‘Mad Men’ star Jared Harris reveals how he’ll live up to Professor Moriarty’s rep in ‘A Game of Shadows.’ By Josh Wigler Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr. in “Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows” Photo: Daniel Smith Every coin has two sides, every number an opposite. In the case of Sherlock Holmes, his other half is Professor Moriarty, the shadowy criminal mastermind who serves as the greatest threat to the world’s greatest detective — quite a feat, really, considering that the character directly appeared in only two of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s original stories. Click for exclusive photos from Fall’s biggest flicks. But Moriarty is stepping out of the darkness and into the light when “Mad Men” actor Jared Harris fills out his villainous shoes, playing opposite Robert Downey Jr.’s Holmes in “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows,” which arrives in theaters this holiday season. As MTV News’ Fall Movie Preview continues, we spoke with Harris about what goes into portraying such an iconic (if often unseen) villain, and all the red herrings and moral ambiguity that come with the package. MTV : Professor Moriarty is a character with great history in the “Sherlock Holmes” universe and beyond. What kind of research and preparation went into getting into the spirit of the character? Jared Harris : Well, I tried to hatch some worldwide domination plots. [ Laughs ] What’s interesting is that when he appears in the Sherlock Holmes books, he doesn’t appear very much; he’s talked about, but you don’t see him very often. I thought a little bit about previous incarnations of him. But there were two things that were tricky about this: that convention of who that character was in the Sherlock Holmes stories, this sort of arch nemesis/supervillain. It’s been borrowed so often that you can’t just go back and do it the way it was, because it seems like a clich
