Dan Stevens Talks His New FX Series Legion, Downton Abbey, and Beauty and the Beast

FX gets into business with Marvel for the first time tonight when it premieres its eight-episode series Legion, based on the comic book by Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz. Legion is the story of David Haller (Dan Stevens), a troubled young man who may be more than human. But David is unlike the other stars of Marvel films and TV series because David is not a superhero. In fact, he is not sure what’s real and what’s not real.

Diagnosed as schizophrenic as a child, David has been in and out of psychiatric hospitals for years. Now in his early 30s and institutionalized once again, David is comfortable with the structured regimen of life in the hospital: breakfast, lunch, dinner, therapy, medications, sleep.

Then the arrival of a new patient shakes up David’s world, causing him to escape from the hospital and find asylum with his sister Amy (Katie Aselton). Eventually, David discovers Melanie Bird (Jean Smart), a therapist with a sharp mind and unconventional methods, who opens David’s eyes to an extraordinary new world of possibilities.

Parade.com had the chance to talk to Stevens at the FX Television Critics Association junket about his roles on Legion, Downton Abbey and the upcoming movie Beauty and the Beast.

Were you a Legion fan before getting the role?

I wouldn’t say I was that aware of Legion per se, but I, funnily enough, have a friend from college who was an absolute Legion nut and spent most of the ’90s collecting them. So he just had a conniption when he heard I was doing this and is an amazing resource, like, the one fanboy who I actually know, I can sort of tap into and say, “Tell me what I need to know,” because we kept it fairly obscure, particularly in the pilot, I think.

Isn’t this an unusual role for you?

I’m always delighted to be open to any kind of role, but this one is really unique. It’s a role of a lifetime. The demands on all of us really as performers were quite extreme, and it’s a mischievous little piece. It takes very curious turns and kept all of us on our toes. You can’t ask for anything more than that really. It was a real delight.

Have you ever been offered superhero roles?

I’ve certainly been offered roles in comic book adaptations before and none of them have quite piqued my interest like this one. I think the combination of the insanity of the Legion story with a storyteller like Noah Hawley, who is not only a proven great showrunner, but a great novelist and a real master of the long full narrative — I’ve read some of his books, I felt in very, very good hands with something as crazy and ambitious as this.

Did you do research about schizophrenia?

Yeah. That was certainly a starting point, you know? He’s obviously exhibiting symptoms that had him diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic since he’s 18. So I talked to both sufferers, psychologists and psychiatrists. One fascinating psychiatrist in New York gave me his time and just some incredible stories, very human stories really, of delusion. It’s a very human condition, and I’m deeply fascinated by that stuff anyway, so to have a show that I can put my own personal interests to work in has been fascinating.

I think from a narrative point of view, it lends itself to very playful narrative in that all of these multiple realities that David experiences are, for the sufferer, quite real. And so, Noah was quite deliberate in not letting me know exactly at any given moment whether what was happening was really real, so it was up to me to choose how many David was believing at any given moment, and sometimes it’s quite surprising how real he finds something that is clearly insane, but he’s ready to accept almost anything at any given moment. And that’s a really alive place to be as a performer. Where, I mean, I’ve obviously read the scene and the script, but the idea of what’s coming in to the story at that point can be really, really crazy and quite out there, but David is ready to take it on.

This is a show that you could feasibly miss the Marvel tag at the beginning of the episode, watch the first two, and not know that it’s an X-Men show, would you agree?

Yeah. You don’t need to have read the X-Men comics or even really know who Legion is to get what’s happening with the show. I think Noah was very determined to come at this from a fresh angle. It certainly has a very fresh aesthetic to it. It doesn’t look like any other comic book adaptation I’ve seen. So I think it’ll pleasantly surprise a lot of people.

Is that something that you guys are going to build into later in the season, like are we going to hear the word X-Men?

I’m trying to think if you hear the phrase X-Men or not. I don’t know if it’s as explicitly referenced, but there’s certainly reference to the wider Marvel universe in the world of mutants and mutations, so yeah.

Did you read comic books growing up ? What are your favorites?

Yeah, definitely. I wasn’t as aware of Legion as some people. I think he’s quite niche for some people. Especially when you look at the Legion comics, I like the wicked sense of humor that’s at play with something, where the character is kind of mad and powerful. It’s something we were really keen to co-op and take with us really, and that plays into the playfulness of the show I think. It’s definitely made honoring the spirit of comic books and that cheeky sense of humor.

You left Downton Abbey after just a couple seasons. This could go longer than you were on that show. What made you decide that you could sign for another series?

Well, it could, we’ll see. You never know with those things. With Downton, we never thought it would go longer than a year, and when the initial three years was up, it felt like time to move on. I think if there’s enough in a role to keep you entertained, there’s no reason why you can’t do 12 years of something if it really floats your boat. I think there’s scope with this show to go all over the place, and I’ve certainly not been bored on this first season, so we’ll see.

How was doing the dance scenes?

Yeah, it was great to have a show that legitimately has room for musical numbers, physical theater, physical comedy, contemporary dance, banjo playing, and not to have it seem too out of context somehow. Everything is potentially within context as far as Legion is concerned, so yeah, every script had an extraordinary challenge somewhere in it. And the dance numbers are brilliant. I’ve been doing quite a lot of dance recently and it’s a fun way to get to know your castmates.

Speaking of dancing, what was it like playing the Beast in Beauty and the Beast?

I think physically, the Beast is the most challenging role I’ve ever taken on, just the condition I had to have for my body, and to puppeteer that suit on stilts was like nothing else I’ve ever experienced, seriously. But the kind of engagement, and actually a lot of dance involved in that role will be on stilts, but it was a very, very intense dance training process that has got me physically more engaged with all of my performances in everything else since.

Have you ever had to do anything like that before?

No. British period drama tends to be from the neck up, you know? You’re under three layers of tweed or velour, that sort of plush velvet. It’s a very different mode of working. And so coming over here and getting to work with a number of different directors from all over the world, not just America, and the kind of demands that they put upon you, it’s been great just to expand my range a bit.

How tall were the stilts?

Oh, ten inches. It was pretty high, yeah. You get a little vertigo sometimes.

Do you always go in another direction after you’ve done something? Is that the goal?

Pretty much, yeah. What was the last thing I did and what’s almost the total opposite to that? It’s just an interesting zigzagging path, exploring what works for me and what excites me as a performer.

Legion premieres tonight at 10 p.m. ET/PT on FX. Beauty and the Beast will be in theaters March 17.