Richard Gadd has a new look for his new role. The Baby Reindeer creator and star beefed up for the limited series Half Man, as seen in new photos released by HBO and the BBC.
In three photos released on Aug. 21, Gadd, 36, is seen with a bulked-up physique and beard. In one photo with co-star Jamie Bell, he wears a white tank top that exposes his beefed-up arms.
The new look is a great departure from Gadd’s previous role as Donny Dunn in Baby Reindeer, a series for which he lost a significant amount of weight.
On social media, fans reacted to the Half Man sneak peek photos, and they zeroed in on Gadd’s new look.
“Been in the gym lad! 💪” one fan wrote to the Scottish actor.
“Dude got jacked,” another agreed.
“That’s crazy that’s the same guy from Baby Reindeer. Huge transformation,” a third commenter wrote.
Richard Gadd Gained More Than 50 Pounds for ‘Half Man’
To prepare for Half Man, Gadd revealed that he hit the gym daily for months to bulk up. The actor told Vanity Fair he gained 50 pounds of muscle to play Ruben, one of two estranged brothers, in the HBO limited series.
“I guess I just wanted to challenge myself by taking on something very, very different to Donny Dunn [in Baby Reindeer]. So, I have put on a lot of mass,” he told the outlet in May. “I realized I hadn’t ever been this level of in-shape before because I was working out loads, but my diet wasn’t on point, and nothing was changing. Then they got a nutritionist on board, who gave me all this food to eat at certain times of day. And within a month or two, my body had started changing. It’s all about diet.”
Gadd previously revealed that he does whatever it takes to get into character for the roles he takes on. “If I got cast in a role tomorrow, I’d hate walking onto set like this, with this hair and this beard,” he explained to Backstage in August 2024. “I want to try and figure out what weight [the character is], how they look, their hairstyle.”
The Emmy-winning actor told The Hollywood Reporter that to play Dunn in Baby Reindeer, he lost a lot of weight because he “wanted to feel vulnerable and fragile” in his body. “I went from 96 kilograms to 68,” he shared.
Viewers will see several sides of Gadd in Half Man. Per the series logline released by Warner Bros. Discovery, Gadd’s character, Ruben, shows up at his estranged “brother” Niall’s (Jamie Bell) wedding, which leads to a four-decade look back at their dysfunctional relationship. “The series will capture the wild energy of a changing city – a changing world, even – and plumb the depths of what it means to be a man,” the teaser reveals.
