This image released by Acorn TV shows Jane Seymour as Harry 'Harriet" Wild from the series "Harry Wild," streaming now on Acorn TV. (Bernard Walsh/Zoe Productions DAC/Acorn TV via AP)
LONDON — Jane Seymour had fun working on her latest project, the light-hearted whodunit series “Harry Wild,” with some exceptions.
She plays a newly retired English professor in Dublin with time on her hands, who starts getting work as a private sleuth — to the dismay of her son, a police detective. Undaunted, she even takes a young apprentice under her wing. The series is streaming now on Acorn TV.
Seymour, whose credits include “War and Remembrance,” “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” and “The Kominsky Method,” said there were many creative reasons she said yes to the series — and a practical one too.
“There isn’t that much work for actresses after 40 anyway, but certainly after 70. I mean, there’s Dame Judi Dench, Helen Mirren and a couple of others. But I just thought this was just a wonderful, fun character and intelligent. And I think we want to be entertained,” she said.
Seymour, 71, did suffer for her art: She shattered a knee two weeks into the shoot while taping a scene, which had started out well.
“As I’m running across and I’ve done it, I’m silently saying to myself, ‘There you go, Jane, you could be an action character. You run like a gazelle. Who knows how old you are?'”
Things took a turn for the worse on a subsequent take.
“I’m running on asphalt, in the rain, on wet leaves with felt on the bottom (of her shoes). Splat! I landed, I thought on my chin, which I did, but I didn’t get wounded that badly. But I all the way hit my left kneecap. Anyway, the whole crew thought that the show is over, and I proved them wrong.”
A lesser annoyance involved drinking non-alcoholic red wine that was “absolutely disgusting,” eventually replaced by a better-tasting option. But Seymour said she had more trouble with acting like she was drinking shots, because she’d never done it before — and she had to toss back flat soda pop, which didn’t help.
“I do it like I’m holding an English teacup and my little finger is sticking out,” she recalled, and was told, “‘that is not how you do a shot’…. They were all laughing at me because I was getting it all over myself, the shots were going in every direction.”
That’s not to say she didn’t enjoy the occasional beverage outside of work, alongside her co-star Amy Huberman, who plays her daughter-in-law on the show.
“We all hung out on the weekend. It was COVID. We weren’t supposed to be anywhere near each other, but I had this lovely little house right on the water at Dalkey,” a posh seaside Dublin suburb, she said. “Patrick Dempsey was living in the house just across the way. We just decided to do our own COVID rules….If it was outside on my rooftop with wine or Champagne, then we could say that we were actually rehearsing.”
One unusual element in “Harry Wild” is that Seymour’s character has a younger love interest. Stuart Graham, who plays opposite her as Ray Tiernan, is 54.
Turns out her co-star was more shy about love scenes, she said.
“As scripted, we both supposed to be naked, and he just said, ‘That’s just not happening.’ So that was changed slightly,” she said. “They are talking if we come back in season two…. the father of my son might appear, and they definitely want to make sure that I have some much younger lovers.”
FALMOUTH, MA – The police in Falmouth have identified the victim in an accident involving a car plunging into the ocean on February 20, NBC10 Boston reported.
PHILADELPHIA – The Federation of Hellenic Societies of Philadelphia and Greater Delaware Valley announced that the Evzones, the Presidential Guard of Greece will be participating in the Philadelphia Greek Independence Day Parade on March 20.
Every weekend, TNH and Clelia Charissis are on a mission, traveling around Greece and the world to highlight places through the people we meet along the way.
Sign up for a subscription
Want to save this article? Get a subscription to access this feature and more!
To purchase a gift subscription, please log out of your account, and purchase the subscription with a new email ID.
On April 2, 2021, we celebrated The National Herald’s 106th Anniversary. Help us maintain our independent journalism and continue serving Hellenism worldwide.
In order to deliver a more personalized, responsive, and improved experience, we use cookies to remember information about how you use this site. By Continuing to access the website, you agree that we will store data in a cookie as outlined in our Privacy Policy.
We use cookies on our site to personalize your experience, bring you the most relevant content, show you the most useful ads, and to help report any issues with our site. You can update your preferences at any time by visiting preferences. By selecting Accept, you consent to our use of cookies. To learn more about how your data is used, visit our cookie policy.
You’re reading 1 of 3 free articles this month. Get unlimited access to The National Herald. or Log In
You’ve reached your limit of free articles for this month. Get unlimited access to the best in independent Greek journalism starting as low as $1/week.