Jonathan Pryce is no stranger to playing villains. Having starred as Bond villain Elliot Carver opposite Pierce Brosnan's 007 in Tomorrow Never Dies, 'The Master' in Doctor Who, and dangerous religious leader the High Sparrow in Game of Thrones, the Welsh actor certainly knows how to be a baddie.
Now, he's back on our screens in Netflixs new sci-fi drama 3 Body Problem as environmentalist turned oil tycoon Mike Evans, who welcomes the eventual invasion of Earth from advanced alien race, the San-Ti.
Warning! Spoilers for episode 4 ahead.
"Mike Evans is gulled into thinking it's this positive force and they're coming to save the world from itself," says Jonathan, 76, whose character leads a cult-like doomsday organisation onboard a large oil tanker, acting as a communication hub and with the San-Ti.
"He doesn't see himself as a bad guy, he doesn't see himself as a villain. Very few do. When I've played villains in the past, like all of us, you think what you're doing is the right thing.
© Ed Miller/Netflix"He's not judging himself. He's positive that he's doing the right thing. He truly believes they are coming to save the world and he's going to be part of that salvation."
While playing the High Sparrow in Game of Thrones, Jonathan found it useful to make connections between his character and the modern day, and subsequently based him on Pope Francis. Although he didn't have a real-life counterpart in mind while filming 3 Body Problem, he compares Evans to tech mogul Elon Musk. "Except I think his belief system is stronger than Elon Musk's," he jokes.
So, what is it that attracts Jonathan to playing villains? Is it the sheer fun of playing a baddie?
"It's fun to play," he agrees. "I've been doing it for 52 years and there are things that are innate and things you absorb. I find it very easy to absorb characteristics," says Jonathan, who signed onto the role while filming season five of The Crown, in which he stars as Prince Philip.
© Ed Miller/Netflix"With Prince Philip, all I had to do was watch newsreels of him, I'd never heard him speak," revealed the actor. "So that research was interesting but I knew what kind of man he was. But Mike Evans is someone with enormous confidence and when you're that rich and that powerful, you don't have to do that much. It's how other characters react to you."
It was also the opportunity to reunite with showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, who co-created Game of Thrones.
© HBO"Working with them again, whatever it was going to be, was going to be a really good experience," says Jonathan. "They're great producers. They're on set nearly all the time. They have great energy."
Most of Jonathan's scenes took place onboard the oil tanker Judgment Day in a set built at Shepperton Studios in Surrey. Viewers of the drama will know that Evans spends a lot of time in a locked-off room talking to the San-Ti via a microphone – scenes Jonathan says were "fun to do".
"People ask me, 'What's it like acting with this speaker?' My response has been, 'It's not the first time acting with something so wooden'," he jokes.
© Netflix"Once you're in that very bare, austere room, I was very comfortable thinking it was my space and I'd chosen to share it with whoever I thought I was talking to. It's all mind games you're doing anyway when you're acting," he says.
"It's another day at the office."
3 Body Problem is available to stream on Netflix.
