After “Baby Reindeer” wrapped production in 2023, Richard Gadd didn’t take a beat. Virtually the next day, he started on his follow-up, the gripping new HBO limited series “Half Man.”
Now, as he spoke to Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast, Gadd said he has finally come up for air. “Half Man,” which premieres Friday, is locked. And now, suddenly, he has time to digest the whirlwind of success he has just experienced.
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“I’m still processing everything,” said Gadd, who won two Emmys for Netflix’s “Baby Reindeer” (lead actor and writing for a limited or anthology series) in 2024. “I haven’t taken a moment. I have a feeling I promised myself a holiday. I very rarely take holidays, but I promised myself a holiday soon, and then when I take that holiday, it might all hit me. ‘Baby Reindeer,’ ‘Half Man,’ all of it. It might just all hit me. I wonder what to do with myself. Because I’ve always got a purpose to get up in the morning, and all of a sudden I might not have one!”
Gadd spoke to the podcast about his last five years in the spotlight — including his first appearance in Variety; why the title change on “Half Man” (originally called “Lions”); what convinced him to star in “Half Man”; and where the idea for the series came from. He also answers the Awards Circuit Ten Questions, sharing his super hot take on tuna and peanut butter. Listen below!
“Half Man” was created, written and exec produced by Gadd, who also stars as Ruben. The series is described as about two brothers “not related in blood but the closest you can get. One, fierce and loyal. The other, meek and mild-mannered.” Gadd plays the short-fused Ruben as an adult while Stuart Campbell (“SAS Rogue Heroes”) plays the younger version. Jamie Bell plays Ruben’s step-brother of sorts Niall. Young Niall is played by Mitchell Robertson (“Curfew”).
Gadd says he was reluctant to play Ruben at first, especially since its so removed from who he is, and also from his character on “Baby Reindeer.”
“I remember after ‘Baby Reindeer,’ being in every single scene and everything, I just remember thinking, ‘I need to take one of these things off my plate, so acting felt like the thing that I could take off,’” he said. But then it was Bell who suggested Gadd give it a try.
“At that point I had started to be like, ‘Oh, that would be interesting.’ And then around that time, HBO also said it on a call. Even just from marketing point of view, me being in it sort of helped the show. I remember going home and it really rattled me. Because it was so out from my comfort zone. And so far from who I was. I had this existential sort of evening of thinking whether I should do it. Will I regret it if I say no?”
Gadd said he underwent an entire physical transformation to turn into Ruben: Bulking up, changing his hair and going with a thicker beard. “I knew I needed to change everything about myself,” he said. “I knew, in a way, I had to do the exact opposite of Donny Dunn [his ‘Baby Reindeer’ character]. In order for people to buy this, I needed to change physically, hair, beard, voice, everything I knew in order to do Ruben. I needed to almost become unrecognizable.”
It worked. In her review, Variety TV critic Aramide Tinubu wrote that “‘Half Man’ is an excellent but difficult watch. A viciousness runs through the narrative, and countless acts of violence depicted. For those who stick it out, the final episode features one of the most emotionally shattering scenes on television.”
Where did this idea come from? “There’s a lot of male repression in this day and age,” he said. “And I remember thinking, instead of just sort of showing male repression, male violence, maybe the interesting thing to do is contextualize it. Go back to a less accepting time in the UK. The ’80s are famous in the UK for being that kind of the time where prejudice was really at the forefront of society. So you take two guys right back to the ’80s. You show the learned shame, the learned behaviors, and how they struggled to shirk off these learnings that they have as kids in their adult life. And then you sort of contextualize male repression and violence and rage in the present.”
Gadd also talked about the show’s ending — and how viewers can decide for themselves what ultimately happens.
Also in the interview, Gadd takes the Awards Circuit 10 Questionnaire: Sharing his childhood nickname, something he did as a kid he’s surprised at now, his go-to Karaoke song, his secret talent, favorite ice cream flavor, the item he can’t live without, the TV show he’d most like to appear in, and his personal hot take. “Tuna with peanut butter,” he swore was delicious.
At the start of the episode, the Awards Circuit Roundtable is back — and discussing some of the biggest Emmy news, including how submissions are down and what that will mean for this year’s race.
Variety’s “Awards Circuit” podcast, hosted by Clayton Davis, Jazz Tangcay, Emily Longeretta and Michael Schneider, who also produces, is your one-stop source for lively conversations about the best in film and television. Each episode, “Awards Circuit” features interviews with top film and TV talent and creatives, discussions and debates about awards races and industry headlines, and much more. Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or anywhere you download podcasts.