The role Ed Harris only played for the money: “You know, it’s a payday”
Ed Harris has got to be one of the most underrated actors of all time.
A quick glance at his Wikipedia page reveals a treasure trove of great films, with Apollo 13, A History of Violence, A Beautiful Mind, and The Rock being just some of the titanic titles that have received the icon’s seal of approval.
Even after celebrating his 70th birthday in 2020, Harris continues to be involved in some really interesting stuff, playing a skullet-sporting gangster in Rose Glass’ zeitgeist-capturing thriller Love Lies Bleeding in 2024, and following that up with an acclaimed comedy-drama called My Dead Friend Zoe: tell me you don’t want to see that one solely based on its name. Sometimes, though, you’ve got to put artistic integrity to one side in order to pay the mortgage.
Speaking to Reel Life, Reel Stories, Harris revealed that he took a role in a prominent series because the money was right, and it was a chance to work with somebody he admired, but the money was the big one, just so we’re clear.
“You take on a National Treasure, which was, you know, it’s a payday,” he said, “It’s not some kind of character [that’s] gonna take you tons of research, or that is that complex, or that interesting a human being. He’s, you know, it’s a bad guy in a movie, you know. And you’re working with Helen Mirren and a bunch of other people who’re doing it probably for the same reason, and you’re trying to make an entertaining film.”
In case you were wondering where Ed Harris is in the first National Treasure movie, the veteran star misspoke as he’s actually in the second film, Book of Secrets, showing you just how invested he was in the project. He plays a black market dealer who accuses the movie’s hero, Ben Gates, played by Harris superfan Nicolas Cage, of being a descendent of a Confederate traitor, and Mirren plays Gates’ mother, in one of the strangest, yet subtly brilliant pieces of casting in history.
If you grew up in the early 2000s, chances are you have a soft spot for these zany historical adventures about a guy stealing the Declaration of Independence and kidnapping the president of the United States, and while the National Treasure franchise might not be as high-brow as some of Harris’ other films, but they hold a special place in a lot of people’s hearts.
This nostalgia for the series was strong enough for Disney to create a TV show, Edge of History, set in the same universe, and a third film is allegedly in the works, so we’ll have to wait and see if he’s up for earning another cheque in the mail.
Not every film can be Citizen Kane, nor should they be; cinema is at its best when it’s diverse, when there are thousands of creative people working on all sorts of weird and wonderful projects at the same time to varying degrees of success. The fact that Harris’ CV includes this, The Truman Show, and Mother! is testament not only to his individual brilliance, but to the glory of the medium as a whole.
