RIMINI, ITALY – Sometimes the entertainment world is small. You can be chatting with someone on a Zoom interview one week and unexpectedly running into them at an industry event thousands of miles away a few weeks later. Hence, chatting with Richard Gadd in a glorious ballroom in the historic Teatro Aminotre Galli in Italy before the closing ceremony of the 2026 Italian Global Series Festival. A chance to ask the “Baby Reindeer” star about his Emmy nomination for his performance in “Half Man,” a subject that inexplicably never came up in a 40-minute moderated conversation the previous day.
“I was awake. I wouldn’t put myself through the kind of nervousness of that,” Gadd says of the Emmy nominations. “And so with ‘Baby Reindeer, with ‘Half Man,’ I never watched the announcements or any of that. I just waited for the phone to ring. I was aware that it was going to ring at some point that day. But yeah, thrilled.”
Gadd has already won three Emmys for “Baby Reindeer,” including producing for Limited or Anthology Series, Writing for a Limited or Anthology Series, and Lead Actor in the category. Despite the personal connection to that particular story, transforming himself into Ruben in “Half Man,” a character that is seemingly the antithesis to Gadd’s everyday demeanor, which might have been an even bigger challenge.
“I mean, taking on Ruben was a real risk because it was so different to anything I’d ever done before. And I had sleepless nights over it, and I was chronically worried,” Gadd says. “And so it’s such a nice feeling that it gets recognition in that way and that the show gets recognition at the Emmys because it holds all of my happiest memories and everything. And it really is for everyone. It was such a pleasure. Acting with Jamie every day brought the best of me. And it’s for everyone who worked on the show. It was a real tough show. We pulled off some really impossible things in such a short space of time and an impossible schedule. So, I’m delighted to be there again. It’s a real thrill.”
While the hit series may not have gotten all the nominations Gadd and the team were hoping for, we wondered if getting this particular recognition, from his acting peers in a super-competitive year, still resonated.
“Yeah. It’s surreal. I mean, any acknowledgement from The Academy means a lot to me,” Gadd says. “I still come from a comedy background. Five or six years ago I was still performing in the back ends of pubs. So, to be acknowledged by such a prestigious academy and to be recognized alongside people I’ve grown up watching, grown up admiring, it’s surreal. And yeah, it’s an honor. It’s an honor. It’s very surreal to me. It’s almost like I’m still taking it in. The acting game with ‘Baby Reindeer’ was like zero to a hundred. I’ve done acting jobs before for sure. It wasn’t my first acting job by any stretch, but it was a zero to a hundred, and I was fronting this sort of show. And I really love it as an art form, and I want to do it more, and I want to get into it more. So, it just means a lot to be recognized by them in this way, and surreal.
During the previous day’s moderated chat, Gadd reflected on how he never intended to play Ruben. Jamie Bell had been attached to play the lead, Naill, but Gadd reveals that the BBC and HBO, who partnered on the production, wanted him to be involved in a “meaningful way.” Especially as the series was being prepped right as “Reindeer” was exploding on Netflix.
“I was thinking, there’s almost no meaningful male characters left that you can sell ashore of the backup. And so Ruben came up, and I think there was a sense of unsureness on that call,” Gadd recalls. “I’m not sure everyone went, ‘Yes.’ I think I was like, ‘O.K., well go away, think about it. Well, we’ll back you if you want to do it.’ And it was all of a sudden on my shoulders, and I had a few sleepless nights, and I really was like, ‘Oh my God.’ And all my thoughts were, ‘What if people don’t buy it? What if people don’t like it? What if I fail? What if I make a fool of myself?’ And then I kept thinking, “Look, I want to do it. It’s an interesting challenge. Life’s for the taking.’ And all my thinking was based on fear. And I think if my reason for not doing something is because of what people might think, then it’s not a good enough reason. So I decided to do it.”
When we last spoke to Gadd, he had a foothold in Rhode Island as he followed Scotland to their World Cup matches. To say he lights up when asked about the weeks he spent following the team in the U.S. is an understatement. Scotland winning their match versus Haiti was a moment, but his favorite memory was slightly more personal.
“I mean, my favorite memory, not to make it all about me, was bringing the match ball out for Scotland’s first World Cup game in 28 years,” Gadd says. I brought the match ball out, and I put it on the pitch. The ball that they kicked off with, I carried out to the pitch. And it’s one of those moments in life where you almost can’t believe it’s happening as it’s happening. I just remember taking a photo on the pitch, and then I was pitch-side for when all the players came out, and I was pitch-side literally next to the pitch for when they were singing ‘Flower of Scotland.’ You might have to look this up to get the exact right, but it was the loudest crowd in World Cup history or something like that. And they broke the sound level, like 125 decibels. You’ll be able to find the details, but I was pitchside for that singing of the ‘Flower of Scotland’! Which was the loudest recorded sound inside a football stadium at a World Cup. So, that was my happiest moment from a personal point of view. Scotland winning was a great one. Seeing them face Brazil was quite something. Even though that was a very difficult match in the sense that we lost so heavily and it’s kind of spelled the end of our World Cup dreams. Seeing the blue and the yellow in the stadium in Miami mixed in together, it was beautiful. And Brazil being probably the most famous footballing nation in history, to see them live is quite something.”
“Half Man” is available on HBO Max
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Editor-at-Large Gregory Ellwood is one of the entertainment industry's most respected journalists and critics. Based in Los Angeles, he's the only current awards expert who previously worked on Oscar campaigns at a major movie studio. Over the years, he has written for the LA Times, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and Vox, among others. He also co-founded the entertainment news site HitFix, which spawned a legion of influential Emmy and WGA Award-winning alumni.
