By Maria Vultaggio
Managing Editor, Culture & Trends
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Obergruppenführer John Smith is one of the most ruthless and cunning men on Amazon Prime's The Man in the High Castle, based on the novel of the same name by Philip K Dick, about a dystopian America conquered by Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan set in 1962. Could Smith have been a different person if the Nazis hadn't won World War II in this alternate reality?
Rufus Sewell portrays the Nazi leader in the Emmy award-winning Amazon series, whose third season debuts on October 5. His character in charge of defending the Reich and obtaining the films that reveal alternative realities made by the Man in the High Castle. Obergruppenführer Smith is a seemingly strict follower of the rules who does anything to protect his country. He's also a family man who is devoted to his wife and children.
When the Nazi rules endanger his family, Smith is forced to make a decision that goes against the procedures set by the Reich. Despite the heinous acts Smith has committed, his perception as a callous monster is shattered when he concocts a plan to save his son Thomas, who has facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy. It would be easier to write Smith off as a maniacal killer, but he's not. He's a multi-dimensional character who operates by his own set of morals not determined by the Reich.
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Can you tell me what attracted you to the show and to the role of Smith particularly?
They wanted to explore was someone in an alternate timeline who might have been a good person. What was interesting to me was the idea of someone with an alternate history, someone who wasn't a bad guy, but someone whose darkness, which everyone possesses, had been leaked out by the system he lives in. I tried to, in a way, empathize with him from within as much as possible in order to examine the evils of our society. I think it's my responsibility is to humanize Smith because we let ourselves off the hook by turning these characters into cardboard monsters. It's no accident that Nazis appear in movies as zombies and werewolves and vampires. We give ourselves a break by simplifying the story like that.
In Season 2, Smith had more character development. You actually saw him break the rules.
I've been wanting for more cracks and more contradictions to show from very early on. I always considered it my responsibility make sure people wouldn't fall into the closed doors for Smith in terms of who he was and who he could be. What's interesting about Man in the High Castle is how it shows you the similarities as well as the differences because it's more chilling.
Smith is ruthless. Do you think he might want to become the leader of the Reich?
You're saying he's ruthless, but the reason he does that is also to save the world from nuclear conflict. It's not because he has a natural predilection towards brutality or racism than any other human being is capable of, or maybe he is, but he's no more capable than we might secretly be without knowing it.
As the danger towards his family mounts, his only chance at surviving is by committing ever further to that monster. I don't think he's ambitious for ambition's sake. That is sometimes a track that the narrative on its own can fall into. It's just about considering the mounting dangers, considering the people stacked up against him. You don't get to retire.
Also, you don't want him to end up with absolute power because that's anti-theatrical. I always like it when he ends up in a little bit of danger because that's how you get to see who he is and how he operates. Or if he wants to become into absolute power, I'm really hoping the writing would take that in an extraordinary surprising direction.
Why do you think the tapes created by the Man in the High Castle are so powerful?
I think it matters to him personally because the safety of his family has been on the line. If he fails, he will lose power and there are people who want to replace him. If he doesn't do what Himmler asks him to do, he's vulnerable.
The Nazis are so afraid because it's an obvious symbol that people have power over their future. It's like they can actually see the results in front of your eyes. In terms of the Man in the High Castle's influence, as a motivator of resistance, it's incredibly powerful.
Do we get to find out more about the multiple universes? How do people choose what they want to do or where they want to go?
That's something that starts to get explored. There are certain people who have a strange gift.
The Nazis are very interested in the possibilities for various reasons, but Smith, as he often does, has an interior reasoning being interested, which exists outside of any apparent political reason.
Because of what starts to happen to his family, the question of who he might have been if history had turned out differently—the idea of an alternate family in another timeline and an alternate Smith—where people whose fate might have turned out a different way turns out to be very important to him. It activates him, it's a key to what he does publicly and a lot of what he does privately. I think the idea of the alternate Smith, not being something that exists in his imagination, but something that exists in physical form somewhere else is a very powerful idea that starts to screw with his head.
Why do you love the show?
It's about the narratives that we tell ourselves in order to live. Like what Goebbels did for the Nazis. A lot of us have our own internal Goebbels that relate a story for us that makes us the hero, makes us the victim, makes it possible for fascism and Nazism to spread across a country that is not populated by evil people. That's the opportunity of this series and that's what I love about it. People might like it for different reasons, but that's what brings me in.
Can you talk about how it is relevant today and why?
I think this idea of people being able to write a narrative for themselves under the guise of being a victim are able to turn a blind eye, to great atrocities. Turning oneself into the underdog seems to be one of the steps of dehumanizing others.
We live in a world that's so polarized. One of the comforting things to do is demonize the other side in order to make yourself feel like you're on the side of the angels. This is what the Nazis did. By the time they marched into Poland, the country viewed them as people standing up for themselves. It sounds very familiar. The horror is, it could happen anywhere. It's very, very important to remind people that it could because it may happen again.
Season 3 of Man in the High Castle is available for streaming on Amazon Prime.
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