The Mad Men star and son of Richard Harris talks about returning to Hamlet for the RSC — and the pleasures and perils of having famous parents
The opening night of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s new Hamlet is just days away and the windows of the rehearsal space in south London have been flung open to clear the aroma of instant coffee and stressed-out actors. It is, as Jared Harris, who plays Hamlet’s usurping uncle Claudius, puts it, “Alex Ferguson squeaky-bum time”.
Directed by the Olivier-winning Rupert Goold, the cast features Anton Lesser (Wolf Hall) as the Ghost of Hamlet’s father, Elliot Levey (another Olivier winner, for Cabaret) as Polonius and the fast-rising Luke Thallon as Hamlet. Harris, though, will be the reason many people make the trek to Stratford-upon-Avon. The 63-year-old is one of our most successful and engaging character actors, having played the tragically uptight English accountant Lane Pryce in Mad Men; a noble Soviet scientist in Chernobyl, for which he won a Bafta; a weary captain in The Terror; and a movingly vulnerable George VI in The Crown….
