Baby Reindeer star almost dismissed Jamie Bell for new BBC series as he's 'fame allergic'

Richard Gadd said he was aiming to cast an unknown as the other lead role in his gritty and hard-hitting new drama, Half Man, before casting Jamie Bell

Baby Reindeer star Richard Gadd picked Billy Elliot favourite Jamie Bell as the lead in his new BBC series, Half Man, despite not wanting a famous actor in the role.

In the dark and violent TV drama, Bell plays the older version of Niall, with Gadd playing his “brother” Ruben. Despite being very different in character and personality, the pair are thrown together as teenagers in Glasgow and continue with their toxic love/hate relationship into adulthood.

Gadd, who also wrote and executive-produced the six-parter, said he initially wanted to cast an unknown actor to play Niall. “I feel like fame can really get in the way of intimate storytelling because I think a project can almost be minimised down to, ‘Oh, is this really famous actor doing a good job?’,” he explained.

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“So I’m pretty fame allergic, but there was something about Jamie that I couldn’t shake. I very rarely have that. I imagine the characters, I don’t really imagine actors playing the characters, but the more and more I wrote it, the more and more I thought of Jamie. I just couldn’t stop thinking about it. And I thought, ‘Well, if I’m thinking about it that much, then I should probably ask him.’

Bell, 40, says he was “incredibly flattered” by Gadd’s offer, which came during a meeting in Los Angeles. He returned the favour by persuading the Scot to play Ruben himself. “I wasn’t going to do Ruben – and I didn’t want to do it – because acting in something and doing everything else is a lot,” Gadd laughed at a BAFTA screening. “But Jamie was one of the first to suggest it. It sort of terrified me in a way. I was like, ‘Oh wow, that’s real far.’ But I often feel if something scares you in life, you should probably do it.

The drama spans three decades and, as with Baby Reindeer, explores themes of sexuality, mental health, trauma and obsession. It kicks off in the 1980s, when the boys move into the same house because their mothers are in a relationship. It then jumps between them as teens and later as adults, which much of the action set on Niall’s wedding day.

Gadd, 36, bulked up hugely for the role – sporting enormous biceps to play the fiercely intimidating character of Ruben, who looks unrecognisable from mild-mannered Donny is Baby Reindeer.

He revealed that he started work on Half Man before he began on the Netflix drama. “There was obviously such a big conversation around men, male behaviour, male violence, male repression, all these things. Something just sparked in my mind that was – where does this kind of stuff come from? I think a lot of behaviour from men when they get into later life can be stemmed back to traumas and things they learned in childhood.”

The actor and writer says the idea stayed with him all the way through making Baby Reindeer. “I would always be like, ‘Please, can it still be there on the other side?’ Because I knew BBC were interested and I really wanted to do it with them. I just would always hoped and prayed it was still there. And luckily it was.”

Gadd claims he always wanted to work with the BBC, having first been inspired by The Office.”I researched Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais and I was like, ‘Oh, they wrote it, and they were in it’ and I caught the dream when I saw it. I was like, ‘That’s what I want to do with my life.’ I think the BBC is incredible.”

Unlike Baby Reindeer, and the Edinburgh shows which preceded it, this project is not based on his own experiences. “I thought it was time to move on and try something different. I think whether it’s autobiographical or not, I need to feel it somewhere. And that’s kind of what this was, but yeah, it’s completely fictional.”