Onscreen, Jason Isaacs is obsessed with money.

The star of the third season of HBO's "White Lotus" plays Tim Ratliff, a North Carolina finance executive whose luxe lifestyle appears to be on the brink of collapse. But in real life, the British actor doesn't spend much time thinking about money.

Talking to the Wall Street Journal while promoting the show, Isaacs said that wealth isn't something he pursues in his career.

"Whilst I think I'd like to have a buffer against any of the things that life may throw at my children—not me in particular, I've had a good run—I don't pursue it," Isaacs said about paychecks.

Indeed, the "Harry Potter" star said that the potential financial windfall isn't something he takes into consideration when selecting roles.

"I don't do the jobs that would bring me money," he said. "I haven't over the years taken the detective shows that are on forever. So I guess money can't be that important to me."

The 61-year-old actor explained that part of his thinking comes from a belief that material possessions aren't what brings true happiness.

"I read somewhere that if you ask people what the happiest day they've ever spent was, they almost always look back at something in nature: the day they were swinging across a river on a rope, or the day they went on a hike," he said. "It's never, 'The day I bought my plane.'"

And having brushed shoulders with the ultra-wealthy in his life, Isaacs feels very different from people who spend their lives getting rich.

"I've been around some billionaires in my life, and I am always amazed by the air that they breathe being so different from mine, and the way that they interact with the world," he said.

Isaacs' approach to wealth is backed by experts. Alexa Von Tobel, who studied at Harvard's "Happiness Lab" and also sold a startup for $375 million, previously told CNBC Make It that her happiness comes not from her money but from "the intangibles that money can't buy."

"Through my time at Harvard's Happiness Lab during my undergrad years, I really gained a new perspective on what drives happiness," she said in 2023, adding: "What actually drives happiness are the simple routines and the daily rituals in our lives that create community and connectedness."

"Shark Tank" star Barbara Corcoran, meanwhile, told Make It in the past that being rich has never made her any happier than she was when she "was dirt poor."

"The problem with being rich is you can get richer," Corcoran said. "You start looking toward the next thing that money's gonna buy."

Corcoran went on to reference the "greed fallacy," which she says is that there are "as many miserable rich people as there are miserable poor people."

"Money has nothing to do with being happier," she said. "It really doesn't."

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