Interview: ‘Half Man’ Cast on Exploring The Darkness and Humanity of Broken Men

Just moments into HBO’s Half Man, it becomes obvious that the series is going to visit the darkest spaces of the male psyche. The limited series, created by Emmy-winner Richard Gadd, whose 2024 breakout Baby Reindeer explored an obsessive stalker relationship, dives into a complex fraternal bond that does not pull any punches.

Told over three decades, Half Man is the story of two “brothers” whose lives cross over and often clash as they move from their teens to adulthood. Ruben and Niall are played in their youth by Stuart Campbell and Mitchell Robertson, then as adults by Gadd and Jamie Bell, respectively. They are two men bonded by trauma, violence, loyalty, and love, in a relationship that exposes the volatile depths of masculinity.

For Gadd, the story of Ruben and Niall was something he could not shake. The script, first written in 2019, was put on hold when Baby Reindeer began production, and was something that came about naturally for the writer/actor. “Well, I never really set out with a particular agenda other than a creative sort of feeling that sparks me enough to want to pursue it,” shared Gadd. “When I first sort of came up with it, I can only assume that there was a lot of conversation around male behavior, male rage, male repression.”

 
“I just thought, well, here’s an interesting story. You take two men who were broken in their masculinity in later life and you contextualize how they got to that point by bouncing back to their youth and bouncing back to our less accepting times as a society in the UK.” Gadd continued, “It was a creative endeavor, a desire to explore a relationship between two ‘brothers’ and where that might take me.”

The series is directed by Alexandra Brodski who shared Gadd’s passion to explore the human aspects of the characters allowing them to dig deeper into them as people, not just an issue. “I think what Richard says, when he says that he wanted to explore it, that’s how it really felt to me reading it. It didn’t feel like somebody making a statement on a topic, but it felt as if it’s this really complicated relationship and we are exploring where it’s going and the dark sides, but also the beautiful sides of it. This complex tone of having darkness, but also love for these characters and between those characters.”

The chance to work with Gadd and to play characters who have such a layered, trauma-filled past was not lost on the young actors playing the brotherly duo. “The scripts were so unique,” expressed Robertson. “I feel like these words get thrown around a lot, but brave, and it was bold, and the characters were so rich and full, nuanced, complex, the relationship they’ve got, and then as an actor, as a young actor as well, it’s an amazing prospect to maybe get the chance to do that kind of stuff, especially with them going through such big moments, such big emotions.”

Campbell shared what drew him to the role, one that takes him into the rough and vulnerable mind of Ruben. “Well, the inconsistencies are the kind of immediate draw for me, because that’s what makes it feel like real humans. The fact that [they] can have such a sort of relationship and banter and humor and lightness and feeling of connection and then in the same moment, the same sentence, the same scene, I can slip into a kind of toxic, I felt like a kind of possessiveness or like ownership, like a dominating energy.


Those inconsistencies are what make the series so captivating. Viewers are thrust into a room with two men whose relationship defies simple definition. It is a mosaic of gray, with some shades much darker than others, and some surprisingly light. This complexity prevents easy judgments of good versus evil, and instead leaves space for a hesitant but genuine compassion.
 “I think what we always tried is, we don’t judge them, but the actors also don’t judge themselves and what they’re doing,” explained Brodski. “Most people act either out of fear or love. This makes people really human and this is what makes us connect with us and this is what makes us hope and care for them.”

When telling the story of characters who have dark, questionable pasts, one challenge is exploring that while avoiding getting stuck in one path.  “The way you offset that is by just keeping an eye on the humanity of the piece. I think all the way through the show, you’re having this constant seesaw effect about whether you love them or hate them,” expressed Gadd. “So as long as you keep an eye on the humanity, you can go where you want.”

“We’ll see how people respond to it, that even after everything they do, you still have a pocket of sympathy reserved for them. I think that is, I guess, the fundamental human condition in a way.”

Half Man is a series that viewers will definitely process in their own unique way. Share your thought about the series and feelings towards the characters in the comments. Are you able to see beyond the rough exteriors to find compassion for these damaged men.

Half Man is now airing on HBO Max. New episodes of the six-episode season are released each Thursday. You can watch my complete interviews with Gadd, Brodski, Campbell and Robertson below.