This interview is part of Variety and CNN’s Actors on Actors series. Watch the full video interview now at CNN.com/Watch (or on the CNN app) and on Variety’s YouTube channel starting at 11:59 pm ET.
Claire Danes and Richard Gadd both flirted with madness in high-profile acting duets this season. On “The Beast in Me,” veteran actress Danes played writer and grieving mother Agatha Wiggs, whose journalistic instincts get tripped by her new, threatening neighbor (Matthew Rhys). And on “Half Man,” writer-director-star Gadd’s followup to the sensation “Baby Reindeer,” it’s Gadd who plays the threat as Ruben, a musclebound tough guy who haunts the life of his childhood acquaintance Niall (Jamie Bell) into adulthood.
Mary Ellen Matthews for Variety
Claire Danes: I’m very happy to be here with you, truly.
Richard Gadd: Yes, likewise. It’s surreal for me. I’ll tell you a little fact. Back at school, to get us to learn Shakespeare, we watched “Romeo + Juliet.” I remember writing an essay on “Romeo + Juliet.” I remember so clearly an amazing bit you do in that where you wake up and Romeo’s dead, and you do this amazing guttural sob. I remember writing paragraphs about that sob and how impactful it was.
