Half Man’s Richard Gadd Talks About His Passion for Work and Life’s Continuous Journey – Contenders TV
Following the success of his acclaimed show Baby Reindeer, Richard Gadd humorously noted that he has “kind of run out of a few things to draw upon” for his next project. Nevertheless, his new work, Half Man, while entirely fictional, still incorporates significant personal elements.
Gadd sought a creative endeavor as immersive as Baby Reindeer, taking on the roles of writer, producer, and star of Half Man. “I like to be across everything. I mean, it’s all-consuming,” he remarked, emphasizing his desire to control every aspect of his projects, from the overarching concept to the specific details, such as the characters’ footwear.
He acknowledged the exhaustive nature of this process, saying, “It can be very kind of all-consuming. I kind of work day and night all the way through the weekends and everything.… I’ve got this thing in me where I never want to look back and think I didn’t give it everything, but it can also be this kind of self-perpetuating cycle where you work all the time. But I love it at the same time. I find it thrilling.”
Despite the accolades received for his 2024 show, Gadd showed no signs of slowing down.
Reflecting on his hectic schedule, he shared, “I remember I was in L.A. doing all the Emmy stuff, and I was laptop-on-my-knee kind of thing. I finished the sound mix of Baby Reindeer on the 13th of December 2023, I remember, and the very next day, 8 a.m., I got up and I started Half Man. And so it literally was back-to-back. I mean, it was a sleep in between and that was it. And then I guess here we are two years later, really. Baby Reindeer came out like two years and 15-odd days ago. And I don’t know what it was, I had to give it a shot. I didn’t want to sit and bask in it. I wanted to turn around quite quickly. I wanted to do it again.”
Although the narrative arcs of his shows differ significantly, both share an intense exploration of similar themes. “People will say [Half Man] is a show about masculinity or male violence, but to me it’s about the struggle of expression in men, the struggle of vulnerability,” he explained. “I think in a lot of ways, I think it’s about two men struggling to love themselves and struggling to love one another in a lot of ways, and the difficulty of vulnerability.”
Looking ahead, Gadd expressed his intention to tackle a more lighthearted project. “I’ve got to do a studio sitcom next. Yeah, like one of those family sitcoms,” he said with a chuckle. “We’ll see. It’s a journey, isn’t it? It’s a journey. So one day you’ll get a really happy show out of me, I promise.”
A panel video discussing these themes will be available on Monday.
