Will Harrison in Broadway’s Punch and Hulu’s Murdaugh: Death in the Family

Will Harrison has a few people to thank for the whirlwind first two years of his career – the ones who inspired his on-screen characters. Since its appearance in 2023 Daisy Jones and the Six (which itself was inspired by the real-life drama of the members of Fleetwood Mac), he played John Wilkes Booth’s accomplice David Herold in Manhuntfolk singer Bobby Neuwirth in A complete strangerand the eldest son of the now infamous family at the heart of Hulu Murdaugh: Death in the Family. Today, he is also finishing an acclaimed performance on Broadway in Punch where Harrison plays Jacob Dunne (in real life, of course), a young man who accidentally kills another patron during a bar fight after landing a single blow.

“When you’re playing real people, the question of whether they want the thing done or not, and whether you talk to them beforehand or not, can become a weird part of the process,” Harrison says of Zoom from New York. “But Punch was created with the blessing and input of the characters, which takes a lot of pressure off.

The play is set in Nottingham, England, where the fatal event took place in 2011. Dunne still lives nearby, as do the parents of the late James Hodgkinson (Punch follows their restorative justice work with Dunne), and Harrison was able to travel to the UK before the Broadway run. “I got to spend the day with Jacob, which was amazing, and spending that time with him gave me the freedom to really throw myself on stage,” he says.

Did Jacob Dunne see this production of the show? I know it’s also playing in the West End.

He was at the West End opening and was able to spend time with the cast, but he cannot travel to the United States due to his status as a convicted criminal. It’s such a shame and I so wish he could be there, but it’s a hard thing to get around.

I assume you are not in communication with Buster Murdaugh.

No. (Laughter.) I avoided any direct contact there.

How do you build a character when you’re playing a real person you don’t want to meet?

There are many references online. Obviously this was a huge story and there’s no shortage of things to watch. But you can do all the research you want, talk to as many people as possible, and in the end you have to trust that the people directing and producing the project like your version of you. I didn’t do a lot of research on Buster before my audition, I just played the role and they said, “Oh, that’s our version of that guy.” The same thing happened with A complete stranger [playing Bob Neuwirth].

Do you have to like or find empathy for someone like Buster Murdaugh to play him?

I certainly don’t have to like the person, nor do I have to agree with them. But I have to understand why they did things. Through this you develop empathy. Whether an action is wrong or not, there is usually an explanation. There is always a why. You even kind of start to feel a little protective of them, and you have to let go of them.

The gist of the story in Punch is dedicated to offering that “why” and helping audiences find empathy with a child who killed another child. But what was your “why” for? Murdaugh?

I was really focused on the storyline, which was that he was really apart of what happened to his family. He was at school when the murders took place. I can’t wait for the second half of the series to come out [in November] because Buster becomes a lens to show how tragic this event was. He is the only person close to this event through whom we can see things, and he is conflicted and devastated. This story was truly salacious and crazy, but to actually think about what it would be like to experience something like this is insane.

Did you grow up in families like them, with this particular kind of privilege and influence?

Well, I grew up in liberal East Coast cities, so any version of this was more tame and watered down than in the South. But I was in the country, so there was hunting, ATVs, and dirt bikes that all the boys did. We took a trip to Hampton, South Carolina while filming, just to get a feel for it, and it’s literally an intersection. That’s it. And this family’s jurisdiction, the region covered by their power, was much larger.

Can you tell me how you got into this role for Punch? Was a Broadway play on your bucket list?

This just arrived in my inbox as an audition. I wasn’t actively looking for a Broadway play, but theater is what got me started in acting, which is what most young people do, and it really centers me and gives me ownership of the work more than film or television. I’m really grateful to James and Adam [the writer and director] for insisting on reading people for these roles. The first tape I sent was for the opening monologue when Jacob is high on coke and running around town – I put my whole couch in the frame and I was jumping on it. I did, however, receive a note with the booster sides, which said “maybe a little less ruffle”.

You do the grind of eight shows a week on Broadway, and you’re also in almost every second of the play. How did you prepare?

I arrived in less than ideal shape to put on such a physical show, so I had to take action for that area. My whole day, and my whole life, has been about saving energy for the show – what can I do and still have enough to finish the show? Then it takes me at least two full hours to relax afterwards.

How has the accent from Nottingham, England treated you?

I was obsessed with British media growing up – In Bruges And Lock, stock and two smoking barrels And Trainspotting. So I was really excited to get into this dialect. A lot of the team are from Nottingham: our playwright, our movement director. So they speak with this accent while giving you notes. I’m not an actor who has to stay in character, I find it a bit tiring. But it was fun to stick with the accent. Although there were times when Adam would give me a message and I would turn around and say “what?” and he would say, “You have to stop.” (Laughter.)

Who have you been hit on the most by on set so far in your career?

It was really scary to hear that Patricia Arquette was going to play my mother and Jason Clarke my father. They handled this set so well. They were so prepared and they were improvising between scenes. I never really knew if I was talking to Jason or Dad. And it was never just Jason. I remember the last night of filming he took off his makeup and everything and I really saw him for the first time. He smiled at me like a guy who knew me a little, because all this time I was his son and not Will.