The reverberations from Richard Gadd’s Half Man, his drama about toxic masculinity, will continue for some time. Part of the noise has been the breakthrough performances by its young stars, particularly Mitchell Robertson as the youthful version of Jamie Bell’s Niall.
The 28-year-old Scot is outstanding as the nerdish character who is bullied and yet spellbound by his hyper-macho half-brother Ruben (played by the also excellent Stuart Campbell in the youth scenes, and later by Gadd). It is a carefully drawn role, one which he and Bell discussed: “We shot first, so Jamie then got to watch what we were shooting and honestly, he did all the work in the continuation of the character. But if he wins any awards, he has to share them with me.”
Niall and Ruben are two troubled characters who clash, unite, betray, fight, are different embodiments of male dysfunction. “It’s the holding on to stuff,” says Robertson. “And feeling shame. That’s really heavy on their shoulders, and manifesting differently. One really hides and retreats from himself and other people, and the other one chooses violence. At the same time, they have this really intense co-dependent relationship.”
Robertson is reluctant to mention the manosphere, but says, “This show is looking into where all that begins.” One key aspect is when boys first come into contact with society at school. The show depicts life at a tough Glasgow school, one Robertson understood. “Growing up in the west of Scotland — and I don’t want to put it down, because I love it — but kids can be brutal.”
“The working-classness that I used to think was my weakness, I now see as my strength”
Mitchell Robinson
He wanted to be a footballer up until his late teens, while also making YouTube sketches with his friends. “Secretly I thought it’d be great to be an actor but I didn’t grow up around actors. I had no idea where to start.” On a whim, he took part in the school show, and was encouraged to take it further by a teacher. It has not been easy. “Acting is a really middle-class game and as someone from a working-class background it was tricky. The working-classness that I used to think was my weakness, I now see as my strength.”
He says it matters when “people like Stephen Graham or Eddie Marsan or James McAvoy say, ‘I came from this kind of background, you can do it as well’,” and you can bet he’ll be joining their vanguard in the years ahead.
He and Campbell are now best mates, though he says they have yet to reap the rewards of recognition: “We were in a restaurant and one of the waiters offered us free cake. Me and Stuart were like, ‘Maybe they saw the show and just wanna give us free food.’ When the waiter came back I said, ‘How come you gave us a free cake?’ And she went, ‘Oh, cos we’re shutting soon and they’re out of date.’ We were like, ‘Oh. OK.’”
Half Man is on BBC iPlayer now
