Foundation star Lee Pace talks sharing his role with other actors (interview)

Isaac Asimov’s seminal Foundation series may have been written decades before, going back almost 80 years, but they also retain a timeless quality. The author was inspired to create his intergalactic world—full of various civilizations strewn across the universe, all under one oppressive empire—after reading Edward Gibbons’ Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire anthology.

The emperor plays a significant role in that disintegration, much like he does in the epochal Asimov series. In the new adaptation produced for Apple TV by showrunner and Executive Producer David S. Goyer, the pivotal role of the emperor is played by not one, but four actors (in three roles), including Lee Pace, who Culturess interviewed as part of a Zoom press room.

“A lot of the themes that Asimov was writing about are still as true today as they were when the first book was published over 70 years ago,” Goyer described in the production notes provided to press. “Asimov based Foundation on Gibbons’ Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, but the truth is, empires are falling all the time.”

“Right now, at this moment, in the midst of a global pandemic, the world is going through these absolutely massive upheavals. If anything, Foundation is even more relevant for today’s audiences,” Goyer explained, part of the reason why now is the right time to (finally!) bring this magnificent work to screen.

One change implemented is the concept of splitting the emperor from the books into a genetic dynasty of three clones, all culled from the original Emperor Cleon I, some 400 years prior. Representing different stages of Cleon’s life, we have 60-90 year-old Brother Dusk (Terrence Mann), 30-60 year-old Brother Day (Pace), and baby-30 year-old Brother Dawn (Cooper Carter as young Dawn and Cassian Bilton as the older version). It’s a novel concept that further complicates the political machinations of the science fiction series.

Pace as the (not quite) middle-aged Cleon, Brother Day, lends a particularly magnetic presence to Foundation. The other two brothers, played by Terrence Mann and Cassian Bilton, inject the series with some fascinating interplay, and one of the most successful changes that helps modernize the sci fi story for our time.

Pace is a standout in the series, but watching him interact with his “brothers” was also a lot of fun. Many of their scenes involve creepily in-synch mannerisms, while at the same time establishing separate identities that serve different—albeit synchronically—functions within their own familial structure. I asked Lee Pace what it was like sharing his role with the other two (three, counting young Brother Dawn as well) actors, and if they shared insight into their overlapping roles.

"“Well I love the way you put that because I am sharing the role with three actors and so, we in a way, worked very closely together to physically mirror each other’s movements, and to find a commonality between them. Because it’s the same man, but also find a specificity between them… I think the fantasy they live inside, is that they are the same person. But this is impossible.“You know, there is a kind of sentience that exists for each one of them, that although they may deny it, it’s still there. Their experience is different, their awareness is different. The circumstances they face are different, especially given the context of the story we’re telling, which is, you know, the news that Hari Selden is delivering to them in the first episode, that their empire is going to fall.”"

Goyer’s Foundation integrates political intrigues alongside a cornucopia of galactic skirmishes and expansive world-building as the storyline visits different sections of the vast empire ruled by the Cleons. However, the interpersonal dialogue between those in power serve as the most successful storytelling device. This is especially significant in the scenes that involve the emperor clones, who continue to grapple with holding onto their power—and maintaining the reach of the empire—as their vast stretch starts to fragment.

However, the civilization world-building is key to telling the story that Asimov laid out many decades ago. And it is a beautiful accomplishment to finally see the remarkable universe drawn out. Getting to the finish line of completing such a pivotal work also impressed Pace.

“Actually I had taken a look at the first Foundation, about a year before I heard that they were making it into a series, and I remember sitting in a meeting, being like, ‘how are you going to pull this off? How are you going to make this show? I don’t understand. I don’t understand what this will be.’ And then a year and a half later, it came around and they expressed interest in me to play Cleon. And I read the script and I was like, ‘they figured it out.’ They were able to create some characters that figured out a way to cheat death, so that we can tell the story of, you know, 1000 years, with some characters that you can really relate with.”

Asimov’s Foundation drew much of its inspiration from Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, but you can particularly see the parallels between Rome’s Emperor Constantine and the triumvirate of Cleons. This is especially in the way that Pace holds the attention of the audience.

Reading a description of Emperor Constantine by Gibbons and you’ll see what I mean about Pace’s characterization of Brother Day.

"“His stature was lofty, his countenance majestic, his deportment graceful, his strength and activity were displayed in every manly exercise, and from his earliest youth to a very advanced season of life he preserved the vigor of his constitution by a strict adherence to the domestic virtues of chastity and temperance… The sincerity of his friendship has been suspected; yet he showed on some occasions that he was not incapable of a warm and lasting attachment.”"

You can read the full passage here, but for me, a great takeaway of Foundation is the evolution of Pace’s Brother Day. If Apple TV grants this ambitious series a second season (or more), I am looking forward to how the Cleon brothers cope with the fallout of the S1 finale.

The first two episodes of Foundation dropped on Sept. 24 on Apple TV. The remaining eight episodes will drop on Fridays, with E3 on Fri, Oct. 1.