Will Harrison has a couple of folks to thank for the whirlwind first two years of his profession — those who impressed his onscreen characters. Since breaking out in 2023’s Daisy Jones & The Six (which in itself was modeled after the real-life drama of the members of Fleetwood Mac), he’s performed the John Wilkes Sales space confederate David Herold in Manhunt, people singer Bobby Neuwirth in A Full Unknown, and the eldest son of the now-infamous household central to Hulu‘s Murdaugh: Demise within the Household. Now, he’s additionally ending up a lauded run on Broadway in Punch the place Harrison stars because the (actual life, after all) Jacob Dunne, a younger man who by chance killed a fellow patron in a bar struggle after delivering a single blow.
“Once you play actual folks, the query of whether or not they need the factor to be made or not, and whether or not you discuss to them beforehand or not, can change into a bizarre a part of the method,” says Harrison over Zoom from New York. “However Punch was created with the characters’ blessing and enter, and that lifts a number of the strain off.”
The play takes place in Nottingham, England, the place the deadly occasion happened in 2011. Dunne nonetheless lives close by, as do the dad and mom of the late James Hodgkinson (Punch follows their restorative justice work with Dunne), and Harrison was in a position to journey to the UK forward of the Broadway run. “I obtained to spend the day with Jacob, which was wonderful, and getting that point with him gave me the liberty to essentially go for it onstage,” he says.
Sam Robards, Vicki Clark, Camilla Cano-Flavia and Will Harrison in Manhattan Theatre Golf equipment manufacturing of Punch, written by James Graham directed by Adam Penford.
Matthew Murphy
Has Jacob Dunne seen this staging of the present? I do know it’s taking part in on the West Finish as effectively.
He was on the West Finish opening and obtained to spend time with the forged, however he can’t journey to the U.S. due to his standing as a convicted felon. It’s actually unlucky and I so want he may very well be there, nevertheless it’s a troublesome factor to get round.
I assume you aren’t in communication with Buster Murdaugh.
No. (Laughs.) I did shrink back from direct contact there.
How do you construct a personality while you’re taking part in an actual particular person you don’t need to meet?
There’s a number of references on-line. Clearly, it was an enormous story and there’s no scarcity of issues to have a look at. However you are able to do all of the analysis you need, discuss to as many individuals as you’ll be able to, and on the of the day, it’s a must to belief the truth that the people who find themselves directing and producing the mission like your model of the particular person. I didn’t do a number of analysis on Buster earlier than my audition, I simply did the position and so they stated, “Oh, that’s our model of this man.” The identical factor occurred with A Full Unknown [playing Bob Neuwirth].
Do it’s a must to like, or discover empathy for, somebody like Buster Murdaugh in an effort to play him?
I actually don’t have to love the particular person, and I don’t need to agree with them. However I do have to know why they did issues. By that, you develop empathy. No matter an motion being unhealthy or not, there’s often a proof. There’s all the time a why. You form of begin to really feel a bit protecting of them, even, and it’s a must to shake that off.
The majority of the story in Punch is devoted to providing that “why,” and serving to the viewers discover empathy with a child who killed one other child. However what was your “why” for Murdaugh?
I used to be actually centered on the storyline, which is that he’s been actually exterior of what occurred to his household. He was away in school when the murders occurred. I’m excited for the again half of the present to return out [in November] as a result of Buster turns into a lens for simply how tragic this occasion was. He’s the one one who was near this occasion that we will view issues by means of, and he’s conflicted and devastated. This story was actually salacious and loopy, however to really take into account what it could be prefer to expertise one thing like it’s insane.
Did you develop up round any households like them, with that individual form of privilege and affect?
Effectively, I grew up in liberal east coast cities, so any model of that was extra tame and sugarcoated than it’s within the south. However I used to be within the nation, so there was looking and ATVs and dust bikes that every one the boys had been doing. We took a visit to Hampton, South Carolina whereas we had been filming, simply so we may get a way of it, and it’s actually an intersection. That’s it. And the jurisdiction of this household, the area that their energy lined, was a lot bigger.
Mina Sundwall, Will Harrison, Jason Clarke, Patricia Arquette and Johnny Berchtold in Murdaugh: Demise within the Household.
Disney/Daniel Delgado Jr.
Are you able to inform me the way you got here into the position for Punch? Was a Broadway play in your to-do listing?
This simply got here into my inbox as an audition. I wasn’t actively trying to find a Broadway play, however the theater is how I obtained into performing, it’s how most younger folks do, and it actually facilities me and provides me an possession of the work greater than movie or TV. I’m actually grateful to James and Adam [the writer and director] for insisting on studying folks for these roles. The primary tape I despatched in was for the opening monologue when Jacob is jacked up on coke and he’s operating round city — I put my whole sofa within the body and was leaping on it. I obtained a word together with the callback sides, although, that stated “perhaps rather less flouncing.”
You’re doing the Broadway eight-shows-a-week routine, and also you’re additionally in nearly each second of the play. How did you put together?
I got here in in lower than supreme form to do such a bodily present, so I needed to spring into motion for that realm. My entire day, and my entire life, has been about conserving vitality for the present — how a lot can I do and nonetheless have sufficient to get by means of the present? Then it takes me at the least two full hours to wind down from it afterwards.
How did the Nottingham, England accent deal with you?
I used to be obsessive about British media rising up — In Bruges and Lock, Inventory and Two Smoking Barrels and Trainspotting. So I used to be actually excited to get into that dialect. Loads of the crew is from Nottingham: our playwright, our motion director. So that they’re talking in that accent whereas providing you with notes. I’m not an actor who has to remain in character, I discover {that a} bit tiring. However this was enjoyable to remain within the accent. Though there have been instances when Adam would give me a word and I’d flip and say “wha?” and he’d be like, “It’s good to cease.” (Laughs.)
Who have you ever been most starstruck by on set thus far in your profession?
It was actually trippy listening to that Patricia Arquette was going to play my mother and Jason Clarke my dad. They ran that set so effectively. They had been so ready, and so they had been operating improvs between scenes. I by no means actually knew if I used to be speaking to Jason or Dad. And it was by no means simply Jason. I bear in mind on the final evening of taking pictures, he took off his make-up and all the things and I actually noticed him for the primary time. He smiled at me like a man who simply form of knew me, as a result of for that entire time I’d been his son and never Will.