Summary
- Foundation Season 3 premieres on July 11 on AppleTV+, with even higher stakes in the galaxy.
- Pilou Asbæk joins Season 3 as the dangerous Mule, which Collider’s Steve Weintraub discusses with him in this interview.
- Asbæk discusses developing The Mule and the surprises of filming Foundation, as well as always rooting for the villain to win.
Foundation Season 3 is gearing up to premiere its third season on AppleTV+ this week, and the stakes in the galaxy are higher than ever. With the Galactic Empire and the Cleonic dynasty facing collapse, they’re forced to forge an unlikely alliance with the ever-expanding Foundation as both groups are faced with a new threat to the galaxy — The Mule.
Joining Foundation Season 3 and taking over the pivotal role of The Mule after a brief appearance by Mikael Persbrandt is Pilou Asbæk, once again stepping into the shoes of a villain for the science fiction series. The Mule is one of the most dangerous figures in Isaac Asimov‘s novels, a mutant with the ability to manipulate emotions, posing a direct threat to Hari Seldon’s (Jared Harris) psychohistorical plan and introducing chaos into a system designed to predict and control the future.
Collider’s Steve Weintraub interviewed Asbæk ahead of Season 3 to dig into what it was like to join the series in its third season. Asbæk reveals the process of crafting The Mule for the series and how he had to change versus his characterization in Asimov’s writing, and how the scale of Foundation lends itself to plenty of surprises during filming. Asbæk also discusses his knack for portraying villains on-screen and why he finds himself rooting for the villain to win.
Pilou Asbæk Does Most of the Danish Voice Work for This American Actor
He also shares his favorite movie theaters.
COLLIDER: I’ve seen nine of the 10 episodes of Foundation Season 3, and…
PILOUS ASBÆK: That sucks for you, man. The tenth episode is the best one.
That’s what everyone’s been telling me. Everyone’s been telling me how awesome Episode 10 is, and I can believe it, because it’s all building towards that finale.
ASBÆK: Thank you for watching the episodes. You would be surprised. Not everyone is.
I’m a big fan of the show. I really do love it. But before we get into Foundation, I’m obsessed with getting more people to see movies in movie theaters. Do you have a favorite movie theater?
ASBÆK: Yes. It’s called Imperial in Copenhagen. It’s one of the big cinemas, the one where you do all the openings and stuff like that. That’s one of my favorite ones. Then you have the small artistic ones, but I don’t want to mention that, because, you know, go big in Denmark. Go big.
Another thing I read when researching, while getting ready to talk to you, was that you were the voice of Mario in the version of The Super Mario Bros. in your country.
ASBÆK: That is true. I do most of Chris Pratt’s work when he does cartoons. I do the Danish voice. “It’s me, Mario!”
I was gonna ask you if you could do it. Thank you.
ASBÆK: I don’t play hard man. I give it constantly.
Does that mean you also did Garfield and other things, or you just did Mario?
ASBÆK: No, I did Garfield, and then I did Onwards, another animated film. But we don’t really do voiceover work so much anymore. It’s only for those cartoons. And honestly, I think they thought Garfield wasn’t really worth doing.
I understand. Mario is the bigger movie.
ASBÆK: That was so much fun.
Pilou Asbæk Brings a Brutality to The Mule in ‘Foundation’ Season 3
“Do as you’re told. Do as I want.”
Jumping into Foundation. How familiar were you with the material, and how much was it you got offered the role, or you auditioned, and you’re like, “I need to watch those two seasons to get ready?”
ASBÆK: First of all, let’s start with the first one. If you take yourself seriously as an actor, of course, you’ll read the books. I might not have read all of it. I was mostly focusing on The Mule, because it’s a masterpiece, but it’s also a massive piece of work that [Isaac] Asimov did. So I read about The Mule, and how he’s described. We took a different path because I’m built physically very differently from how he’s described in the book. In the book, he’s the fool. He’s the trickster. He’s this little weird quirky guy, very thin. He’s not a threat. David Goyer needed to change that. David Goyer needed to establish a character who would be a threat from the beginning. That’s why he’s much more of a brute, much more fearful, much more angry when he gets introduced into the TV series.
When you saw you landed the role, what was it like for you? Were you a fan of the material, or were you then watching the two seasons to understand what you were getting yourself into?
ASBÆK: I’m a father of a daughter. I don’t watch anything. If I watch anything, it’s some reality show like, I don’t know, Exes on the Beach or something like that. When I got the job, I had a meeting prior with David. I knew of the show. I hadn’t seen the show at that time because I don’t watch a lot of TV. I’m a sports guy, and a father, as mentioned, but I had a conversation with David. I thought it was very intriguing. He said he wanted to develop The Mule in collaboration with me. He mentioned that Mikael had done it previously, and I was extremely honored to go in the footsteps of Mikael Persbrandt, a Swedish actor. But you know, the Danes do it better. I’m kidding. I’m kidding. I’m kidding.
So we talked about it, and I could see there was something interesting. There was something nuanced that was there. I had more screen time. I had a more layered character than I’m used to when I’m doing villains. I’ve done a few villains in my past, and he’s got more screen time, and at the end of the day, the more time you have on screen, the more nuanced scenes, the more three-dimensional the portrayal will be of the character. I was hooked. I read the first scene, and I was just like, “This is dope. This is cool.” Then I added a little bit of my own touch. You saw Episode 1; you saw the thing that happened with the ring and the finger.
100%.
