The first scene Lee Pace shot in “Practical Magic 2” required plenty of prosthetic tattoos — and zero wardrobe. They travel to England to seek help from Pace’s professor of magic, who’s under the effects of a curse, immobilized. This immobilization presented an acting challenge for Pace as a fan of both stars.
Pace, who’d been cast over Zoom and arrived on set only days before, was suddenly thrashing about nude with two actresses he’d adored from afar — forcing himself to be in the moment despite it all. His eyes were meant to be closed, but, Pace says, “it was impossible not to peek a little bit.” Pace is at once wildly prolific — especially lately — and surprisingly unjaded. When he’s discussing “Practical Magic 2,” he seems like a fan as much as an actor.
It’s an almost distant memory though: He is meeting up with me in New York in mid-July on a dayslong break between shoots in Prague and New Zealand, having just wrapped Season 4 of Apple TV’s science fiction saga “Foundation,” in which he’s played a succession of powerful, interrelated characters. He’s about to start the next “Lord of the Rings” sequel, 2027’s Andy Serkis-directed “The Hunt for Gollum,” where he’s reprising his role as elf-king Thranduil. This relentless schedule makes clear that Pace, at 47, is on the brink of a new kind of stardom.
He’s been a pathbreaker as a queer leading man. Since his Emmy-nominated breakthrough in the swoony cult hit “Pushing Daisies” from 2007 to 2009, he’s been a franchise-ready character actor, exploring heroism in “Lord of the Rings,” villainy in “Guardians of the Galaxy” and something in between as the complex antihero of AMC’s origin-of-computing drama “Halt and Catch Fire.” Along the way, he’s made pit stops on Broadway in revivals of “The Normal Heart” (2011) and “Angels in America” (2018). He’s been the thinking fan’s thirst trap.
But with “Practical Magic 2,” Pace checks the final box — he can be funny too. Part of the humor is that Pace, so physically daunting, is far less powerful than the sisters. Instead, he gets the chance to be grounded, wry and, once his Dr.
Ian Wright wakes up and settles into the story, yearningly romantic opposite Bullock. Her character’s curse is that any man she loves will die, setting up a painfully high-stakes will-they-or-won’t-they. Seated at one of his favorite restaurants in lower Manhattan, Pace is, unavoidably, massive.
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