The Only Westworld Storyline That Got a Big Fat 'No' from Ed Harris
Westworld series, which was cancelled by HBO just this fall for showing poor performance, was once a great show offering its fans unorthodox twists and featuring popular Hollywood heavyweights such as Anthony Hopkins and Ed Harris.
The latter played William/Man in Black in the sci-fi horror series. But as strange as it may seem, he was not quite happy with portraying his character and even criticized one of the show's seasons – Season 3 to be precise.
In his interview with Vulture Harris discussed one particular scene featuring four versions of his character when its older incarnation was fighting with the young one, inhabited by Jimmi Simpson.
"It was fun to actually get a chance to work with him a little bit, even if it was a little bizarre," he said in his 2020 interview.
"You do what you gotta do. I mean, I signed on to play the Man in Black. I didn't sign on to play the Man in White," Harris said back then, referring to being confined to be dressed all in white.
"So it wasn't the most joyous season for me, I gotta say," the actor added. Also, The Man in White kills all versions of himself, Man in Black included, and wakes up being "the good guy."
Harris also admitted that it was frustrating to know nothing about the full arc of the character he was playing as the showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy "left it up in the air".
Some of the show's fans did actually understand what Harris had to say. He is a method actor, so they said that it had to be draining emotionally to get into the character. As Man in Black he probably had more fun playing a bad guy in the Western park, they said.
Others believe that the Man in White was rather a difficult part to play since accessing all of those emotions can be uncomfortable for any actor.
A lot of Harris fans just asked why Joy and Nolan would not tell their main cast their characters' arcs because knowing their progression would simply make it easier for the actors to portray them. It is no secret that for some actors this can be terribly frustrating. A lot of them need to know where their character goes so that they could play the scene in a certain way and keep the momentum heading towards that goal.
Nonetheless, Harris survived all the 4 seasons of the Westworld franchise and said just this past July that he was expecting to start filming Season 5 in Spring 2023. As we all know now, he was wrong in his prognosis.