James Purefoy born 3 June 1964 is an English actor He played Marc Antony in the HBO series Rome college professor turned serial killer Joe Carroll in the series The Following and Solomon Kane in the film of the same name In February 2018 he starred as Laurens Bancroft in Altered Carbon a Netflix original series He played James McCarthy a young man accused of murdering his father in The Boscombe Valley Mystery in Granadas The CaseBook of Sherlock Holmes One of his notable roles was as Nicholas Jenkins in the eightpart miniseries A Dance to the Music of Time for Channel 4 in 1997 He played Edward the Black Prince in the film A Knights Tale Rawdon Crawley in Vanity Fair with Reese Witherspoon and Tom Bertram in the 1999 production of Mansfield Park He has played major roles in several television costume dramas including Sharpes Sword The Tenant of Wildfell Hall The Prince and the Pauper The Mayor of Casterbridge Blackbeard Terror at Sea Beau Brummell This Charming Man The Tide of Life Camelot and Rome He played Mark Antony in the HBOBBC original television series Rome He starred as Teddy Rist in the summer television series The Philanthropist which aired on NBC beginning on June 2009 His character is a billionaire playboy who decides to use his wealth and power to help others in need In 2013 The Following debuted starring Purefoy as the lead antagonist of the series He portrays Joe Carroll a former professor who becomes a serial killer and leads a cult of followers all whom help create Carrolls story It was announced in June 2014 that Purefoy would join the cast of the film HighRise with Tom Hiddleston and Jeremy Irons Later in 2014 Purefoy costarred in the Formula 1themed music video for David Guettas song Dangerous In February 2019 Hybrid who provided the score to Interlude in Prague released a short film to accompany their single Hold Your Breath from the album Light of the Fearless The film starred Purefoy as the brooding Mr Black