Why Josh Charles wanted to ‘come in and stir s–t up’ on ‘The Veil’ with Elisabeth Moss

Josh Charles said he was eager to co-star in the Hulu thriller “The Veil,” because he’s a “huge geeky fan of the spy world.”

“I’m nuts for the genre. I love spy movies and spy TV shows. I’m happy it’s successful right now, because I love diving into that world, watching people pretend to be other people — we as actors do that for a living,” Charles, 52, told The Post. “So, it’s interesting to watch people who live in that.”

Now streaming (with new episodes out on Tuesdays), “The Veil” is a miniseries created by Steven Knight (“Peaky Blinders”). It follows Imogen (Elisabeth Moss), a spy who gets tasked with the mission of going after Adilah El Idrissi (Yumna Marwan), a possible ISIS operative who may be the most wanted woman in the world.

Imogen must also figure out what she knows about a rumored terrorist attack.

Meanwhile, mission controllers at the CIA — including Max Peterson (Charles) — must work together with the French secret service, DGSE.

“I had never worked with [Elisabeth], but I had been a fan of hers for a long time. I think she’s a tremendous actor, just so committed,” said Charles.

“I was super excited to get to work with her … she’s pretty aces across the board. I loved our scenes together. I think they even added one more scene of us together that wasn’t there. I think they were enjoying these characters. Because what was cool is, the characters are cut from a similar cloth. For my character — although she drives him a little crazy — there’s a lot of mutual understanding.”

Max doesn’t arrive on-screen until nearly the end of the first episode, when he gets into a scuffle with French agent Malik Amar (Dali Benssalah).

“I loved how my character was introduced,” said Charles.

“The show starts, and he comes in a bit later, and I think he’s written with this real disruptor energy. He’s like a trickster-y. He comes in and stirs s – – t up. It was fun to play a character like that. There’s a lot of pizazz on the surface, a lot of sarcasm, making fun of the French … but underneath it, he’s also someone who is gifted and skilled at what he does.”

Charles spent a lot of time preparing for the role.

“I talked to the technical advisor for the show who’s based in the British world of espionage, MI6. He connected me with a colleague of his who was retired CIA,” he explained. “I talked to him a few times, and he actually happened to be traveling through Europe while we were in Paris filming. So, I treated him to dinner and brought my scripts and peppered him with tons of questions.”

A neighbor set him up with another CIA contact, too.

“That’s one of my favorite things in this profession, I love doing the research.”

Charles is best known for “The Good Wife, “Dead Poets Society,” and his recent appearance in Taylor Swift’s “Fortnight” music video, but he said when fans approach him in public, it’s for various projects.

“It’s a mix. It’s all over the place. It depends on what age they are, where they live. I’ve been doing it long enough, and I’m not like Brad Pitt recognizable,” he joked to The Post. “It’s more like, some people know exactly who I am, and for some people, it takes a second. You can live with that level of anonymity, which is kind of great. And you’re not burdened by what I imagine a lot of those people go through.”