Jane Seymour On How She Prepared For Her Harry Wild Role - Exclusive
Legendary actress Jane Seymour is back on the small screen, this time as a retired English literature professor-turned-detective in Acorn TV's "Harry Wild." In fact, according to Acorn TV's official description of the series, Seymour's character, Harriet "Harry" Wild, is actually interfering in her son's investigations, as he's the professional detective. But a combination of studying literature for years and being relegated to the classroom has made Harry want to get her hands dirty, so when she has an encounter with a mugger, she takes it upon herself to begin her own unlicensed detective work.
Over the years, Seymour's net worth has accrued from long-running series and massive films like "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" and "Wedding Crashers," with each role she takes allowing her to reinvent herself. After all, her earliest acting credit on IMDb dates back to 1969. Since then, she has portrayed countless characters in countless professions on different life paths.
Still, Seymour must prepare for each role with diligence, just like any other actor. In an exclusive interview with The List, the "Somewhere in Time" actor revealed precisely how she prepared for her "Harry Wild" role. (Hint: Seymour didn't address Agatha Christie's body of work or other similar murder mystery texts.)
Jane Seymour leaned into the scripts to portray Harry
Murder mysteries are popular on the small and big screens alike — take "Death on the Nile," which was released in February. Still, many are serious and dark, while "Harry Wild" takes the comedic route to create something that's both a murder mystery by nature but light enough to be enjoyed after a long day.
To that tune, Jane Seymour didn't feel the need to extensively research the drama to prepare to play Harry. "No, it was all there in the script," Seymour told us. "What I did do was research what English professors looked like and how they behaved and what they would be like and whether this made sense, and it did." On bringing Harry to life through her wardrobe, she continued, "I created the look, which was not a look I've done before. I [used] leather jackets and rain coats and no makeup, hair stuck with the pencil in it."
While she didn't research the murder mystery genre much, Seymour admitted that she did do some reading. "When I was reading some of the murders that are connected to literature, I reread at least the CliffsNotes of what that book was, so I had a pretty good idea of why and how that worked," she revealed.
The COVID-19 pandemic allowed Seymour to bond with the cast, too, which translated into their rapport on screen. "We'd all come together and over a glass of wine or two, we would talk about the characters, we'd read the lines," she said. "I don't think I've ever had an experience where we were all really that close."
Acorn TV's "Harry Wild" premiered on April 4, with new episodes airing weekly thereafter.