You may know Martin Harris as the memorable Boravian General to the President of Boravia in the latest DC film, Superman, but you have definitely seen his face before.
Martin has really made a name for himself in the industry through his many guest starring and recurring roles in projects like “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “Young Sheldon,” “NCIS: Los Angeles,” “Stranger Things,” “General Hospital,” the list goes on and on.
We got to speak with Martin about epic origin story that led him to Superman:
Before we talk about Superman, you have a really cool actor origin story. You’re a sports journalist in Poland. You speak 13 languages. You’re an art collector. It’s one of those, like, what can’t you do? So what? Like, who or what inspired you to start acting?
Martin: Yeah, it came late in my life. I tried different things but never could find one thing that would fulfill me. So, I was jumping between careers and it worked out, so I didn’t have a reason to abandon any of that… My father is a professor, so I started thinking that I’m gonna be a historian. And then I started a rock band, a heavy metal band. We couldn’t agree on the type of music we wanted to play, because it was the time when grunge became popular, and my guitar player wanted to play more of a dirty sound, but I wanted a metallic sound.The band didn’t go anywhere because of that… I was hanging out with rock musicians in my hometown, and I was talking to a label, so I was already trying to get us to the next level. But unfortunately, the band ceased to exist. I didn’t know what to do, and then the label asked me, ‘hey, why don’t you write some reviews for us?’ So, I started doing that. Then I started working part time for a local radio station, going to concerts, and interviewing musicians. Then I was writing for the biggest rock magazine in Poland…
When I turned 19 or 20, I really wanted to go on my own, and, you know, start my own life outside of my parents. I decided the easiest thing for me to do in terms of making money would be a sports writer. I liked sports, I knew a little bit about sports, and there was just more demand for that than for progressive rock articles. So, I started being a sports writer. And because I spoke German and English, I already had a major advantage over most of my colleagues in that field, and I advanced very, very, very quickly. Almost a year later, I was already in New York at the NBA All Star game as a Polish correspondent sent by a Polish basketball magazine. And then everything went very quickly. I worked with the biggest magazines, biggest newspapers. I worked for national TV, I had my own show on TV, I was broadcasting games, mainly soccer and basketball games, and I made a very good life with that. I started coming to the United States almost every year, mainly to the east coast, but then I went to LA for the first time in 2003. In 2005, I was approached by a new newspaper that was just starting out and they offered me a good salary. I decided to accept that offer. They had such ambitions, but after six months, the newspaper kind of didn’t make the impact they had expected so they decided to shut it down. They gave us all six months in advance and sent us home. For me, it was a big shock, because for the previous seven years, I was traveling all around the world, writing, working as a reporter, working around the clock and living a good life. I remember that on my way out of the publishing house, I stopped by a store. I was 28 at the time, and in that store, I saw some books. One book intrigued me, a collection of 20 of the greatest movies of all time.
As I was watching those films, I started getting some ideas. I felt like I was reaching my creative end as a sports writer, sports broadcaster. I didn’t want to do it for the rest of my life. It was a time of reflection. I started thinking about being a screenwriter, but then I bought myself a home cinema setup, thinking, ‘okay, I kind of like acting too. Maybe I should go to an acting class, and that way I’ll understand screenwriting better.’ So I went to Los Angeles.. I went to a play that was called Salomé. The lead role was played by Al Pacino, and the supporting role was played by, at the time, a completely unknown actress named Jessica Chastain. That planted a seed in my head.
I went back to Poland and I came back again in 2007 for three weeks. I worked for my last and final newspaper in Poland. They sent me over to cover [basketball] games. And, I knew Kobe Bryant for about, at this point, nine years, because we met in 1998 on my first trip, when I went to New York for the All Star Weekend. And I remember I loved Los Angeles, like everybody who comes to us, Los Angeles for first two weeks. Loveless loves Los Angeles, right? I love Los Angeles so much that I’m like, wow, I really like it here. I could live here. So, I approached Kobe after the game against the Seattle SuperSonics and asked him, ‘what should I do? Should I stick to what I have in life, living a stable, good life, or should I go crazy, move here, and go to acting school and try acting?’ He said, ‘What is your heart telling you?’ I said, ‘my heart telling you is telling me to try acting.’ Then he looked into my eyes and he said, ‘then remember, always follow your heart,’ and I did.
He also told me that people didn’t give him a shot when he was a kid and, you know, looking back, that sounds pretty ridiculous. He said, ‘You know, my dad was a basketball player. Everybody was telling me, nobody’s better than my dad. No basketball player is better than my dad,’ yet he was and much better. So yeah, at this moment, I decided to come over.
That really puts into perspective the amount of work that goes into any career. We all work hard and things could change very quickly, so we might as well live our dreams and pursue them.
Martin: I worked very hard from day one, you know, I really tried. It was a process, you know, to even unlearn a certain way of speaking. I’ve never done any acting in my life until I was 31, like I’ve never done the class, I didn’t watch movies. I wasn’t really in that space. I didn’t watch movies until I was 28, I didn’t watch any movies at all, only James Bond movies. Those were the only movies I watched. I was a fan of James Bond movies, but that’s about it. So, I started from like zero or even a minus one level. I didn’t fully dive into Kobe’s words until 2020, when I was already acting and I already had some credits. I did a bunch of different things, but I was still kind of torn, because when I was pursuing acting, I would still do a little bit of sports writing on the side. I wrote two books about basketball, I was doing stand up comedy, I was producing a show at the Comedy Store for three years that got me my first agent, you know, I was still doing a lot of different things because I was unsure of myself, I was not confident in that choice. But then I saw Kobe Three weeks before he died, and I remember, he gave me a hug, and then he was gone. I started thinking about what he told me back in 2008 and I realized that I only took one half of [that advice] into my life. Follow your dreams, sure, I took that. But once you do, you gotta do it like 110%.
