Foundation's Lee Pace Had No Backup For His Nude Season 2 Fight Scene
Apple TV's "Foundation" is one of the best-looking shows on TV, a big-budget, epic-scope sci-fi story spanning centuries. Based on Isaac Asimov's eponymous series of books, one of the most influential sci-fi book series ever, "Foundation" tells the story of The Foundation, a band of exiles who try to save the dying Galactic Empire from destruction by rebelling against it.
The first season was a commendable, but very dense adaptation with too many characters, storylines, worlds, and lots of lore. But the second season is doing a spectacular job at balancing the dense information with some good pulpy sci-fi that adds action, romance, and silliness to the story.
There is no better example of this than the opening scene of the second season, in which Emperor Cleon XVII (Lee Pace) is attacked by assassins in his private chambers and fights them completely in the nude — right after some steamy hot sex with his robot aid/mother figure/counselor, Demerzel (Laura Birn).
Speaking with Moviefone, showrunner David S. Goyer said the fact that the scene was in the nude meant there was no backup for Pace when it came to stunts.
"[Pace] said, 'It's going to be really hard to double me for this scene.' I said, 'Yeah, I don't think we can double you at all.' But fortunately, he was game and he completely committed himself. He worked out like hell for it. But more importantly, he learned the fight choreography. He did not use a stunt double for that sequence at all, and he had to do the entirety of it, which we filmed over four days, completely nude. That is commitment."
A tale of three emperors
Not only is the scene a weird yet exciting way to start the second season of "Foundation," but it hints at the best part of the adaptation — the Cleons. You see, Pace doesn't only play Emperor Cleon, he specifically plays Brother Day, the middle of three clones of Cleon. In order to make his empire infinite, Cleon I decided to forego the traditional line of succession in favor of cloning himself. Except there's not just one clone, but three: Dawn is a teenager, Day is an adult man, and Dusk is the retired emperor.
Though they are meant to be the same person — it can be occasionally creepy to see them act exactly the same — the difference in age and experiences provide subtle differences in the way each Cleon acts. This leads to fantastic dynamics, because Dawn considers himself vastly different from Day, but recognizes he might turn into him no matter what he does.
Making matters more complicated, Brother Day decides at the beginning of the season that he is ending the genetic dynasty by getting married and having heirs the old-fashioned way, which means there won't be any more clones, and Dawn and Dusk will become useless and expendable. What that means for the rest of "Foundation" is best left to the actual episodes to explore.