ASBÆK: That was one of my ideas because I wanted to ground it, and David loved it. He was like, “This is perfect. This is The Mule.” It also made him brutal in a weird way. For him, everything is just practical. “Do as you’re told. Do as I want. If you don’t, I’m gonna…” I don’t want to use the F-word, but you know.
From ‘Game of Thrones’ to Indie Horrors, Pilou Asbæk Is No Stranger to Playing the Villain
“When you’re working with American or British TV shows or movies, if you have an accent, you’re the villain.”
I do want to touch on something. You have played villains in the past, and played a villain this season. What is it about your face and voice that people say, “He is the villain?”
ASBÆK: I’m not pretty enough to do the lover, and I’m not English enough or American enough. I have an accent, and when you’re working with American or British TV shows or movies, if you have an accent, you’re the villain. I don’t know what it is. I would love to do a hero one day, and it will happen. It will happen. But at the moment, the auditions that I get are often evil. I’m just good at it, apparently. I don’t know why. But back home in Denmark, I’m always the good guy. The good police officer, the lover. It’s just weird.
It’s actually pretty good that you get to do both, but just one’s in Denmark. How did you decide when you wanted to show The Mule’s pure evil, and when you wanted to play it a little more docile in the scene? Because there are times when you are very calm — for example, when you’re getting insulted — and then you turn it on, if you will.
ASBÆK: The way I work is that a scene can be done in 1,000 different ways. You never know what the truth is. I always leave it up to the director at the end to make that decision. So, when I do a scene, I do different versions so that the person can edit the way that person sees how the characters should be. I think it’s very important that I give as many different colors as possible, so they have as many different options as possible. That’s easier when you’re making a film because you have more time for the edit. When you’re making a TV show, it’s got to be a little bit faster with a little bit more pace, and you’re making more radical, fast decisions. With The Mule in this one, I have scenes where he’s laughing and enjoying it, where he’s sad and confused. It sounds very shallow the way I’m saying it now. It’s way more nuanced than that, but I think the most important thing to do as an actor is for the audience to be entertained and to connect.
Two of the characters that I was very inspired by when I was creating The Mule with David and the writers and the costume department, and the makeup department — it’s not just your vision; it’s a collaboration of a lot of people’s artistic choices — is the Little Prince, Le Petit Prince, by [Antoine de] Saint-Exupéry, and Voldemort. I love, love, love Voldemort as a villain because, like The Mule, I feel like they’re misunderstood. I’m always cheering for the villain when I watch films. I love DC, I love Marvel, but they’re always just too good. You know what I mean? They’re always trying to do the right thing. I don’t think that’s very recognizable as a human being. I think our humans are tested daily. We’re forcing ourselves to be good in many different difficult situations daily. And you know what? Sometimes it’s nice to be a little bit evil. Then, sadly enough, the most evil people we have right now are the political leaders of the world. But that’s a different story.
Believe me, I have so much to say on that. I have been saying to many people for a while now that I am waiting for the big TV show or the big movie to end with the villain winning, because that’s the last thing that has actually been done. I wanted Game of Thrones to end with the guy from the north. I wanted him to win.
ASBÆK: Honestly, I agree. There are two shows that come to mind when you’re saying that: The Sopranos — he doesn’t win, but he kind of wins because it’s a nuanced portrayal — and Breaking Bad. He wins, but he doesn’t win. So, he loses himself in the process of becoming a villain, which is very human, I think. But I think you’re right. We need to do a film or TV show where… Despicable Me. He ends up winning, but he ends up also being a father.
That doesn’t count! Listen, you were on Game of Thrones, but I forget the name of the character from the north…
ASBÆK: The Nightwalker.
Yeah, I wanted the Nightwalker to win. Just sit on Westeros and win the whole fucking thing. I was like, “This will be the most badass ending of a show if this whole thing has been about all these people. If they had just worked together they could have stopped him, but because they’re all so self-centered, they don’t understand that they’re gonna lose their world to someone because he gives no shits.” You know what I mean? I wanted that.
ASBÆK: Between you and me, and I’m not gonna spoil anything, you’re gonna be very happy with Episode 10. You’ll be like, “Okay, alright. That was wonderful.”
I’m very, very curious. Man, I really can’t wait to see it. I really can’t.
9:50
Related
Harris talks psychohistory, challenging scenes, and what people will say when they see the Season 3 finale.
The Scale of ‘Foundation’ Lends Itself to Surprises
If watching the series makes the audience read the books, that’s a life goal fulfilled for Asbæk.
What actually surprised you about the making of Foundation? Because you’ve worked on so many different things. What was it like behind the scenes and the making of the show that perhaps was unexpected or surprising?
ASBÆK: I have to say, making a film or making a TV show is the same all over the world. The scale is just different. There’s no difference in doing a Danish film or doing an American film or doing a British TV show. It’s the same. People wrote the lines, you say the lines, some guy, some girl, some person directs it. They edit it. They show it to the audience. They like it. They dislike it. That’s the essence of entertaining, the entertainment industry that I’m in. But what I took away from Foundation, or what I experienced on Foundation, was how grand it was, how enormous this production was. It’s AppleTV+. It’s a flagship show. You know what I mean? It really shows when AppleTV+ is putting in the effort that you can make something so spectacular, and you can introduce a whole new generation to some incredible books written by a genius called Asimov. And at the end of the day, you make a big-ass show. If anyone in the audience is enjoying the show, and they haven’t read the books, and they go back, and they read the books, then you have done your job well. That’s like a life goal.
Foundation Season 3 premieres on July 11, exclusively on AppleTV+.
