Spoiler alert: This article contains major spoilers for the series finale of the HBO/BBC drama “Half Man,” now available on HBO Max.
For the past six weeks, Richard Gadd’s sophomore drama Half Man has kept viewers on the edge of their seats to find out what really happened between his character Ruben and Jamie Bell’s Niall in the locked barn at Niall’s wedding, and more importantly, why.
Now, in the finale, the explosive secret that Niall has been hiding from Reuben is revealed, and Reuben’s reaction is pretty much what you would expect, but the conclusion has been reached. But will there be closure?
Gad, who created, wrote, executive produced and starred in the show, spoke to Variety about the potentially controversial sixth and final episode of the series, which he admitted was causing a stir even before it aired. “I think the ending is the most talked about part of the show,” he said, adding that it’s the first thing anyone who sees the preview for the series wants to talk to him about.
But Gadd is wary of revealing too much about the meaning behind the ending. “Because sometimes you can lose a little bit of the magic,” he says. “I like it when the ending is a little ambiguous, and I like it when you ask these questions. But sometimes I think it’s almost my duty as an artist, as a writer, or whatever, to not over-explain my intentions, because I think whatever people take away from the scene is more important to me.”
Still, the writer and actor, whose debut film, Netflix’s blockbuster hit Baby Reindeer, ended in ambiguity, tried to talk about how he got the final shot, why he hates happy endings, and how he filmed that explosive barn fight scene with co-star Belle.
Richard Gadd “Half Man”
Provided by BBC/HBO
Was the barn fight scene with Jamie Bell filmed on location?
The filming location was, I can’t remember exactly, but it was in the Scottish countryside, in a large abandoned barn. It’s very far.
How long did it take to shoot?
I think we spent a total of 3 days in the barn, and I think we crammed in a lot of time. I think the second scene (me and Jamie Bell) was the big final scene. We were able to work on it right away. I say it like that.
What was the most difficult aspect of filming the fight scene with Jamie?
How sore my elbow must have been afterwards! I really enjoyed working with Jamie. We’d known each other for about a week, and before we knew it, we were throwing ourselves around him, spraying snot in his face. That’s really what we set out to do. He’s a real soldier.
Jamie is such an established actor and he’s been acting for such a long time that I always wonder if he’s happy rolling around in the mud like this. Boy, you must have been happy to be able to roll around in the mud! And it was physically demanding.
How much did you choreograph Nile’s death?
Not only did I know exactly how I wanted to be shot, but I also knew how Ruben would kill him by holding him in the face kind of harshly. That scene was in the draft script from the first pass.
Everything is carefully planned. You can’t physically hold Jamie down, so there’s a lot of fight choreography involved. In fact, if you look at my hands straining, I’m putting a lot of weight on my wrists. And to be honest, I remember my wrists being so sore by the time I finished.
By this point, Reuben is completely boned, and his worst fears come true (when he learns that Niall has been sleeping with his wife, meaning that not only is Reuben likely infertile, but Niall is actually the father of his son). Not only has he been eviscerated this much by someone A) he trusted the most and B) never thought he had the power to eviscerate him. Therefore, the only way for Ruben to regain control is to kill him in the most masculine and domineering way possible. That is, kill him with your bare hands.
Ruben’s signature move throughout the series is stomping on people’s heads, but he seems to have chosen a “softer” method for Niall. Am I reading too much into it?
There’s a calculating version of Reuben, and there’s an explosive, instantaneous version of Reuben. And I think he killed Nile in a different way. Because he does violence in a completely different way. Not reactive. It’s calculated and thought out.
Jamie Bell and Richard Gadd’s “Half Man”
Provided by BBC/HBO
Is there any significance to the fact that Niall was killed on his wedding day?
In other words, a wedding is a symbol of eternal happiness. I can imagine something going on in Ruben’s head when he learns that this day happened and that Niall is going to live happily ever after. You can almost imagine that he was obsessed with having everything he had in life taken away from him this way. So, yeah, I think the idea of a wedding day had built up so much in Ruben’s mind that Niall wasn’t allowed to have it at all.
The final shot of the show cuts about half a second before the audience can expect it. As we look at Niall’s body, he almost appears to roll his eyes, but then we cut away. Did you always know the show would end with that shot?
I always wanted it to end that way. Finally, we find out that something important is happening in the barn. I don’t know if I was in the middle of writing episode 6 when I landed, but I could see the end coming. I thought, “Oh, how about that?” And I think I started thinking, “Oh, that’s interesting and exciting to me.”
Coupled with the grunts, it’s almost comedic in that he looks at Nile’s corpse and seems to be thinking, “Wow, now I have to dispose of this corpse” or “Oh my god, I’m going back to prison.” What was your intention when you played it?
I know what I meant with that growl and the whole ending and cut to black, but I think the fact that it sparked so much discussion is almost more important than me saying what it is. I think it can be interpreted in many ways. For a show that has to fill in gaps between episodes because it’s almost scripted, it felt natural to me to have an ending where I had to fill in some of the gaps myself. This ending, which feels tidy, tied up, out of the box (checked), and everything in place, didn’t really work for such an inherently broken serial story.
Why did you decide that episode 4 was the right place for Ruben’s death, rather than leaving it for the finale?
I thought something had to happen at the end of 4 to make this wedding bookend a surprise. Let’s say he finished his speech. So I felt like there might have been some deflated energy coming out of the episode that felt like it had the same ending as episode 3. So, in a storytelling sense, I felt like I needed to shake it up again in a pretty meaningful way. And I was really scratching my head because I knew there needed to be something at the end of 4 to really propel these bookends forward. I can’t remember where I came up with it, but as soon as it occurred to me, I thought, “Oh, this might be a good idea.”
The audience doesn’t actually see Ruben die, so when I first watched it I thought maybe he survives, and the end of episode 4 was actually a dream sequence. Was the scene where Ruben clearly dies just for the editing room?
No, I don’t think so.
Richard Gadd
Provided by BBC/HBO
Why did they avoid Ruben dying on screen and leave it a bit ambiguous?
I think some of the most common mistakes TV makes in this day and age have a neat ending. I felt like with the show essentially playing around with structure and essentially playing with unseen events, it felt like an honorable way to pretty much mirror the stories we’ve seen so far.
I also did it at the end of “Baby Reindeer.” The ending of “Baby Reindeer”, in which Donnie looks up at the bartender, can have various meanings.
TV shows and movies always have happy endings. If you look at the structure of a romantic comedy, it usually goes like this: two people meet, finally admit their love for each other, the credits roll, and from that point on, life begins to make sense. And I don’t think that’s true of life. I don’t believe that happy endings, or even definitive endings, are true to life. Therefore, I don’t know why TV always seems to broadcast things like that. Because I think television brainwashes people into thinking that when they grow up, something will happen somewhere in their life: they’ll meet someone, or some big life event will happen, or they’ll say something about themselves, and everything will be fine. I think the lack of conclusions is, in a sense, a reflection of life.
The fact that people still have to discuss and wonder about what happened to Ruben after the credits roll means that his struggles, the struggles of the story, and the questions surrounding life, their relationship, and humanity in general, continue after the credits roll. It felt like the right way to end a show like this.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
