Lee Pace
Among the Met Gala headline acts - Kim Kardashian, Lil Nas X and a Harris Reed- dressed Man - Lee Pace was quietly but definitely grabbing many people's attention, donning as he did, a rather dashing Thom Browne shorts suit and long hair better than Brad Pitt's.You'll know the American actor from various popular show and movies like The Hobbit, Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain Marvel but if you didn't you're about to see a lot more of the 42-year old as he's the star in Apple's latest blockbuster show, the spellbinding, cinematic masterpiece that is the adaptation of Isaac Asimov's Foundation.Here's what Pace has to say about the show.
Foundation has been brewing for the whole year and now it’s here. Do you get nervous when new projects come out?
I'm mostly excited about what the audience is going to think. It exists in your head and you're putting it together piece by piece. Even though I saw some early episodes beforehand, it's sitting with an audience, talking to my family after and being like, "What are your favourite moments? What do you think is going to happen next?” That makes it feel like I’m able to really take in the experience of the story like I did when I first read it.
When did you first read the books?
I’d read the first Foundation book about a year and a half before I’d heard about the show being made. I’d heard they were developing it and I was like “There’s no way you can make that. It’s too cerebral. People have the attention span of squirrels these days. It’s not going to happen.” But sure enough, I felt like we really succeeded in creating this framework where the story could go through the thousand years by creating these characters who can cheat death and extend their lifespans and we can really investigate emotionally what it means to be a human being surviving in the wild. That’s what the story is in one way or another, a story about the fall of civilisation is a story about the rise of the wild again. There’s nothing really more wild than deep space.
You've been involved in quite a few sci-fi worlds throughout your career. What hit differently with Foundation?
There’s the scope of the story and the way it’s told. Each episode is very thematic in its small way. It’s a living thing, it’s like theatre in that way. It's like you're making it as the audience is taking it in. The sheer scope of this story is exciting to me and the limitless possibilities of where a character like this can go. Built into the design of the character is the fact that he will resist change, but he will change in really interesting, dramatic ways...
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Lee wears Alexander McQueen on the cover of Man About Town's AW21 issue.
