After the career you’ve had, what was it about Harry Wild that lured you in?
I can tell you that it was a piece of magic. It was offered to me, and apparently I was the first and only person it was ever offered to. I said yes immediately. I read Harry and I went, “I know who Harry is. I could have so much fun with this. I want to grow old with Harry.” I really felt that I’d never played Harry — and I hadn’t seen anyone else ever play Harry. So, it was exciting for me because it was not generic.
Really, she represents the possibilities of a woman over 50. It’s like, “Wait a minute, what is she doing?!” She’s chasing criminals. She’s started a whole new career . . . And Harry gets to be naughty. She drinks too much. When she wants a man, she just grabs one and discards him when she doesn’t want him anymore [laughs]. There’s a sort of aspirational but not practical side to Harry that makes it comedic.
What was it that intrigued you about Harry’s unlikely partnership with her young mugger, Fergus [Rohan Nedd]?
She’s an educated intellectual and yet her partner, Fergus, is a young kid from the other side of the tracks in Dublin with no education at all . . . what’s unique is they have this amazing bond where they really help one another and learn from one another. It’s intercultural, it’s interracial, it’s intergenerational . . . We haven’t seen that kind of relationship with an older woman and a younger man that is not sexual; it’s an emotional relationship, because they care about each other, but it’s not anything else.
What is it about Harry Wild as a show that stands out in the crime genre?
Something that comes from literature and academia, I think it’s very compelling because anyone who hasn’t studied or been to college will watch this and get snippets of something, then they go, “Really? Oh my gosh, I never thought of that.” They’ll look it up on their iPhone and go, “Wow, that’s amazing.” I think it’s actually broadening people’s intellectual capacity, in a way . . . Also, we haven’t really seen contemporary Dublin as contemporary Dublin. They do come to do Game of Thrones and Peaky Blinders, but they never do actual Dublin. I think it’s very interesting to see that culture, too.
There are multiple iconic roles on your CV. But are there ever times where fans stop you and you’re surprised by the film or TV show they want to talk about?
Very occasionally people will say The Scarlet Pimpernel, which I did with Ian McKellen and Anthony Andrews. Smallville, for people who are into sci-fi. Battlestar Galactica; I was in the original first two or three episodes of that. But mostly people remember, if they’re younger, Wedding Crashers, and if they’re of any age, definitely Dr. Quinn. James Bond is perennial, of course . . . and then, Harry Wild now.
Just how often do you encounter Harry Wild fans compared to, say, fans of Dr. Quinn?
It’s amazing, it doesn’t matter where I go — because this is seen all over the world. There are now Harry fans and Dr. Quinn fans, and some of them have joined up — and if they can’t have new Dr. Quinn, they really have decided they love Harry. So, it’s been a phenomenon for me . . . I do get stopped now all the time about Harry Wild. The thing I really like is, I have women over the age of 40 or 50 who just go, “I love Harry. I wish I could be Harry!”
Harry Wild, streaming on Acorn TV
MEMORABLE ROLES:
She’s best known as trailblazing frontier healer Michaela Quinn on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, which ran for six iconic seasons from 1993-1998. But English actress Jane Seymour’s career has spanned several decades and genres, with gigs as a “Bond girl” in 1973’s Live and Let Die, an era-crossed lover in 1980 fantasy Somewhere in Time and a lusty, scene-stealing socialite in 2005 comedy Wedding Crashers.
CURRENT GIG:
For four seasons and counting, this Emmy- and Golden Globe-winner has played retired Dublin literature professor Harry Wild, who is inspired to become a private eye after she’s mugged — recruiting the mugger himself to serve as her Watson.