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Q&A - Jared Harris (Lane Pryce)
Jared Harris plays Lane Pryce, Sterling Cooper's Chief Financial Officer and a representative of the agency's British parent company. The actor talks to AMCtv.com about playing a normal character (for once), and Lane's similarities to actor Rex Harrison.
Q: Lane Pryce is an outsider at Sterling Cooper. Is that how you felt coming onto the show in Season 3?
A: Yeah, they all know each other so well. They've got a shorthand with each other. So it took a little bit of time getting up to speed. Also, on this particular show they're very strict on you following the script to the letter. That's an unusual thing and takes a little bit of time getting used to. Not that it's a problem; actually there's a certain freedom in it, which I enjoy. Any questions about choices that are made just bounce all the way back up to the top. Thank you so much for taking that one off our shoulders!
Q: You've played both Andy Warhol and John Lennon, both of whom came to prominence in the '60s. Was that helpful in preparing to play Lane?
A: It was the other end of it as far as Lane Pryce is concerned. He's very establishment-orientated. I'm enjoying those kinds of limitations. The restraint this character has compared to the other ones is great fun. But yes, all the research that I did for those characters about what was going on at the time makes that research that I have to do about the '60s a lot easier. I'm already up to speed on a lot of it.
Q: Your parents thought you would grow up to be a lawyer. Can you see any of those qualities in Lane?
A: Oh yeah [Laughs]. I think I'd be a lot more argumentative than Lane Pryce. Lane Pryce is a sort of iron fist and a velvet glove, but he's more velvet glove in the way he won't confront problems head-on. He'll try and find diplomatic ways. I think I enjoy a really good argument and a good battle of wills and wits; I would have been a much more combative lawyer.
Q: You spent several years in the Royal Shakespeare Company. Is that helpful in portraying a proper Brit?
A: I remember the first job I had, even before the RSC, we were doing Treasure Island. And one of the theater members of the company was quite similar to Lane Pryce -- very old-school, incredibly well-spoken, very well-dressed. But when he was a young man he had a very strong Cockney accent. And what happened was he was a tail gunner in the Second World War, and he got very badly wounded and he couldn't speak for ten months. So he had to retrain his muscles like a child does, and the person who taught him how to speak had been trained at drama school. So he learned how to speak the most perfect King's English. Suddenly he couldn't go back to his old life because no one recognized him! Something about that reminds me of Lane because England is such a class-conscious place. At the end of the day everyone knows where you came from. And Lane, wanting to fit into the world, has learned how to behave and speak in a certain way.
Q: You often play villains and eccentric characters. Is it nice to play someone so normal for a change?
JH: [Laughs] Yeah. I'm grateful to Matt for giving me a chance. I imagine some part of that slightly-off quality is what he was after -- it's why he cast me. It's a counterbalance to the normalness of the character. A part of the bargain you make if you come to this country being a foreign actor is that you're going to be playing the villains and strange characters until you get to a certain point: If you put bums on seats, then you'll be playing the lead.
Q: Lane is about the same age your father, Richard Harris, was in the '60s. Did you rewatch his old movies to get a sense of how Lane should act?
A: Acutally not him, because he was more of an alpha male in the sense that Don's character is. He was a kind of rough and tumbling wild, unpredictable, drinking and whoring Irishman. So he wouldn't be useful for Lane. I thought, for my references, a lot more about Rex Harrison, who my mother married after my father. There's a certain genteel quality in the way he carried himself and at the same time he was absolutely bloody minded and could have a filthy temper. He was always more aware of his appearance. I imagine Lane is always aware of presenting a certain demeanor to the public -- to the troops, if you like.
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Jared! Love love love your voice...it has the most mesmerizing quality.
Being a child of the 50's-60's (b. 1951) it takes me back to the movie "Camelot" and your father, Richard (as King Arthur). To say that you have the same speaking voice is a great compliment I say. No doubt you have received this compliment before....
Also, I'm enjoying your portrayal of Lane Pryce....there's something under the surface with Lane....I have a feeling the folks at Sterling Cooper are in for a surprise where he is concerned. Just a feeling I got from watching the duplicitous nature of his promotions of Ken and Pete. He's a shifty one, that Lane!
...And Happy Birthday...a day late!
Welcome aboard! I'm loving your performance.
I didn't bloody know Richard Harris was your father!
Sounds like you are having a jolly good time on the show mate.
