Ed Harris thinks 'Westworld' could be the "thing [he's most known for".

Ed Harris

The 65-year-old actor has been nominated for Oscars for his work on 'Apollo 13', 'The Truman Show', 'The Hours', and 'Pollock' but many of his films have not been huge box office successes, so he felt it would be "fun" to take on the role of The Man In Black in the highly-anticipated HBO series.

He said: ""That's one of the reasons I said I would do 'Westworld'.

"I knew it was very important to HBO and would be done in a certain classy way, and I knew they would promote the (crap) out of it. I thought it might be kind of fun to be in something people actually see.

"This could easily become the thing I'm most known for."

Ed was only given a bit of background information on his character before he began filming on the show, so he found some of the plot twists that cropped up during the series frustrating.

He told Tuscon.com: "Beforehand, they told me enough to understand what kind of life my character had in the outside world and why he was coming to this park.

"But then you get the script for Episode 7, say, and you're going, 'Oh! Thanks for telling me, man! I didn't realise THAT about myself!' "

But despite that, the actor has grown fond of his new alter ego.

He said: "I like playing this guy. He's not trying to escape from anything, he's on a mission of discovery. He's not trying to forget his life, he's trying to learn more about himself -- and about what's going on in the park, where he's been coming for 30 years."