Have you ever made a pact with your childhood friend? And would you still keep that wild and reckless promise even when you haven't heard from the person for over 17 years? That's exactly what happens in HBO's new black comedy thriller series Run, which features heartthrob Irish actor Domhnall Gleeson who plays opposite American actress Merritt Wever as former couples who decide to flee from their ordinary lives together after texting each other "RUN".
Domhnall Gleeson in Run. (Photo courtesy of HBO Asia)
Written and produced by Vicky Jones, Run follows the rollercoaster life of Ruby Richardson (Wever), whose world is turned upside-down when she receives a text from her old college sweetheart Billy Johnson (Gleeson), who invites her to drop everything and meet him in New York and embark on an intense and thrilling roadtrip across America filled with twists and turns in order to fulfil the pact they made 17 years earlier. The seven-episode first season recently debut exclusively on HBO and its auxiliary streaming platform HBO GO, with new episode premieres every Monday at 9.30am.
The new show also marks the first major TV role for Gleeson, who, fresh off his role as General Hux in Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise Of Skywalker, previously appeared in an episode of Black Mirror, Darren Aronofsky's Mother! and Alex Garland's Ex Machina. Straight from lockdown in Dublin, the 36-year-old recently spoke with Life via phone. The actor discussed his experience working on the new series, and his life in general during this worldwide pandemic.
Your character seems to be going through an exam, or an existential crisis of sorts. Incidentally, a lot of people in the world right now are going through the same thing. Are you struck by how timely the series has become, and has the pandemic brought about some existential moments and questions for you personally?
Yeah. In terms of the existential crisis or anything like that, in the last couple of weeks where you look at the map of the world with the red dots growing and you feel like you're in some terrible, like, a disaster movie or something like that. It just feels like it's not real life. I feel like I'm moving in a movie, which is so bizarre. I've just missed my family and my friends, terribly. But I'm no different from anybody else on the planet at the moment.
Domhnall Gleeson and Merritt Wever in Run. HBO Asia
How did you become involved with the Run project and what was the casting process like?
Well, I had read the script and I thought it was great. I knew Phoebe [Waller-Bridge] was involved, I'm a huge fan of her work. And I also got to know Vicky's work, and I met up with them to talk about the direction of the show, and about what their plans were for us, and that was pretty easy. I was lucky that they kind of wanted me to do it. I didn't have to jump through hoops or anything like that. It's cool that they make me feel like I would be a part of this show. So yeah, the casting process was pretty straightforward and pretty simple.
From its trailer, it's quite obvious that there's something not quite right with the relationship between the two main protagonists. How much can you tell us about the Billy and Ruby characters?
For Billy's character, yes, there's something going on, that he's running from something as well as towards something, which I think is a really important question in the show. And we find out quite a lot about his backstory and secrets. I also think he's finally beginning to question whether he's a good person, or whether he's good enough for somebody like Ruby. I think she's been his escape plan forever. I think there's the right mix of being interesting enough without being totally unrealistic, and which I think is important in a show like this.
What was it like working with Merritt Wever on the set?
Merritt is obviously an extraordinary actor. And she has been brilliant in basically everything. When I think about people who she's like as an actor, I think she's very individual. I really enjoyed building the relationship with her and never had any concerns about the chemistry between the two characters because if you've got good actors there's nearly always good chemistry. And again, I was very lucky on this to be working with the level of talent, which across the board was just exceptionally high.
As a lot of the show is set on a train, I was wondering if what we saw was an actual functional moving train or were there parts where you just filmed in a studio?
I think we shot maybe a day on the real train, and the rest of it was on the studio set. They knew that most of the show was going to be set on a train, so they built these two carriages which they could switch between, being normal and being the dining car and being the bedrooms. And then they have these huge screens for each one of the windows, that were hooked up to individual fields from 190-degree cameras that they had put on a real train as it went across America. So each window has its own climate, as a replay over and over to make it look even more realistic. And whatever way that works made me want to puke up my lunch almost every single day [laughs]. So it was an amazing setup and I think it looks fantastic in the show.
Since your character, Billy, is a successful life guru, are you personally interested in reading or watching this kind of self-help content?
I'm not sure. I understand this is a huge thing for people, self-help books. You hear a lot of it around and sort of it sounds very interesting and very useful. But I'm very lucky in that the friends and the family I have have always been very sensible and very helpful and understanding when it comes to advice, when it comes to feeling that somebody's in trouble, or struggling. So no, I've never watched them really, but it's not because I haven't needed help. I've just looked closer to home and been very lucky with the people I have closer to home when it came to situations where I needed help with my mental health.
You've worked on all kinds of movies before, but you often referred to comedy as your favourite genre. Can you tell us why you think that?
I love all the joy and activities being able to do different things. I enjoyed comedy, but if I could only do comedy I wouldn't be that happy, you know. But the films I enjoy, or have enjoyed the most sometimes are the ones where there are opportunities to be funny, not necessarily full comedies, but the opportunity to be funny. A few years back I had a chance to be in a film called About Time, and I just loved making that film so much, in terms of the joy of trying to create love and thinking about love and how important love is, and going to work with a smile on your face. And in terms of the comedy and the love aspect, I think it just makes me happy in a different way while I'm working.
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