Jane Seymour

A new season of the Irish mystery thriller Harry Wild has been running on Acorn TV, featuring Jane Seymour in the title role. Seymour came to the attention of international audiences in her role as a Bond girl in Live and Let Die. She continued starring in movies while branching into theater and television, earning critical acclaim, including Emmy and Golden Globe awards. She was a role model to girls and young women, portraying a fearless, daring doctor in Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. Now, in Harry Wild, she plays an assertive, determined, straight-talking retired English professor who uses her knowledge of literature to solve crimes. Seymour talks to TV Drama about Harry and characters that appeal to her.

TVDRAMA: How did Harry Wild come about?
SEYMOUR: They sent me the script and asked me if I wanted to meet the creator, Dave Logan, which I did in London. Harry Wild was a show I’d never seen before—[with] a character close to my age who is intelligent, irreverent, independent; she ticks many boxes that many women would like to be. It was humorous but, at the same time, grounded in humanity. It’s intelligent because it refers to books and information you might not know and are now intrigued by. It doesn’t take itself too seriously.

I love the relationship between my sidekick [Fergus, played by Rohan Nedd] and me because usually [the audience would wonder if it’s a romantic relationship], and instead, here is a pure kind of love and appreciation between two people who come from such different worlds—they usually would have never met. They both enhance one another’s lives. Then there’s the crime [element] that is very different. And I love playing her. We’re doing series two and three right now, back-to-back, 12 episodes, and it’s even better. The character gets more fun. We’ve got amazing backstories going on with some of the other characters.

TV DRAMA: You’re also an executive producer on the series. What does that entail?
SEYMOUR: When we first started, it was a choice of who’s directing, what we thought about the scripts and all of that. But because I’m working such ridiculous hours and am in every scene pretty much, I’m not an admin person. I’m most useful on the set. I’m the one who sets the pace. All the actors hang out together. We don’t sit in separate dressing rooms. We rehearse together. We play together. We have fun together. We get to know each other. So by the time we come on set, the director knows we’re ready. Rather famously, we’ve been told it’s the happiest set in Ireland! Everybody wants to be on our show. I think it’s because I like working with people where all the egos are left behind, and everyone’s abilities and talents come together. We realize that we’re in it together and nothing’s ever perfect. It’s a team effort.

TV DRAMA: You’ve played dramatic and comedic roles. Do you have a preference? Is one more challenging than the other?
SEYMOUR: The most challenging thing is when I’m given material that isn’t good. The trick is to get great material. I feel as comfortable in drama as I do in comedy. So, doing something like Harry is perfect because it combines all of the above. I love doing out-and-out comedy. But to do good comedy these days, the style has to be more real than real. It’s not set-up, set-up, joke, laugh. No, that’s gone. What makes it funny is that it is deeply entrenched in something dramatic and real.

TV DRAMA: What do you look for in a role?
SEYMOUR: When I first came to America, they told me that if I could lose my English accent, I’d never stop working here. When I arrived, I couldn’t even get a work permit. My agent fired me from England, saying I had made the biggest mistake of my life. So, many of those early credits were me proving I could play Americans from all over America, and I could play anything because I come from England, where you play everything. And very early on, they pigeonholed me as a Bond girl, which is a curse and a blessing at the same time, because it presupposes that you have looks, but you can’t act. I broke the mold by going back into the theater and doing all the classics. And people said, She’s a failure; she’s going to the theater for £50 a week. No, I’m playing Lady Macbeth and doing Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. I’m playing catch-up in my craft.

If I look at my career, honestly, I’ve forgotten half the stuff I’ve done! My favorites have always been playing biographies. I loved playing Marie Antoinette in The French Revolution. I did that in two languages. I loved playing Wallis Simpson, and, of course, Maria Callas was incredible. I’ve always been a character actor. When I did Amadeus on Broadway, [director] Peter Hall said he had me because I was a dangerous actress. What does that mean? He said, Oh, you never make normal choices. You come up with very different ways of doing it that make it interesting.

I bury myself in material that I really like. If I can find some good material, I go full-on and do my best. Recently, in B Positive, executive produced by Chuck Lorre, I played an 85-year-old woman, Bette, who thinks she’s a 20-year-old rock chick and is a sexual predator in an old people’s home. That was hilarious. Brilliantly written. The Kominsky Method is brilliantly written. What a great, great role that was! Sometimes a very small role like that becomes something you’re remembered for. The speech at Norman’s [played by Alan Arkin] funeral was magical. Wedding Crashers, what a gift that was. And then a movie you probably haven’t seen called Ruby’s Choice, which I’m very proud of, and I play a woman with dementia who has a very special relationship with a grandchild. I love what I do. If I think [a project] is good, there are good people attached to it, and I think I have something to offer, whether it’s a small or large role, I do it.

TV DRAMA: You were a role model as Dr. Quinn. It wasn’t usual to see a woman who thought she could do anything a man could do and do it with grace. And now Harry Wild. She’s vibrant, determined and brilliant. And she has a mouth, I have to say!
SEYMOUR: A mouth and a taste for red wine! Harry Wild is very much an independent woman who’s smart but also learns; she is compassionate but not overly soppy. She’s very sexy and sexually aroused but has never been married. If she sees what she wants, she enjoys it and then moves on. Like some men we know, right? Harry is still very feminine, but she doesn’t have to be in lace and frilly feminine [clothes]. You made a point about Dr. Quinn being a role model. Harry Wild has become a role model for my generation now—for many women who gave up and said, Well, I did the marriage, and then he ran off. I did the kids, and they’ve gone off. I’m lost as to who I am or what I’m doing, and I realize I didn’t do anything with my life. Or they were intellectuals, and they never had children. It’s about being a whole woman and not being afraid to be it. Harry is around murderers and dangerous people with a stun gun—quite useless! But she uses her wit, intellect and snarkiness to win cases. I love that. I’m hearing from a lot of women and men. Men love this show, too, by the way. And it crosses generations. My son is the know-it-all detective who doesn’t know it all. He’s got a wife who has programmed their child to be the perfect child. She doesn’t know it all. Fergus’s family are alcoholics. And then there’s my granddaughter, whom I now have a relationship with on the show. That’s fun because she’s also getting in on the act. So it’s quite a young show. But whereas in most shows, I would just be the grandmother, this is my show, and there are two other generations. I love that because Harry’s life is a three-generational, day-to-day life on the show. And in real life, I’m very close with my grandchildren and my children. I love their friends and doing what they love to do. I haven’t put my feet up and just said, hey, I’m going to try to play bad golf. I’m perfectly capable of bad golf, and I enjoy it. But I don’t need to do that.

TV DRAMA: I recently read an article that said the key to remaining mentally young as one ages is to be with younger generations as much as possible.
SEYMOUR: I produced the movie I’ll Be Me about Glen Campbell and then played a woman with [dementia] in Ruby’s Choice. I realized I want to challenge myself now. I went back into the theater. I did The Vortex on stage in Singapore. I feel I’m in my prime now. I know that sounds ridiculous, but I don’t feel like some people I know who are doing what they can to look younger. I appreciate every moment that I have. I’ve lost so many friends already, and so many are ailing. I know it’s my time next, too.