Jason Isaacs Addresses The Salt Path Controversy For The First Time

Jason Isaacs has shared his take on the controversy surrounding the source material for his film The Salt Path.

Last year, the White Lotus star shared the screen with Gillian Anderson in the big-screen adaptation of Raynor Winn’s book of the same name.

However, months after its release, The Salt Path faced scrutiny in the media after The Observer published a piece casting doubt on some of the claims in the book, which had been marketed as a memoir.

Last week, Jason was a guest on the podcast Kermode On Film, where he was asked about the movie’s impending US release.

“It’s going to be interesting doing publicity for The Salt Path now that there’s been [renewed scrutiny],” the always-candid British actor claimed.

He went as far as questioning whether the team behind the film’s US release actually wanted him to do any promotion for it, to which they responded: “Absolutely.”

“I went, ‘OK, yeah, fine’,” he claimed, maintaining that The Salt Path is a “beautiful film” and that “much of it is still completely valid”.

“Obviously, some of the things have been questioned,” he added, conceding that promoting it will no doubt be an “interesting experience”.

Just days later, Gillian also spoke about the Salt Path backlash for the first time, calling the debacle “very unfortunate”.

“The film was doing really well in the UK – beyond my expectations,” she told Radio Times. “I think we were about to sign with Sony Classics for the United States the week when the article came out, so it sucked, and continues to suck.”

Like Jason, she claimed that the film is “special in its own right”, insisting: “I hope people are able to experience it as its own entity, separate from what may or may not be true or whatever controversy there is.”

In Raynor Winn’s first Salt Path book, she claimed that she and her husband Moth had walked the 600-mile length of the South West Coast Path after being made homeless.

She also discussed Moth’s struggles with the neurodegenerative disease corticobasal degeneration (CBD), which he was diagnosed with shortly before the couple lost their home, in her writing.

However, The Observer’s piece raised questions about a number of parts in the book, including exactly what led to the couple being made homeless, and specific parts of Moth’s illness.

At the time, the writer’s legal team provided a statement to The Observer, which read: “The Salt Path lays bare the physical and spiritual journey Moth and I shared, an experience that transformed us completely and altered the course of our lives. This is the true story of our journey.”

The Telegraph also published a longer version of this statement, which added: “[The] Observer article is highly misleading. We are taking legal advice and won’t be making any further comment at this time.”