Foundation's Jared Harris on swear words, swashbuckling and the NASA inspiration behind his sci-fi stardom

For someone who’s starred in some of this century’s most critically-acclaimed TV shows, Jared Harris is a modest man. Currently embodying a head-scratcher of a character (Hari Seldon in Apple TV+'s sci-fi epic Foundation), Harris is surprisingly bashful about a CV which includes a remarkable turn as King George VI in royal romp Netflix show The Crown.

We sat down with Harris to talk about the latest season of the show (which airs on 11th July) and what it has in store for Seldon, who’s part psycho-historian (a person who can use maths to predict the future), part cult leader, possibly a charlatan and potentially a prophet.

If it sounds complex, that’s because it is – did we mention there are two versions of Seldon who exist on different planes, possess different memories and hold differing views on how to obtain galactic power? Yup. Believe us, that’s just the tip of the show’s trippy iceberg.

Between discussing the perks of playing multiple parts and his character’s existential crisis, here are five surprising things we learnt about the inimitable Jared Harris.

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1. He can’t wait to see Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey – and one day play a pirate

“I love Greek mythology," Harris confessed. "I'm really looking forward to seeing [Christopher Nolan's] The Odyssey. I love that book.

"I've always wanted to do one of those Greek things – and I like to swashbuckle! You know, I was trained at drama school – we were given sword fighting classes and I really enjoyed it.

"I've always wanted a swashbuckle, but I've never done it on screen, only in a couple of plays.” We feel his pain, we only get to do some amateur swash-buckling whilst doing the washing up. Just doesn't quite cut it.

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2. He invents new swear words to sneak into every performance

Between his butter-wouldn't-melt face and nice-guy demeanour, it's hard to believe that Harris has a sneakier side, but it turns out he still has a vice of sorts.

“There's one thing I do just really to amuse myself and my wife which is I try and get new swear words or curses into parts," Harris revealed.

"Like, 'Juno’s tits you've brought a lot of luggage' - I said that in Pompeii. It didn’t make it into Carnival Row, but there’s a play in that about a Christ parallel, and there was a martyr who was hung on a kind of cross-like-thing, and I'd added some swear words like, 'By the martyr’s severed cock' or something. You know, you come up with these swear words and try to get these curses into the show.”

3. He wasn’t impressed with The Lord of the Rings

Can't help but put a hard disagree on this one, but Jared wasn't a fan of the bigscreen adaptations of The Lord of the Rings.

“I mean, I remember reading The Lord of the Rings, the three books, and I don't remember there being so many endless battles," Harris reflected.

"And then at some point you realise that all the main characters have plot armour and they can't be killed. You might as well just hold your sword down and let the orcs run onto it. Then the endless goodbye to Frodo at the end of the third film that went on for 20 minutes. I actually liked Ralph Bakshi’s version of the first book [a 1978 animated version]. I found that gripping."

4. He doesn’t think he’s a particularly good actor

We've always wondered if some actors have the same kind of feeling that you get when you hear yourself on a video or voicemail and cringe at the sound of your own voice. Turns out, some of them actually do.

“I can't look at anything that I've done and be happy," Harris agreed.

"It takes me 10 years to look at something and not remember what happened that day – it takes me a long time to forget the circumstances of making anything – and there's an inner voice yelling at myself going, 'You idiot, why did you do it that way?'... It takes me a while to look at it.”

5. He was inspired by the moon landing

“When I was young, the whole Apollo programme was going on – you were reading it in the news the whole time. I remember sitting on a couch in the middle of the afternoon, waiting to see Neil Armstrong walk out and walk on the moon – the first man ever – and following in absolute detail what was happening with Apollo 13.

"So it was all part of my mythology growing up, watching all of this happening and imagining, well, if we've got to the moon, when will we get to Mars? When will this next happen? Because we think it's going to be a progression.”

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