Oscar Isaac acted.
Oscar Isaac ( born Óscar Isaac Hernández Estrada ; March 9 , 1979 ) is a Guatemalan-American actor and musician . He is known for his lead film roles in the comedy-drama Inside Llewyn Davis ( 2013 ) , for which he received a Golden Globe Award nomination , the crime drama A Most Violent Year ( 2014 ) and the science fiction thriller Ex Machina ( 2015 ) , in which he played Nathan Hamlet Bateman . He also portrayed José Ramos-Horta , former president of East Timor , in the Australian film Balibo for which he won the AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role . He appeared in Star Wars : The Force Awakens ( 2015 ) , as X-wing pilot Poe Dameron , and in X-Men : Apocalypse ( 2016 ) , as the titular mutant supervillain Apocalypse . He also headlined the HBO miniseries Show Me a Hero , as politician Nick Wasicsko in 2015 , which earned him the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor -- Miniseries or Television Film .