That’s what he did with his dreams, and that’s what I did after 2020. And the results came right away, like right away, even with the pandemic and everything going on. Since 2020, my life has changed. I got all those big shows and films because I put my full focus into it.
That’s incredible, and now you’re in Superman, and things are just going to keep going up and up and up for you. Diving into Superman a little bit more. I was told that you didn’t quite know exactly what you were filming until you got to set.
Martin: I know, some people ask me that, but that’s not quite it. When I auditioned for it, I didn’t know what it was. It had a project name of Genesis. And it’s a fun story, because I taped most of my auditions at SAG AFTRA facilities, because I like to tape where there’s an actual camera in the room, I just love it. So, I went there to audition for a guest star on a TV show. I had two minutes left, and I had this small audition that I got in the morning. So I’m like, ‘we have two minutes left, right? Can I just do, like, a quick run of the two takes for this other audition that I’ll probably tape at home later?
So, I did those two takes, went home, and I kind of liked it. You know what I did? I went, ‘Oh, that’s pretty good,’ and submitted it. Then three weeks later, I found out I booked it, and that was Superman. I knew that it was the biggest jump I ever made.
So, I knew that I booked Genesis, right? I found out about that a day after the Super Bowl. I’m not much of a party person anymore, but that day I did party quite a bit. It was a Super Bowl when the Chiefs won and Taylor Swift was cheering in 2024. I was out with some friends who are Chiefs fans and when I woke up I got the message that I booked the role on Genesis. I said, ‘great,’ and I went back to sleep.
When I woke up in the afternoon, I started digging and then I found out what it was. I told only one friend of mine, who I knew is a huge Superman fan. And he told me, you know, everything that I needed to do. So, I started watching all the Superman films and all of James Gunn’s films. I even started listening to James Gunn’s band from the 80s that was on Spotify, because that’s how I get the vibe about things, you know? I’m a music person, I listen to a lot of music. So, through the films he did and the music he created, I was kind of getting the vibe of the kind of person he is. So, I went to set very prepared. Very, very prepared. And I only had two scenes initially. I got a third scene a week prior to filming and then, when I got on set, they added me to all the press conference scenes. So, that was the thing, the new thing that they thought overnight. James decided that I had to be next to the president in the press conferences.
Okay, so you knew who your character was, you just didn’t know all of the scenes that he was going to be in yet.
Martin: I talked to James’ assistant a few times before, but I didn’t get the full script. I only got my lines, so I had to do a lot of guessing. I made a choice, that I think James liked, to play him scared and weak in front of the President, instead of playing him tough and military like. So, I made a not so obvious choice. I think that got me the job, actually, looking back and watching the film, I think that got me the job, because that works into the story better… When I worked with James on set, the type of very precise cues he was giving me on set– he was running very fast that day, so we were doing two takes, and then on the third take he would change a little thing, and then we would move on to the next setup, so he was running super fast. But most of the third takes actually made it to the final version of the film.
One time, it was my second scene, where I’m opening the door for him. After saying that he looks very handsome, which is obviously a very silly thing to say, but also tells me who that character is, he told me that when I opened the door, when he goes to meet Lex Luthor, to not look into his eyes. Look to the ground. And there is this shot with a hand camera that is of me just avoiding his eyeline. And I think that speaks to the character, you know. I think James sees those little things, and they makes a lot of sense and add to it, you know?
What went into the Boravian accent?
Martin: It’s the Croatian language. There are some Serbian words mixed in here and there, but not too many to make it a little bit more Balkan Slavic, but we’re generally speaking the Croatian language.
Music is a very big part of all of his movies. And with Superman, he made playlists on Spotify for the characters. What would be on your character’s playlist?
Martin: …I admire this man (James Gunn) so much more after I’ve worked with him. The level of professionalism and, at the same time, keeping it loose on set, and how fast he was moving, how he knew exactly what he wanted, all the setup, it will blow your mind. He would go pretty much from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. or 7 p.m., Monday to Friday on Superman for six months. And then he would film “Peacemaker” on Saturday and Sunday with the same crew for six months. The guy didn’t take any days off.
So, going back to albums, yeah, that’s the one thing I really want to talk to James about at some point, because we listen to a lot of the same music, which is 80s rock, heavy metal, hard and heavy punk rock from late 70s and early 80s. At the beginning of the pandemic, when I was running out of things to do, I started my personal list of 100 best albums of all time on my Instagram. And at this point, I’m at 9500 and I put them all in my stories.
I went to his playlist for “Peacemaker” and I found some albums I didn’t know, but my list would be very close to the “Peacemaker” list.
What’s your Instagram handle, so that our readers can follow you and look it up your list?
Martin: Yes, please. It’s martin_harrisla. https://www.instagram.com/martin_harrisla/
What’s up next for you?
Martin: I did a character on a pretty big video game… I am the lead on a short film that is now in festivals called Butterfly Effect. It’s about a butterfly who is an addict and goes to rehab, an actual butterfly. And yeah, I’m auditioning, hoping to get my next dream fulfilled. I have a tendency to, I don’t know the best word for it, but I think of a goal, then I attract the goal, and then I reach that goal. In 2020, at the beginning of pandemic, I told myself that I want to get on three shows which were “Stranger Things,” “Better Call Saul,” and “The Marvelous, Mrs. Maisel.” I got all three. Then I wanted to get Superman, and I got Superman. I have always wanted to be in a James Bond movie, and I think that is my next goal, to to be in a James Bond movie.
Thank you so much for chatting. This has been great. I absolutely loved Superman, and I am going to check out your list of albums.
Martin: There’s all kinds of music. There’s a lot of 80’s pop and a lot of progressive rock, all kinds of stuff.