In Isaac Asimov's Foundation book series, Salvor Hardin is a fan-favorite character: a wise and long-ruling head of state with legendary galactic diplomacy skills. In Apple TV+'s big-budget adaptation, Salvor Hardin looks a little different, and not just because he's been gender-swapped. Played vivaciously by Leah Harvey, Salvor has been reimagined as a kick-ass young heroine with ferocious intelligence, startling intuition, and an inexplicable connection to the Vault (a mysterious artifact on Salvor's home world of Terminus).
Their first on-screen role, the production has catapulted Harvey, who comes from a theater background, into a new galaxy. And with Season One of the cult hit wrapped, they'll next star alongside Julia Louis-Dreyfus in Tuesday, an upcoming "fairytale" film from A24. Zooming from their home in London, Harvey beams across the screen, exuberant and grateful for the strange journey.
The Season One finale of Foundation, which just aired this week, ends with a major twist. Salvor discovers that her parents, Mari and Abass Hardin, did not conceive her; rather, Mari carried a fertilized egg retrieved from cold storage, meaning that Salvor's biological parents are Gaal Dornick and Raych Foss. Salvor's psychic abilities aren't linked to Hari Seldon and the Vault, as she suspected, but to her biological mother. Determined to find her, Salvor travels through time and space until they're united. Mother and daughter finally meet, then Foundation cuts to black.
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Just what should we make of this major cliffhanger? Harvey lets us in as much as they can.
Esquire: Take us back to the beginning of your Foundation journey. When you first read the script, what attracted you to the part of Salvor Hardin?
Leah Harvey: With this script, I read a scene of Salvor's that I had to learn in an hour, because it came out of nowhere. I was auditioning for Gaal Dornick, and [creator and show-runner] David Goyer said, “I see you as a Salvor.” I had to learn the script in an hour, but when I read this little scene, I understood why he’d done this. It rolled off my tongue and the attitude felt right; I felt like I could really get my teeth into this. I felt very much at one with it. As time went on, I felt more and more at one with it.
ESQ: What was the scene? Is it something that ended up in the final show?
LH: It was the interrogation scene in Episode Four, when Salvor flips the coin and freaks Phara out. It didn't really change, from the audition to the finished product. I had to learn all of those lines in an hour in a park in the middle of Soho. We eventually did that scene a good year and a half later. I cried after doing that scene. David came and gave me a cuddle. I thought, “Finally! I can forget those lines.”
ESQ: What was your relationship to the Foundation novels, or to Asimov's work more broadly, before you took on this part?
LH: Before I went to the auditions, I had never heard of Isaac Asimov. I probably knew of him, as we all do, unknowingly. We know of his work because it has influenced so many other things, but I wasn't massively familiar with him. I'm a bit of a nerd, so once I got the part and gave myself permission to invest in it, I started reading the books. I really, really enjoyed them. Cassian Bilton, who plays Dawn—he and I would constantly be talking about the stories. We still talk about them now.
ESQ: In the Foundation novels, so many of the speaking parts are reserved for male characters, while female characters are given comparatively little to say. The AppleTV+ show has made smart, welcome updates by gender-swapping characters like Gaal, Demerzel, and of course, Salvor. How important do you think it was to make those changes?
LH: I don't think it was important. I think it was just a given to change the things that don't match our world today. It was written and published in a time where only men were really reading these books. Society's view of what woman could or couldn't do was massively different from today, and views on the concept of gender were very different.
It's great to be able to play a part like this. It's like when you do Shakespeare—sometimes you want to play Henry IV, not Miranda. You want to be Poins, not Rosaline. You want to be someone who has something to talk about other than love. It was a really great opportunity to play a character whose foundation wasn’t gendered. They weren't who they were because they were a woman or a man.
ESQ: It seems like a great time to be starring in a literary adaptation in that what’s on the page doesn’t have to remain fixed. We’re living in a time where filmmakers feel freer than ever to take liberties with the source material.
LH: It's really true. When we adapt a novel, the novel exists as what it is. I'm a big fan of the Harry Potter series, but I wouldn't want to see a page by page carbon copy on the screen. That’s boring. I know what's going to happen. I want to see the same feelings invoked, but in a new and clever way. That’s what Foundation is doing.
ESQ: What have you heard from fans about Salvor Hardin? What's the response to the character been like?
LH: It's been great. There's been a good amount of appreciating her badassery and her no-nonsense attitude. There's a lot of mystery surrounding Salvor, so people are interested in what her connection is to certain people. She’s trying to find her purpose and she might not necessarily be correct. She’s a character who definitely has space to develop. Hopefully in Season Two, we'll get to see more of her kind of cheekiness. She's very funny—she's got that in her. It's just that she didn't have the opportunity to show the world in Season One, because there was a crisis.
ESQ: You made this show during the pandemic. How does spending so much time in a science fiction universe change your relationship to reality, especially when reality is so surreal?
LH: At the beginning, it was interesting to go from a spaceship to home in a split second. That sudden transition threw a lot of us. It’s strange, but it’s our job to be immersed in it, and then be able to live our lives outside of it. Because of the pandemic, we had to stay in bubbles. In the second half of filming, we spent months and months together, and we all became very close. We were a proper team, and I’ll never forget it.
ESQ: It's interesting to see Salvor get sex scenes, which is rare for a science fiction show.
LH: I think it's great. Those scenes are done very well in that they're not showing you every detail. It's just a small vignette of that moment, so that you know what exists between them, and you see that intimacy and connection. It makes them human, and it shows you what Salvor stands to lose. Even with her mom or her dad, there are moments of intimacy with them—hugs, touches, and moments of vulnerability. Those moments show what Salvor could lose if she doesn’t solve this crisis.
ESQ: You have a lot of intense action sequences in this series. From hand-to-hand combat to shooting a bow and arrow, what was the process of becoming an action hero like for you?
LH: I think I was born an action hero. I love all that stuff, and I've always been a big mover. I was a dancer from the age of 11. I started karate when I was younger than that. I've got all of those things in my toolbox, so it was an absolute dream to go on set, rehearse these fight scenes, then film them. But the great thing is that Salvor is so much more than an action hero. There’s that duality in her.
ESQ: Many of those action sequences see Salvor squaring off against Phara. This is one of the chewiest dynamics on the show. Why does Phara push Salvor’s buttons so much?
LH: In another universe, Phara and Salvor would be lovers. In another universe, they'd be best friends, because they have this respect for each other. Phara came along and gave Salvor a purpose. Salvor was waiting for something to do. Now she's got this adversary, and they work together really well. It was a great challenge for us as actors to delve into that relationship and see how it works on screen. It was a lot of fun—stressful, but fun.
ESQ: What can you tell us about what to expect from Season Two?
LH: I don't think I can say anything, really. But we're going to see a continuation of these characters. We're going to see them develop. We’re going to see another crisis emerging, and everybody's going to be dealing with in different ways. I'm excited for Season Two, and I hope that the audience is as well.
source: https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a38301344/leah-harvey-foundation-interview/
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