Gadd ended up casting himself when the Billy Elliot star said he him he wanted to appear opposite the actor and writer in the show, which charts almost 40 years in the lives of main characters Ruben and Niall.
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Gadd started working on Half Man before Netflix commissioned an adaptation of his award-winning Edinburgh Festival Fringe show Baby Reindeer.
Gadd started working on Half Man before Netflix commissioned an adaptation of his award-winning Edinburgh Festival Fringe show Baby Reindeer.
Half Man, which the BBC will launch on April 24, follows the characters from their first encounter as teenagers to falling out as adults and an unexpected reunion after years of estrangement.
Gadd, who describes Bell as “one of the greatest actors of his generation,” has told how he had never thought “for a second” that the production would be able to secure the actor to play Niall.
Jamie Bell and Richard Gadd will be starring in the new BBC series Half Man. (Image: Anne Binckebanck)
Gadd said: “I remember when we were casting for Baby Reindeer, lots of famous faces really wanted to play Martha, but I wanted everyone to audition and naturally a lot of global stars did not.
“However, there was something about this show as I was writing it – I couldn’t get Jamie out of my head.
“He’d probably roll his eyes if he heard me talking about Billy Elliot, but I can’t believe that he managed to do that at the age of 13 and I just think he’s instinctively an incredible actor.
“I never thought Jamie would actually be in Half Man, but when I heard he was interested, I flew out to LA, and we had a long chat. Jamie said he’d love to do it if I played Ruben.
“Before that moment, I had never thought about it and didn’t see myself being in the series.
“We shot our final scene together at 3am in the morning, and it was a really emotional one. In that moment I knew how much I would miss acting alongside him and I feel really grateful to have had that opportunity.”
Bell said: “I heard that Richard had written this with me in mind and was incredibly flattered.
“Upon meeting him I could see how unique Half Man would be.
“Richard actually sent through episode six for me to start with and whilst that might seem like a strange place to begin, I was so taken by the spiral throughout episode six that it was actually a great place to start. I knew where Niall ended up and I wanted to know how he got to that point.
“Richard is a brilliantly unique and singular writer, and I often find his writing activates the senses quite specifically and takes you to emotional places very easily.
“ As his previous work goes to show, he has such a strong grasp of things that feel challenging and complex and emotional.
“I was also astounded by some of the length of some of the scenes too – there are scenes between myself and Richard that are up to 16 pages long.
“As an actor I knew that was incredibly ambitious, but you also never really get gifted that kind of material where essentially these two characters are talking – about their lives, their problems, their failures – much like a piece of theatre.”
Gadd said the original idea behind Half Man was to explore “what it means to be a man in this ever-changing world”.
He said: “To me, it feels like the debate about men has reached quite a high pitch and, at the same time, become somewhat simplified.
“Toxic masculinity is a phrase we hear a lot, and while it can risk feeling overused, it’s also being discussed so widely for a reason.
“What’s interesting is that, despite that visibility, there are still aspects of it that haven’t yet been fully explored in the mainstream.
“I think that much of how society has been structured can lead to men having an inability to express themselves and express love and vulnerability, so it felt interesting to posit that conversation through Niall and Ruben.
“We meet Ruben and Niall as two teenagers thrown together in their youth, and we then follow them over three decades. When the series starts, they’re forced to coexist in a lot of ways within a working-class household.
“Ruben is violent and volatile, whilst Niall is very sensible and self-conscious. They’re polar opposites but in a strange way they form an alliance – for better or worse – which catapults them through the ages. They both have something that the other does not and they crave what each other has.”
Bell said: “The series starts with the two of them as young men in their teenage years and it follows them both as life drifts them apart and pulls them back together. The series looks at how their time together has shaped them as adults and at the same time, how the culture around them growing up has done that too.
“More specifically, the series explores what their personal relationship with their own sense of masculinity is and what being a man means to them both, and how complex that is.”