Long before joining Apple TV+ series Foundation as the Mule—season three‘s ruthless, flamboyant, and deeply complicated villain—Pilou Asbæk already had a fan base of genre TV watchers. He played Euron Greyjoy (a ruthless, flamboyant, deeply complicated villain) on HBO’s Game of Thrones. There’s a connection there, but to hear the Danish actor tell it, the similar characters are not a reflection of his actual personality whatsoever.
“I’m the most boring guy alive,” Asbæk told io9 at a recent Foundation press day. “I wouldn’t hurt a fly. I don’t do anything out of line. I’m just a simple guy who likes to eat pizza, drink beer, and watch sports. But that said, I think the reason why I got the role was that David [Goyer, Foundation creator and executive producer] had seen my portrayal of Euron Greyjoy on Game of Thrones, and he thought that would be the element he wanted to bring—that unpredictableness, that craziness—to Foundation, because that is what the mule is: he’s chaos. This whole show is about predicting the future, knowing what’s going to happen, will Foundation and Empire be able to collaborate, et cetera. And then all of a sudden you have this character who is just like a menace, who brings violence. Disaster!”
Being cast on Foundation offered Asbæk’s first introduction not only to the show and its story, but also to author Isaac Asimov. “I didn’t know anything about the books. Honestly, I didn’t know anything about the show. I don’t watch a lot of TV,” he said. “So when I got the call from David Goyer asking me if I wanted to read the scripts and portray the Mule in season three, he opened a door I didn’t know existed into a world I didn’t know existed. And I got introduced to Asimov. And then I found out that all the sci-fi I’ve ever seen in my life is inspired by his books, and it was such a revelation. I’m super thankful to be part of Foundation, but I’m mostly thankful for the introduction to Asimov, to be honest.”
The Mule has been teased in the story so far—he actually appeared in season two, very briefly, portrayed by Mikael Persbrandt. But season three sees the character go full-throttle, right from the very first scene of the very first episode.
“I knew they wanted to have him very masculine, because that’s also the reason why they had Mikael Persbrandt to [play] him in season two; [he’s] a very masculine actor,” Asbæk said. “So I knew that they wanted him to have swag, they wanted him to have this brutality. But what I thought was most interesting about the Mule was honestly the exact opposite. Him being frozen in time, him being a child, him not knowing how to have a relationship, how to feel love, because he has never really experienced it.”
He continued. “That inspiration came from a book called The Little Prince by [Antoine de] Saint-Exupéry; that’s the reason why he’s wearing the red cape. That’s the reason he [acts like] a child in some of the scenes. And [as the show goes on], you’ll understand even more why I do these weird shifts throughout the season, as if he’s like, ‘What is wrong with him?’ He’s a bit off. He’s out of sync with the world. And that’s… I don’t want to spoil anything.”
Noted! And Foundation fans already know they’re rewarded by paying close attention to the show’s many nuances. But it’s not a spoiler to say that Foundation, the series, takes a different approach to the character than the source material does.
“The reason why we made him very different from the books is that the way the Mule is in the books, he’s the fool, he is the trickster, he has this very weak, insecure character you wouldn’t consider being one of the greatest villains ever written,” Asbæk said. “We didn’t have time to do that. We had this, [and] maybe next season, where we have to go 2,000 miles per hour, introduce the character, he’s a threat, he can kill everyone, he could rule the world, and now Foundation and Empire need to figure out: are we going to collaborate, or are we going to die?”
Foundation hasn’t yet been renewed for a fourth season yet (Asbæk has high hopes, joking, “I just bought a house!”), but season three is almost here: the first episode hits Apple TV+ July 11.
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