The Mule is the big villain of Foundation Season 3, but what should we expect? In the lead-up to the third season of the hit AppleTV+ series, Nerdgazm spoke with actor Pilou Asbæk about his portrayal of the iconic villain in the upcoming season. Foundation Season 3 turns up the heat with an explosive third season as Empire, Foundation, and The Mule go head to head for control over the galaxy. Read our interview with Pilou below, or watch the video on the Nerdgazm YouTube channel.
Portraying The Mule in Foundation Season 3
Jack: Thank you for joining us today. It’s a pleasure to be talking Foundation Season 3 with you. We’re going to be talking about The Mule, who you are playing-
Pilou: I hope so!
Jack: The villain in Foundation, what was it like to come in and cause chaos in this universe?
Pilou: I love your energy, that is very Mule-ish. I don’t know! It was incredibly fun; I thoroughly enjoyed playing the character. The thing is, Foundation is an international show – I am from Denmark, if I do anything from Denmark, I call it a national show. I am home, I am with my wife and daughter, and I am very happy. When I am doing international projects, I feel like a tourist, and it needs to be fun. It is like being in Disneyland. So, if you have to be 6 months in Prague or Spain, or South America, all over the world, and you can’t bring your family because of school, it needs to be fun. That is how I thought The Mule had to be fun, and he had to be spectacular, and he had to bring chaos.
Pilou: He did it, a lot! He actually did it so much that he almost had The Foundation and The Empire collaborate!
Pilou Talks Playing The Villain
Jack: You’ve played villainous characters before in other projects, but what is different about The Mule in Foundation? What makes this villain tick?
Pilou: This might take up two minutes of our six-minute interview, if you’re okay with that?
Jack: Go right ahead!
Pilou: So, I have done a ton of villains. The reason I have done so many is that I am Danish, and I will always have an accent. Apparently, if you are doing American or British films and you have an accent, you are evil. I like villains. Perhaps it’s because I always try to make them as three-dimensional as possible. I always try to make them Human and understandable. No one is a villain in their own life. Regarding Foundation, I played Euron Greyjoy in Game of Thrones – he was a villain for a past couple of seasons of that series – and David S. Goyer, the showrunner, called me.
Pilou: David called me and said, “I have this role for you.” You will be walking in the footsteps of Mikael Persbrandt, whom I love, and he is an icon in Scandinavia. He said I saw the work you did on Game of Thrones. I thought it was amazing – “This is very different, he was a Pirate, this is different Pilou, do you mind reading the script?”.
Pilou: Being a big fan of David and the things he has written, I was like “Yes, I would love to read the script” and Foundation, of course. I got the script and the first description of The Mule was “Space Pirate” *laughs*, common David! You said something very different. We changed it, and we made The Mule a little bit different from the books. As a result, he was a bit more like an interpretation of what I thought was interesting and what David wanted him to be on the show.
The Chaos of Foundation Season 3
Jack: The third season sees you go head to head with Foundation, Empire and anyone who gets in your way, really – without spoiling it, I do have to wonder, who was the most to act alongside or go against in Foundation Season 3?
Pilou: The main cast is phenomenal, so I did not mind who I was standing in front of, I just felt lucky and blessed to be a part of the show and working with incredible actors and actresses. It’s always difficult to pick one, and you shouldn’t do that, but I have a scene – I have two scenes that I really enjoyed – I have a lot of scenes I enjoyed. I loved working with Scarlett, the little girl.
Pilou: Whle I am talking about it, more and more scenes are popping up that I really ejjoed. I loved the introduction to The Mule. There is a specific scene in it where when we are having our fist meeting with David and the writers, I wanted to add a tiny element to it. Have you seen the first episode?
Jack: I have!
Pilou: The *Bites finger* – That was my idea!
Pilou: I wanted to do something – when The Mule does what he does, when he does the thing in the first episode, it is spectacular, but you have to ground it in something between two people. So I force him to do something out of his own free will, and therefore we’re telling the story of what The Mule is capable of.
Pilou: Working with Jared Harris, I loved that. I am a big fan of him. Working with Lou is amazing. The other scene that I loved was working with Synnøve & Cassian, in two different setups. Actually, I am just mentioning all the people I have been working with on this season. I love working with them all of them!
Jack: Great cast! Thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us today!
All ahead to Foundation Season 3!
Thanks to AppleTV+ for giving Nerdgazm the chance to speak with Pilou Asbæk. Stick around this week, as we have more interviews from the cast of Foundation.
The complete first and second seasons of “Foundation” are now streaming globally on Apple TV+. The 10-episode season will debut globally with one episode on Friday, July 11, on Apple TV+, followed by new episodes weekly, every Friday, through September 12. The Apple Original drama is produced for Apple TV+ by Skydance Media, not Skydance Television.
This Interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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