Jared Harris Reveals Real Reason Why He Accepted ‘Morbius’ Role
Depending on what type of content you like, the name Jared Harris might be very familiar, but also not that familiar. Jared Harris played some memorable roles in his career – such as those in Mad Men, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, The Terror, and Chernobyl – and he is definitely a brand name, whether you recognize him immediately or not.
At the same time, Jared Harris is a very serious actor and his career is mostly restricted to serious roles on the screen and in the theatre. He is also quite critical of a lot of commercial movies, including comic book adaptations, despite the fact that he actually appeared in one comic book movie himself.
Harris appeared as Dr. Emil Nicholas in Jared Leto’s Morbius, a role that seemed a one-off for Harris and is definitely the odd one out when we observe his career as a whole. We know that the actor doesn’t usually take on such roles, so in a recent interview for the British magazine iNews, Harris was asked to explain his decision to take on the role.
Dr. Emil Nicholas is a supporting character in the series, but he is an exceptionally important character in the stories of Milo and Michael Morbius. He runs a facility that looks after people with incurable illnesses and acts as a mentor and a father figure to the brothers in the movie.
As stated, the role in Morbius was not a role that Jared Harris would generally accept and a lot of his fans were surprised when his name was actually announced. Of course, when actors do such things, the fans are curious as to what drove them to do it, and iNews used the opportunity to ask the actor why he accepted the role, to which he said, with a shrug:
“Sure, yeah. I have got a mortgage to pay, you know. Sometimes you say yes to things because you need to make money.”
While continuing to discuss this role, Harris was further asked how it was filming such a film, something he himself considers to be below his usual standards. Here is the reply he gave after a smart diplomatic pause:
“I have observed that those types of films do well if you have a sense of humour. You can’t treat it as though it’s Shakespeare. So yeah, that movie could have done with a more mischievous sense of humour.”
In case you’re surprised, we’d like to remind you that this is not strange in the world of acting, as we have other such examples as well, including Harrison Ford’s recent Captain America: Brave New World comments, as well as Jeremy Irons’ DCEU comments.
Have something to add? Let us know in the comments below!
