Jared Harris believes TV actors are still viewed as second class performers behind big movies stars, despite the boom in popularity of Netflix and other streaming services.
Jared Harris in Chernobyl
The son of acting great Richard Harris is about to take centre stage in Sky Atlantic's powerful new drama Chernobyl, that tales the disturbing tale of the accident at the Soviet nuclear plant in 1986 that could heave resulted in a disaster chasing the face of Eastern Europe forever.
Alongside the always impressive duo of Emily Watson and Stellan Skarsgård, Harris turns in a commanding performance in Chernobyl, yet despite the extravagant boom in television over recent years, he insists TV actors are still viewed as second class citizens in the industry by their big screen movie counterparts.
“Within the industry, there is still a perception that a movie career counts for more than TV,” added Harris, who remarried in 2013 following the break-up of his marriage to actress Emilia Fox.
“We see evidence of this see it at the Golden Globes every year. All the movie people at the front and all the TV people in the dark at the back, playing the role of the red-headed stepchild.
“Clearly, the more challenging roles and the more interesting material is on TV. Directors will still look down on TV as they cannot control it. Writers control TV and that is the difference from the movie world.
“The budget per hour will always be bigger on a movie than a TV show, but from a narrative point of view TV is just amazing and I am so proud to have been part of telling this incredible story about Chernobyl.”
Telling the chilling story of the disaster at the Russian nuclear plant in April 1986, this is a tale that reveals how close at least half of Eastern Europe came to extinction, as the Soviet state tried to cover up details of the accident to shied their embarrassment in the eye of the watching world.
Their eagerness to mastermind a cover-up so nearly had catastrophic consequences, with Harris playing the role of brace Valery Legasov, who was the leading figure in altering the Soviet state’s response to the Chernobyl disaster.
Harris believes the release of this drama is perfectly timed, as he suggested the impact from what could have occurred after the accident is can be linked to the concerns of those campaigning to protect the environment.
"It's not like we can go and live somewhere else if we mess up this planet," he added. "This is a problem that has been kicked down the road for too long and now people realise the gravity of the situation.
"The political and those making decisions for this world have not shown an appetite for taking this seriously. That's why we see millions of kids around the world attending climate change protests. They are the ones who will have to deal with the consequences of all this and the adults are the ones messing it up.
"There are direct analogies to the story we are telling here in Chernobyl, yet we still have a debate over whether climate change is down to human factors or something else. My argument there is it doesn't matter about that. We have a climate crisis and we have to deal with it, whoever you want to believe is to blame for it."
Chernobyl premieres on Sky Atlantic on Tuesday, May 7, at 9pm.
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