actor Jason Issacs has opened up on his stalking hell and has claimed police were “useless” in helping with his very own ‘Baby Reindeer-style’ ordeal.
Jason was stalked by a female fan for a decade in an experience that left him fearing he would be stabbed or that his home would be burned to the ground.
His scary ordeal began in 1998 and lasted for ten years and included a whole host of unwanted interactions.
The actor, 61, felt that the police did not take the case seriously as a result of him being stalked by a woman as he insisted they made ludicrous suggestions to him as to how to stop the stalking.
Speaking in a new interview, Jason claimed one officer told him to “knock her out” to stop her coming from his property anymore.
Another even bizarrely suggested that the best option was for Jason to change his name and quit acting so that the woman would stop harassing him.
He told the i newspaper: “They were next to useless, the police. They kept insisting I must have had an affair with her. And I’d never met her.
“I went mad with it. I should have written a film about it. Baby Reindeer may be slightly more dramatic, but not much.
“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.
“She might read this, which is disturbing.”
On another occasion, police arrested the young woman outside Jason’s home only for him to discover her banging upon the front door once again just a short while later after she was released by cops by mistake.
Jason took the woman to court a number of times in an attempt to enforce a restraining order but this led to the stalker becoming even more obsessive once it had lapsed.
The actor, who also appeared in the Harry Potter movies, admitted some of his pals also failed to recognise how serious the stalking was and often made wise cracks to Jason about the follower.
He added: “Friends make jokes about it, but then I explain what it is like having someone standing outside your door banging in the early hours of the morning and suddenly a chill goes over the room.
“What was really strange was I’d be away from home for six months or a year filming and then it would start again the day I got back.
“So, I thought, ‘Wow, is she just standing in my street every day watching?'”