‘Half Man’ Stars Reveal Who Established Their Shared Characters First

Half Man, a new six-part miniseries from Baby Reindeer creator Richard Gadd premiering this Thursday (April 23), takes place across two timelines. The series follows the twisted and complex relationship of two “brothers” during their formative teen years and later in life. In it, Gadd portrays the violent, mentally chaotic Ruben Pallister in the present-day storyline, while Stuart Campbell portrays the younger version of the same; meanwhile, Jamie Bell portrays the much meeker Niall Kennedy, and Mitchell Robertson plays him in teen form.

Both timelines intersect throughout the episodes, but when it came to production, there was one set that came first. So which of these sets of actors got to establish their characters for the rest? Perhaps surprisingly, it was not the creator’s side that kicked things off, but rather the younger crew, working first but in collaboration with their elder counterparts.

“I spoke to Jamie a little bit before. We had a Zoom call before the show, prior to starting shooting, when we were in prep, and we had a little bit of a conversation about Niall and how all the emotions he’s feeling manifests in his physicality, where the root of a lot of these actions come from the relationship that he has with Ruben, the relationship he has with himself,” Mitchell Robertson told TV Insider. “So we had those conversations prior to me shooting, and then we spoke a little bit during my time shooting as well. And by the time it kind of passed over to those guys to do their thing, Jamie had kind of all the credits with him in terms of the work that he did to carry that consistency of the character over. He had access to some of the footage that we shot, and he picked up on all the mannerisms, the accent. So it was really him that did all that work.”

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Stuart Campbell added that for him, Gadd’s place as executive producer of the series meant he had more face-to-face time during his shoots. “Richard was there as an EP and writer. He was there throughout all the audition recall, chemistry, read process, all the rehearsals, all of shooting. So he’s kind of an ever-present voice for both of us to lean on and ask questions,” the actor explained. “But he was clear with me that he didn’t want to inhibit my performance or take away any of my spontaneity or finding those truthful nuances on set and in the moment during the scenes. So he kind of let me do my thing to an extent.”

He continued, “But I also had to do work to try and bring my voice a wee bit closer to his, try and find some of his inflections in the way that he speaks, but not take away from my own natural spontaneity. And then we also spoke about hair and tattoos and costume. So, yeah, I mean, we were constantly in dialogue, but in terms of actually being there in the moment on the day, I never felt like there was any boundaries, sort of being like, ‘We’ve got to stick to some idea we were allowed to play,’ which was great.”

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'Half Man': Everything We Know About Richard Gadd & Jamie Bell Drama

Find out how well the two established their characters — and how the next generation matched those character tenors – when the series premieres this Thursday.

Half Man, Series Premiere, Thursday, April 23, HBO Max

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