"It’s something about the posture, and particularly his legs," says Robert Lloyd of Harris sitting in a chair near the end of the first episode of his Apple TV+ series. "Harris, as (Hari) Seldon, is slung low in his chair, with his legs shot straight out before him in a way that feels unlike anything I can remember seeing in science fiction. It’s ordinary enough, but it steers the ship in a new direction. His head rests lightly on his left hand, a finger on his temple. He scratches his ear; he scratches his beard. He is not doing anything apparently big in this scene, which follows a more standard Trial Before the Emperors (a trinity of clones in this retelling), and yet he is doing quite a lot. Seldon is not a hero in the usual sense; he’s got no moral beef with the Empire, though it is just the sort of outfit your typical sci-fi hero would naturally rebel against. He’s just a scientist, a man with a plan. His posture seems meant to communicate the fact that he’s not worried — he’s done the math — and his apparent relaxation is in itself an expression of control. (There may be a performance element in that as well; Seldon knows they’re being watched.) It’s a picture of authority not quite at rest, the way a cat may be asleep and awake, present and not present at once. What it is, of course, is acting, that most magical of crafts. (There are many good actors in the series, and Harris is not around for much of it.) He does not merely sit, of course. He stands, he walks, he speaks in his extremely pleasing Jared Harris voice. He does many things with his face that say much without showing much. The way he sits in this scene is a choice, maybe unconscious, maybe just the incidental product of years worth of stepping into characters."
