There’s a lot to dissect when it comes to “Half Man,” the latest series from “Baby Reindeer” creator Richard Gadd. But as vulnerable and sincere as this central story of two brothers is, the HBO drama would fall apart if it wasn’t for the performances of its young actors, Stuart Campbell and Mitchell Robertson.
“I felt the same way as I did about [Jessica Gunning],” Gadd told TheWrap, referring to the acclaimed actor who played the stalker Martha in “Baby Reindeer.” “It had to be them. I didn’t doubt it for a second.”
As is always the case with Gadd’s work, “Half Man” tells a difficult story, this time focusing on the relationship between two step brothers who initially seem as different as possible. While Ruben (Gadd) is violent and aggressive with a charismatic streak, Niall (Jamie Bell) is smart yet meek. The series flashes between their teenage years in 1980s Scotland and a wedding that happens 30 years later. Layer by layer, the drama pieces together their relationship, portraying two men who seem poisonous to each other yet seemingly incapable of being apart. That toxic codependency starts with Campbell’s portrayal of a young Ruben and Mitchell’s portrayal of a young Niall.
When it came to casting the pair, Gadd wanted unknown actors. “I think it allows you to buy into the world a little bit more, especially in television,” Gadd said. “Film can have such an epic grandeur that adding celebrity to it adds to the scope and the whole experience of cinema. But with TV, the small screen can really benefit from a bit of unknownness.”
Gadd previously worked with Campbell on the British thriller “Clique.” “I always thought really highly of him,” the creator, writer and executive producer said. After working with Campbell, Gadd wanted the younger actor to work with him on “Half Man.” As for Robertson, his casting came from a self tape.
“What they got most of all was the pain and the conflict in the characters,” Gadd explained. “I think a lot of people came in with Ruben, and they popped the chest and shouted every line. They played the violence of the character when really I wanted to see the pain … Then, with Mitchell, he played the conflict. I found that a lot of people played Niall in the body, and they’d be very meek. They would kind of close off, and they’d be like, ‘I need to be like a dainty little kid.’ But it wasn’t about that. It was about the internal strife that he feels.
“I just think they’re bloody great,” Gadd added.
As for Campbell and Robertson, both actors desperately wanted to be part of the show solely based on the script. And that was before “Baby Reindeer” became a massive critical darling and an award-winning hit. Their first auditions happened around March 2024, a month before the premiere of the Netflix series. But when Gadd disappeared to work more on “Baby Reindeer,” casting for “Half Man” was paused.
“At the end of ’24, we both got a call being like, ‘Actually, can you come back in?’ We did a chemistry read within a week, and started at the start of ’25,” Campbell told TheWrap. “It was weird because I think both of us really wanted it and then to let go of it and then for it to come back.”
“It took a long time, but they had to be sure,” Robertson added. “It was a crazy thing to be auditioning for it while ‘Baby Reindeer’ was one of the biggest TV shows ever.”
To create Ruben and Niall’s complicated dynamic, Campbell and Robertson worked closely with both Gadd and Bell, respectively, to figure out the intricacies of these brothers. The young actors then shot their scenes first. Afterwards, Gadd and Bell studied the work of their younger counterparts and drew inspiration from their performances as they shaped Ruben and Niall’s evolutions.
“I tried to get closer with some of [Gadd’s] inflections and the way that he speaks, and we talked about hair and makeup and things to try and bring us closer together. But he was really good at just being like, ‘You do your thing. Be spontaneous. Trust your instincts,’ ” Campbell said. “There was no fixed idea of what I had to achieve every day. It allowed us to be able to play and find truth on the day.”
As a general rule, Gadd prefers to cast unknown stars. However, he made an exception with Bell, an actor he loves and whom he still considers to be underrated. Bell was the creator’s dream casting for Niall.
“Every time I’ve seen him in a show — whether he’s playing a big role or a small role — I always feel my eye goes to him,” Gadd. “There’s something very artistic about Jamie as well. He’s not celebrity in the pure sense. You don’t see him so out and about, going in and out of private members bars or anything like that. There was still a mystique around them, which I thought lent itself to the project, and I couldn’t shake it. So I thought — typical me — when you can’t shake an idea, you probably should explore it.”
“Half Man” airs Thursdays on HBO and HBO Max.
