‘Foundation’ Star Lee Pace Breaks Down What it Takes to Play a Sci-Fi “God”

The Juilliard-trained Lee Pace has always been one of the most exciting talents to watch on screen, but in Apple TV+‘s Foundation he goes further than perhaps he’s ever gone before. He plays multiple versions of the same extremely powerful man: Kleon, a powerful emperor who established a “genetic dynasty” where the galaxy would always be ruled by one of his clones in perpetuity. At any given moment, three clones of Kleon are alive. The elder Brother Dusk, (Terrence Mann) who provides counsel to his younger “brothers,” the young Brother Dawn (Cooper Carter) who is being groomed to carry the Empire on, and the current reigning emperor, Brother Day (Lee Pace). As time passes on, Brother Day will age into the role of Brother Dusk while Brother Dawn will grow into the mantle of Day.

It’s a complicated idea that comes across with brutal elegance thanks to the performances of the actors inhabiting those roles. Mann and Pace echo each other’s body language to an eerily microscopic degree. The relationship between these three “brothers” feels like that of a dysfunctional family. They care for each other, compete with one another, and can only be honest behind closed doors. The pressures of being Brother Day are literally tantamount to carrying the burden of the entire galaxy. Lee Pace’s performance is as haunting as it is glorious.

Decider caught up with Pace and asked him all about how he approached the role of playing a man who must project the power of a titan in Foundation. 

My first question is what was it like working with Terrance Mann to create just the synergy of Brother Day and Brother Dusk? Because, the physicality is so miraculous, the mirroring of each other and on point. I’m just wondering what it was like to approach that with him.

One of the first keys that unlocked the character for me, was that kind of physical work. I love work like that, like that’s like…the Juilliard student in me comes alive with a little bit of a mirroring exercise [laughs].

You know, I really enjoyed that, and I really enjoyed, kind of physically finding a commonality between them. And, with beginning there, we started to figure out the specificity between the individuals that inhabit those roles. Because, really the idea of this cloned dynasty is that they’re the same man. That’s the fantasy structure that they are living in; that they’re the same man. They’re the Emperor of the galaxy and they have this ultimate control. There’s no committee, there’s no politics, it’s just them and what they want. They occupy the office of a god, you know? This is sci-fi, so we can talk like that.

So once we kind of walked through the door with the characters, the commonality of them, then the specificities started to emerge, right? So, there’s kind of, like, all the Kleons — I play Day — and I’m looking up to Dusk saying… thinking, “I’m going to be a better emperor than you. I’m going to be fairer, I’m going to be more glorious…where you make mistakes I will get it right.” There’s an individuality that’s asserted in that kind of relationship. And you look down at Dawn, the emperor in training… You know that, we are teaching all the lines, teaching all the blocking for the role that they will inherit and we are saying, “You need to be exactly like me. The galaxy depends on you being a perfect copy of me.”

So there’s such an interesting familial dynamic that forms inside this trio, and I shouldn’t say trio, because Demezel (Laura Birn) obviously plays such a pivotal role to Empire. Unseen though she is, she is their mother, she is their…everything to them. So inside this little, close family where they believe they are the same man, there are—what I find most interesting about the show is that I don’t play a single man. I play a series of men that inhabit a certain role for a period of time in their life. For a period of time they are the Emperor of the galaxy, which is…you know, it’s like, what does that mean? You know what I mean? So…it’s a fantasy, the idea of having control on that scale. And who are the individuals that then approach that role? That’s what is interesting to me about what David has written. You know…where do they find their sentience? And how do they discover it? And then what do they do with it?

Yeah, I was literally gonna ask if you approach them all as individuals. So thank you for taking me through that, because that was a curiosity of mine. 

And we do! And that’s one way we work with Terrance, for example. Like you’ve seen now up to 8, so there’s that jump where Terrance plays the emperor that I played, Number 12, in the first two episodes, and I play who Cooper Carter played at the beginning. So, me and Terrance absolutely worked together to figure out: Who is Number 12? And who is Number 13? You know, like, what is specific about them?

And it comes down to Hari Seldon (Jared Harris), I believe. Because, that was the child who witnessed Hari Seldon say, “You’re just another..you know, bottle holding the same wine. It’s all empty.” And the child hears that, and has lived his life with those words…you know that ringing in his ear. This reality that it’s all going to fall.

I’m so interested about your costuming in this. Because, I don’t know…you wear this kind of exoskeleton of grandeur, where it is entirely covered and your arms are out. And, the way you are physically, your arms sort of denote might or strength or even a threatening aspect. How did you feel in that costume? Did it help you? Was it a hindrance to the craft? I’m just really curious.

Well it goes to what we were just speaking about. That…that’s a role that he’s playing. It’s not comfortable…this is not a comfortable situation that he’s in. What he’s doing is projecting a kind of inhuman kind of sense of dignity, strength and control, you know? And it was important to me that…that is the outward face of the empire is…an abstract, right? And that, inside they’re basically in sweats. They’re just in these comfortable clothes that they can…they’re just comfortable, they can move easy in. They’re not fashion, they’re not dressing for anyone. It’s the perfect temperature inside the palace, they never leave the palace. You know, nobody sees them unless it’s with that dignity.

I want to circle back and ask about your character’s relationship with Demerzel, because obviously she is the mother, she is the caretaker, she is the one person you can confide in and she obviously has had different relationships with each Kleon. What was it like working with Laura Birn and did you have to go into discussion about how the tempo of the relationship might change from Kleon 12 to Kleon 13 with her?

I love Laura Birn in this role. I think she is, you know, she is such a sensitive, thoughtful actress and she has somehow taken this robot character and found one of the real hearts of the show inside of it. And really kind of poses one of the most fascinating questions that the show, you know, tries to investigate. Which is, you know…what is a soul? Where is the soul located? Do you need a human body to have a soul? Umm…[laughs] Like, what does it mean anyway, to have a life?

I find that relationship to be a really intriguing riddle, you know? Because she is their mother, she is their caretaker, we have to suppose…she is everything to them, you know? She is their confidant, she is their teacher, she has shaped and molded their mind in every way, and she sees them through every moment of their life from beginning to end. So, in ways I think at the end — Oh, I have to be very careful because I don’t want to spoil what happens because you’re in for a treat with the last 2 episodes. So I’m going to be very measured right now with what I say, but umm…

I think you see in Episode 3 that in a way she’s like their jailer, in a way. They don’t have as much power as they thought they did. She’s keeping them, you know? She’s molding them, shaping them, moving them in this way with love and affection and cultivation.

The [Foundation] sets just seem…insane. It’s one of the most visually stunning shows I’ve ever seen in my life. What was the most bonkers or beautiful set that you remember working on, and what was that like for you as an actor?

I…speaking as someone who’s spent a lot of time in front of blue screens, it was incredible to be able to shoot a character that is big like this character in real locations. Shooting them in Malta, shooting the scenes with T’Nia Miller in Malta in these crazy ancient ruins. Being on the spiral in that dessert, which… You know, anything that I as an actor can use to take it away from “Lee Pace” and get it closer to “Kleon,” I’m eager to have. And that experiential feeling of being — you know, in that desert, in that throne room…real. I can feel it, I can feel the discomfort of it — is exciting to me, because it helps me personally do it and I would hope it translates into the performance.

Because I think, you know, our eyeballs know when something is created and when something is real. We know in some way, and I think that there was a lot of effort to [find locations in] Iceland, Berlin, Canary Islands, Malta, [and] Ireland…

Where to stream Foundation