After winning three Emmys for producing, writing, and starring in Baby Reindeer (2024), Richard Gadd is back with his new project, Half Man. And he’s feeling the pressure.
“I know the pressure is there. I know the expectation is there,” he tells Gold Derby. It wasn’t until coming off “the back of the creative process” and doing “promotion for the show” that the mental weight really hit him. However, “It still pales in comparison to the pressure I’ve put myself in just trying to make the project as good as possible.”
Half Man premiered Thursday on HBO in a co-production with the BBC. Gadd serves as the creator, writer, star, and executive producer. He plays Ruben Pallister, a man whose toxic masculinity affects his half-brother Niall Kennedy, played by Jamie Bell, over several decades. Stuart Campbell and Mitchell Robertson portray young Ruben and young Niall, respectively.
The project’s original title, Lions, served as a “placeholder name” that alluded to “a pride of lions” — until Gadd came up with the eventual title.
“I’m not really sure how I landed on Lions, but it was one of those things where the press release goes out and you can’t stop it,” he laughs. “All of a sudden, Lions was everywhere, and I’m like, ‘Oh no, what have I done?’ I had this weird thing where I trusted that the title would come. It’s not like I sat with a pen and notepad staring up at the ceiling, wondering.
“It wasn’t until I was really deep into the process that it came to me, and I was like, ‘That’s right,'” he recalls. Half Man “works on multiple levels, which is why I like it. It just seems fitting for a show about masculinity.”
With Baby Reindeer, Gadd plucked Jessica Gunning from near obscurity and made her an overnight sensation. Now the same thing could happen for his Half Man co-stars, Robertson and Campbell.
“Love them to bits,” he smiles. “I want to go on record that I loved them from the start right to the very end. I feel the same way as I did about Jess, that I was seeing remarkable talent before me and mature depth of character. They’re both incredibly special, consummate professionals, and lovely lads.”
Young Niall has to be “meek and vulnerable in his body,” the showrunner explains, while for young Ruben, “there’s a lot of shouting and a puffed chest.” The performers captured “the nuance, the conflict behind the eyes, the contradiction of spirit, and the humanity,” he continues. “And the second I saw that, I knew they were the ones.”
When the boys first auditioned for Half Man more than two years ago, Baby Reindeer hadn’t premiered yet, Robertson reveals: “There was a trailer for Baby Reindeer, but it hadn’t aired by the time we both went in for recalls. It ended up being the biggest show on the planet, so it was interesting to then go into the room and be in that space.”
Campbell chimes in, “I knew Richard prior because I did a little part in a show [called Clique] in 2018 when I was a bit younger. So, it was like reuniting with an old friend. I felt weirdly safe and comfortable seeing an old pal in the room, even though he was about to become the most famous guy in the world. It was good because I felt comfortable to take the risks that were required to get the part.”
When it comes to the themes of Half Man, Campbell notes, “Our intention is to capture not just the darkness, but also the lightness and the banter and the humor, and the unspoken need for each other. They both have these things that they’re lacking that the other one provides.”
What Campbell takes away from the show is “the importance of having a connection, particularly being a guy and needing someone to talk to. Mitchell gave me that through the shooting process,” he declares. “Some of those scenes were pretty tough to decompress from, so having a pal there to lean on and talk to after shooting day was really important.”
For Robertson, his approach to creating Niall involved “speaking to Jamie on Zoom before we started shooting,” where they would discuss the character’s “complicated relationship” with Ruben. “He did amazing work in copying the mannerisms and the accent, and carrying that through into the later episodes. I had a bit of an easier ride with it because I did my thing and then he had to follow on from it.”
Now that audiences are watching Half Man, Gadd is equally “excited and nervous” to hear what they have to say. He confesses, “There is a young boy in me wanting people to like it. At the end of the day, I can wrap it all up in all kinds of intellectualism, but I am just somebody who writes stuff and wants people to like it. And that’s really what I’m feeling.”
