![‘Heel’: Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough & Anson Boon On Grief, Redemption, More ‘Adolescence,’ and ‘Mobland’ Season 2 [The Discourse Podcast]](https://cdn.theplaylist.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/06105822/%E2%80%98Heel-Stephen-Graham-Andrea-Riseborough-Anson-Boon-On-Grief-Redemption-More-%E2%80%98Adolescence-and-%E2%80%98Mobland-Season-2-The-Discourse-Podcast.jpg "‘Heel’: Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough & Anson Boon On Grief, Redemption, More ‘Adolescence,’ and ‘Mobland’ Season 2 [The Discourse Podcast]")
At first glance, “Heel” (released internationally as “The Good Boy”) looks like it might be a grim captivity thriller. A troubled young man is abducted and chained in a basement by a grieving couple. But filmmaker Jan Komasa has something stranger and more psychologically rich in mind. Instead of a story about imprisonment and escape, “Heel” becomes a meditation on grief, redemption, and the uncomfortable idea that compassion can sometimes arrive in deeply unsettling forms. The film stars Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough, and Anson Boon and opens in theaters and on demand on March 6.
On this episode of The Discourse, host Mike DeAngelo spoke with Graham and Riseborough together, followed by Boon in a separate conversation, about the film’s unusual premise, the emotional core behind its darkness, and the different ways each actor interpreted the story.
For Graham, the script’s twisted premise wasn’t the point. What grabbed him was the emotional logic behind it.
“I felt like this script was something I hadn’t really read before,” Graham said. “It had this macabre, twisted nature, but ultimately to me it was about grief. About a man trying to help his wife navigate that grief the best way he thought was possible.”
He explained the warped reasoning that leads his character to abduct Boon’s Tommy.
“Say your dog dies,” Graham said. “Nine times out of ten, people get another dog almost straight away. For him, it was like, I can’t replace this void. I’m incapable of replacing it. So how do I fill it for her? I’ll get another boy.”
Riseborough was drawn to the same emotional undercurrent and the chance to explore it alongside Graham and Komasa.
“I would do anything with Stephen,” she said. “But to do this with Stephen and Jan — Jan is one of my favorite filmmakers working today. The combination of the two was such a pleasure.”
Her character enters the story emotionally frozen by grief.
“She’s catatonic,” Riseborough said. “Flatlined emotionally. And the beautiful thing is that this boy wakes her up again.”
The film’s moral ambiguity fascinated Graham as well. Komasa once told him a story about speaking with musicians who had traveled from China to perform abroad. When asked why they didn’t stay in Europe permanently, their answer surprised him.
“They said, ‘We don’t feel oppressed. We’ve been given the opportunity to learn the most beautiful instruments and take that music to the world,’” Graham recalled. “That twisted duality of perception really stuck with me.”
That duality runs through “Heel.” What initially feels monstrous slowly becomes more complicated as the couple attempts to reshape Tommy through culture and care.
“We bring him into our home,” Graham said. “We give him literature, culture, music, and film. All of these great things he’s never been exposed to, and ultimately they transform him inside.”
When Anson Boon joined the conversation, he revealed that he saw the film from an entirely different perspective.
“For me, the film is about TLC or the lack of it,” Boon said.
Where Graham and Riseborough approached the story through grief, Boon viewed it as a strange experiment in rehabilitation.
“Tommy lived in a world where he could do whatever he wanted,” he explained. “Search whatever he wanted on his phone, go out whenever he wanted, commit any crime he wanted. Then all of that gets stripped away when he enters the house.”
That loss of freedom forces the character through a transformation that Boon carefully mapped out.
“I ended up with seven stages for the character,” he said. “He’s constantly being pushed into a space with absolutely no freedom while trying to pull himself back toward freedom. And the film ultimately asks where he was better off.”
Working in such close quarters with Graham and Riseborough made the production feel more like a small theater company than a traditional film set.
“We built the whole house inside a studio,” Boon said. “The three of us were just in there together with Jan, and when you work that closely with actors you admire, it’s very special.”
Beyond “Heel,” Graham is currently riding a wave of acclaim for Netflix’s “Adolescence,” a project that has dramatically raised his profile. While his success has changed the types of offers he receives, he insists his instincts remain the same.
“It’s opened up a huge opportunity in many ways,” Graham said. “The projects coming through the door change, but the sensibilities of why I choose something haven’t changed. I still want to do a little indie film in England. That will never change.”
As for whether “Adolescence” could return for a second season, Graham, who teased something in a recent awards speech, says the original story is complete. However, the creative team may revisit the style or approach at some point.
“There’s not really any more room for those characters,” he explained. “We may revisit the technique and the approach further down the line if we find something else to say, but that story stands on its own.”
Boon, meanwhile, offered a tease about his return as Eddie in “Mobland” Season 2, revealing he was literally Zooming in from the set.
“You’re talking to me from my trailer on the set of Season 2,” he said with a laugh.
After the explosive revelations at the end of Season 1, Boon says the next chapter dives deeper into the show’s tangled family dynamics.
“We’ve now had ten episodes to introduce these characters,” he said. “So in season two, we can dive even deeper and explore more sides of Eddie.”
He hinted that the fallout from those revelations will push the character in unexpected directions.
“We left season one on a pretty big bombshell about the way that family is really made up,” Boon said. “So I think he’s going to be explosive.”
Listen to the full interviews with Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough, and Anson Boon below.
The Discourse is part of The Playlist Podcast Network, which includes Deep Focus, Bingeworthy, and more. We can be heard on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Soundcloud, and most places where podcasts are found. You can stream the podcast via the embed within the article. Be sure to subscribe and drop us a comment or a rating, as we greatly appreciate it. Thank you for listening.
Entertainment journalist, podcaster, and host of The Discourse and Bingeworthy podcasts, with bylines at Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and IndieWire.