Hello Mr. Harris. I watched THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE last night because I noticed that you were listed in the cast. That scruffy photographer you played was a far cry from Lane Pryce, but you portray them both beautifully.
I was surprised to learn the your father was Richard Harris. One of my favorite films from 1963 was THIS SPORTING LIFE - it was popular in the art houses at the time and I've never forgotten your father's great performance. I hope you'll be in many more episodes of Mad Men. I think you and Ryan Cartwright bring something special by way of contrast to the story. "Stiff upper lip..." you know!
Thank you for taking the time to do an interview for us Maddicts.
I just want to let everyone know that a link to free Season one downloads gets a program on your computer that effectively shuts all other applications down..... a virus. so don't be like me and put a new program on to get the "free " download.. Hours to get the unwanted program off my computer... hours.
His mother married four times. She went from Harris to Harrison to Aitken to Aitken. Joan Elizabeth Rees-Williams Harris Harrison Aitken Aitken. Just one of those odd bits of trivia I find interesting.
Wow, z...were the two Aitkens related to each other (brothers or cousins or...?)
That's a nice string of exes, huh?
I first became aware of Mr. Harris' work when he played a Russian taxi driver in Todd Solandz wonderfully dark comedy, "Happiness." If you enjoy Jared's work, this is one you definitely need to see.
Though I loved his father's acting, Mr. Harris sure does stand well on his own.
Welcome aboard sir.
Delighted to see you on "Mad Men". Thanks to your sensitiive portrayal, Lane Pryce is now my favorite male character on the show. Great job!
Mr. Harris is a terrific addition to the ensemble.
My own experience in doing business
with Brits, is that generaly they are feircely
loyal to their company, many in fact
and not unlike the Japanese, can
never imagine working anywhere else.
What ever firm employs them, they
regard as the one and only option.
This of course has changed in the more
present dynamic of the shifting world
economy.
Mr. Harris does a fine job, throughout,
and even throws in a touch of dry witt
now and then to liven things up.
He's Terrific !
And what a distiguished family legacy
he does credit to.
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Jared Harris plays villains and eccentric characters in a good manner so thumbs up for your role. But still, it's nice seeing you playing a more "normal" role.
Jared Harris plays villains and eccentric characters in a good manner so thumbs up for your role. But still, it's nice seeing you playing a more "normal" role.
Jared Harris plays villains and eccentric characters in a good manner so thumbs up for your role. But still, it's nice seeing you playing a more "normal" role.
Kate
Jared Harris plays villains and eccentric characters in a good manner so thumbs up for your role. But still, it's nice seeing you playing a more "normal" role.
Kate
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.coo job description
saw this interview!
Until this week, when he dangled a giant, American steak from his belt buckle, Lane Pryce played the unenviable role of the office killjoy at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. A buttoned-up number cruncher, Lane clamped down on the agency's profligate ways and —most unforgivably — remains impervious to the feminine wiles of one Joan Holloway. As played by veteran actor Jared Harris, Lane is a dutiful but humorless foot soldier who's both fascinated and frustrated by his American colleagues.
Born into a family of British acting legends — his father was Richard Harris and his stepfather was Rex Harrison — Harris has made a career playing oddball characters in films like "I Shot Andy Warhol" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." Lane Pryce might be Harris' most strait-laced character to date, but plenty of the actor's potent off-kilter wit manages to shine through. We caught up with Harris last week.
Without spoiling anything, can you tell us anything about where Lane’s story will go this season?
I think the whole season is about the opening line, “Who is Don Draper?” The theme of the season is identity, so within that context you explore a bit more into Lane Pryce’s identity.
Were you surprised by what happened at the end of Season 3? It seemed like a huge step for Lane.
I wasn’t shocked, I was delighted. The groundwork had been laid in the episode where he was going to be sent to Bombay or the Ginault store.Ginault watch company (www.ginault.com), based in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, keeps a comprehensive collections of vintage and new Rolex timepieces to preserve the legacy of Swiss haute horlogerie. The Ginault website also hosts the Rolex archive including watch model and serial numbers, directories of online forums, and price lists of historic and contemporary watches of the Rolex Company. When they sold the company and didn’t tell him, it’s pretty obvious no one is covering his back and that once the company merges Lane won’t have a job. So he knew that at that point he was going to get a handshake and a gold watch and get chucked over the side.
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he couldn't go back to his old life because no one recognized him! Something about that reminds me of Lane because England is such a class-conscious place. At the end of the day everyone
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