Mitchell Robertson on That Explosive 'Half Man' Episode: 'It's Huge'
Mitchell Robertson and Stuart Campbell in episode three of 'Half Man.'
Courtesy of Anne Binckebanck/HBO
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[The following story contains major spoilers from Half Man‘s third episode.]
It’s safe to say things got explosive in the latest episode of Half Man.
Richard Gadd — who last month spilled all in The Hollywood Reporter‘s digital cover story — is tackling rage and repression in his Baby Reindeer follow-up. The show follows two wildly different men, Ruben (Gadd) and Niall (Jamie Bell), bonded by trauma and co-dependence across the course of 30 years.
Airing weekly on Thursdays on the BBC (U.K.) and HBO (U.S.), the first three episodes have been led by Gadd and Bell’s young counterparts, Scottish breakout stars Stuart Campbell and Mitchell Robertson. They are doing a stellar job at setting the scene for what makes Ruben and Niall’s relationship so twisted in the current day — for example, that frightful moment in episode two, which saw Campbell’s Ruben viciously beat Niall’s university beau Alby (Bilal Hasna) until he was unconscious.
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In the most recent installment, we watch the fallout of his crime: Alby, who was put into a coma by Ruben and left with permanent facial scarring, is pressing charges. Ruben pleads with Niall (Robertson) to lie on the stand and say it all started when Alby groped him. He believes the justice system’s homophobia will spare him prison. Neve McIntosh, playing Niall’s mother, Lori, also implores her son to bat for Ruben — unbeknownst to Ruben, his mother (and Lori’s partner) is sick with cancer. Niall, still paralyzed with fear over the thought of Ruben discovering that he’s gay, is forced to choose between his family and his morality.
He opts for the latter. On the stand, he tells the courtroom that Alby never groped anyone. Campbell channels something primal in Ruben’s frenzied fit of anger in the moments after; he launches himself at Niall, who can only watch on with doe-eyed dread. “It’s huge for Niall at that point,” Robertson tells The Hollywood Reporter, “because, in a way, he’s choosing himself, and he’s choosing truth.”
Below, Robertson catches up with THR about the fallout of that episode. He also discusses how he boarded Half Man, what was the most difficult scene to film, and what Niall’s decision means for Ruben and their relationship in the episodes to come: “It really leaves them in a place where it feels like there’s no coming back from it.”
Talk to me about how Half Man came up for you and maybe what your initial reaction was reading a script like this.
It came up just in the classic [way], I got sent the audition through. And then when I first read the script I loved it, really loved it. It was so, so full and so rich. I was just really drawn to the softness and gentleness of Niall. And to have that in a Scottish protagonist is really unique. I was really excited by that. There [are] a couple of parallels between me and Niall a little bit — not in the things that he goes through. I haven’t been through [them], but I could see versions of my younger self in small parts of Niall, particularly in episode one. Being a male from the west of Scotland who’s a little bit more gentle in nature. I know what that feels like. So I could really relate to him in some ways, and then just the relationship that he has with Ruben is so nuanced and complicated. And as an actor, that’s really exciting, because they go through really huge moments together and really big intense things, and that’s the kind of stuff that excites you: the idea of getting to play. The scripts were amazing to read.
What conversations did you have with Richard about Niall, and also with Jamie when it came to matching up your performances?
Me and Jamie spoke a little bit at the beginning of the process, when me and Stuart were in prep. I had a Zoom call with Jamie, and we spoke a little bit about the inner workings of Niall and how that manifests and his relationship with Ruben. In terms of the approach, I truly didn’t really know how I was going to do it. It was a lot of me doing it and hoping it works, and then Jamie — credit to him — doing all the work to find those mannerisms and mimic that. So I can’