NORSE SENSE
New series: Scandinavian women with mighty morphin’ powers
THE jury is out regarding which role has cemented Guy Pearce’s status as a show business celebrity.
“It depends on the person who stops me in the street,” says Pearce, 50. “A lot of people talk [to me] about ‘ LA Confidential’ or ‘ Memento.’ But quite often it’s ‘ Mildred Pierce,’ or in the UK it’s ‘ Neighbours,’ which was a television show I was on 30 years ago — but for some people it’s still really present.
“Then, of course, there are people who only know me from bigger studio films like “Prometheus” or “Iron Man.”
Pearce’s latest project, the eight-episode Netflix series “The
Innocents,” finds him playing Halvorson, a scientist on a remote Norwegian outpost studying several women who have the ability to morph into other people when they’re stressed (it’s complicated). The series premieres Friday.
In a parallel plotline, a young teen couple (Sorcha Groundsell and Percelle Ascott) runs away from home to be together — only to discover the girl has the same shape-shifting condition.
“Even though I’ve done lots of things that have extreme storylines, for me it’s about the psychology of the characters,” says Pearce. “If that stuff is treated with real integrity and complexity, that’s what I’m interested in — more than something to be set in a futuristic world or [in a] war situation. [Director] Farren Blackburn wanted the tone of the show to remain like a drama, as opposed to a typically science fiction-oriented sort of show.”
Pearce was also drawn to the location, since “The Innocents” was filmed in London — where he owns a home — and in Nor- way, where he’d never been before shooting the series.
“It was so fantastic being out there on the mountainous fjords, just taking in that landscape,” he says. “I was completely in my element out there.”
Although many people haven’t ventured that far north, it’s surprising for Pearce, since the Australian-born actor isn’t exactly travel-shy. In addition to his home in London he has houses in Melbourne and Amsterdam — where his partner, Carice van Houten (who plays Melisandre, aka The Red Woman, on “Game
of Thrones”), lives with their two-year old son, Monte.
Pearce says that becoming a first-time father in his late forties has impacted his life in a way he can’t yet fully parse. “It probably has [changed my life] but I’m not sure how, yet,” he says. “He might make me more patient.”
It’s also impacted which of his homes he uses most often.
“I have to go wherever the work is, but as far as a basis, I want to spend more time with my little boy now, and he lives in Amsterdam with his mum,” says Pearce. “Carice and I try to see each other as much as we can obviously for ourselves but also for Monte.
“Being away from him is harder as time goes on, I find. The more I connect with him and communicate with him — the more we develop a bond — the more difficult it is to be away.”