Foundation is a sprawling sci-fi epic based on Isaac Asimov’s sprawling book series.
TV Fanatic got the chance to catch up with Jared Harris (Hari Seldon), Lou Llobel (Gaal Dornick), and Leah Harvey (Salvor Hardin) ahead of the series premiere.
All three were immediately drawn to the project due to the book series.
“When David pitched the story to me, it was a very ambitious, epic, a tale about the survival of the human race, but unfolded over a thousand years,” Harris shared.
“And then I was the main sort of instigator of the story and right at the heart of it, and I read the first two scripts, and there was some very surprising, poetic, beautiful touches in there.
“I was hooked at that point,” Harris continued.
“I didn’t realize how big of a nerd I was until I started doing the show, and then I got really into it and read all the books,” added Harvey.
“It’s such an epic story,” the star continued, noting that it was exciting to be able to be a part of bringing the project to screens.
The show’s about a group of people who are trying to save humanity basically, led by Harry Seldon, Harvey shared of the premise.
“It’s about how they deal with crises.”
As for Llobel, the character of Gaal was the immediate draw.
“I really, really related to her quite a lot, so I was very drawn to the whole project.”
The series was filmed in many different locations, but one of them was Limerick, Ireland.
“Our studio was there, so we were actually inside in Ireland quite a lot, but Ireland was great,” Harvey said of the experience.
“It was surrounded by beautiful countryside, and Limerick itself is a really nice city.”
For Harris, filming in Limerick was a welcome experience because many of his family resided there.
“I often walked around Limerick thinking ‘how ironic it was that my father grew up in Limerick and left to go and pursue a dream of Hollywood? And now Hollywood’s right on his doorstep.'”
Harris delved into the challenges of the role.
“The tricky part about this guy is that you didn’t want him to become a cipher essentially for the predictive model for the theory of psychosis.”
Harris explained that he wanted to identify specific stakes for the character in every scene with co-creator David S. Goyer.
“It was less expositional. It’s tricky when you’re playing a character who knows the outcome of a story.”
“That’s difficult to do because you’re so many steps ahead of everybody else, but you yet, you have to remain present in that scene because successfully overcoming the hurdles of that scene means you’re going to be able to achieve your goal,” Harris added.
“You can’t take it for granted the same.”
“If you’re playing Sherlock Holmes, the movie starts, and he’s already at the last five minutes.”
Harris has played several characters that have had a wealth of knowledge about cataclysmic events in the world, including Dr. Charles Ashford on Resident Evil: Apocalypse and Valery Legasov on HBO’s Chernobyl, and he’s excited for fans to see another character with a fountain of knowledge.
“I’m absolutely blown away by how epic it is, the ambition of the story by how within the genre, it manages to dig into some really big ideas and big themes, and I’m completely gripped by the journeys of all the characters,”
“I’m completely invested in them.”
And at the end of the day, that’s the most important thing, because you can have all the spectacle you want, but if you’re not interested in the human stories, then you know, it’s postcards.”
Harvey is excited for the fans to see the show in its final form.
“It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen.
“I’m also really excited for people to recognize moments from the book in the series because having read the books, I have that all the time, and that’s such a satisfying feeling.”
“I can’t wait for people to actually experience that. It’s going to be great.”
While the series will be staying mostly faithful to the source material, Harvey said that some of the characters had been modernized to match today.
“I think that’s really important, um, because we need representation in everything,” the star added.
“I think that’s brilliant and I’m really glad that they made that decision. The books are so vast and so big that every now and then, you’ll come across something, and it’s super close to certain events.
It’s going to be really fun for people to experience that, especially if it’s in the book, but, if it’s not, it’s a fresh take on it, which is really cool.”
The series was filmed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the entire cast said they felt safe throughout.
“I think the thing that came out the most was that we became really close,” Harvey shared, adding that the cast, crew, and producers had to band together, “which is kind of what happens in the show, to be honest.”
“We managed to create an environment where everybody felt safe and supported, which was a beautiful thing, really.”
Foundation premieres today (Friday, September 24) on Apple TV+ and will roll out weekly. Stay tuned at TV Fanatic for more Foundation interviews.
Check out the trailer below.
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Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.
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