Sean Harris

Sean Harris's deadpan delivery is often more unsettling than an open display of anger. His sharp features and nervy presence help, but we value the credibility he gives characters who might otherwise be dismissed as villains. The breakthrough was Ian Curtis in 24 Hour Party People (2002), followed by a reputation built in British independent films and television. Southcliffe (2013), in which he plays Stephen Morton, belongs to that work; the larger Hollywood parts did not replace it.

His Solomon Lane returns in Christopher McQuarrie's Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018), after Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015). Harris is sensible casting for an antagonist here: his grounded acting suits a film that needs its danger to feel real. We were gripped by Fallout, because Tom Cruise's physical effort makes the danger matter and McQuarrie keeps the action clear. The spy plot is needlessly tangled, and the 147-minute running time is generous, but those are caveats to a strong recommendation. Harris's threatening presence fits the film; we would not pretend he is the principal reason to watch.

The Gold (2023) makes a different use of him, as Gordon Parry within Neil Forsyth's ensemble crime drama. We recommend its first series for the pleasure it takes in the business of shifting stolen gold, and for the plotting that keeps that business entertaining. It is a good place to see him without asking a single performance to justify the whole evening. The lectures about class require patience, and no amount of forceful acting can make them less like lectures.

The reservation about Harris is how readily that unsettling quality can become the whole assignment. His changes of appearance and manner in Possum (2018) point to more deliberate character work, but repeated antagonists risk making the casting itself predictable. We do not need every performance to be a surprise, and intensity is hardly a fault in a thriller. We would, however, welcome more parts that do not ask us to suspect him immediately.