‘Run’ Star Domhnall Gleeson Reveals How He and Merritt Wever Built Whole Scenes Only Using the F-Word

HBO’s new comedy series Run follows two college sweethearts who reunite spontaneously years after their breakup. In the opening minutes of the first episode, Domhnall Gleeson‘s character Billy texts nothing but the word “RUN” to former flame Ruby (Merritt Wever), who texts the same word right back. It’s an old code between the lovers instructing them to drop everything in their lives to meet on a train leaving New York City the next day. What is immediately obvious is that even though the two burn for each other — as evidenced by two insanely steamy masturbation scenes — the lives they’ve left behind threaten to sabotage their chances of happiness now.

Run is executive produced by Fleabag mastermind Phoebe Waller-Bridge and was created by her long-time collaborator Vicky Jones. As such, it has the same stinging wit as Fleabag as well as its unfettered emotional humor. The combination is a high-stakes romantic comedy where you constantly feel the dread of the bottom falling out. Run is exhilarating, sensual, and at times, uncomfortable to watch.

Both the fun and the intensity of the project weren’t lost on star Domhnall Gleeson. Known for a career that spans everything from indie gems like Frank and Ex Machina to big budget epics like Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Gleeson is one of the most in-demand actors on screen. When Decider got the chance to chat on the phone with Gleeson, who is in isolation on the other side of the Atlantic, he explained why jumping into Run was so appealing and why it wound up being a way more intense shooting experience than he initially bargained for.

DECIDER: Having watched the first five episodes, I do want say that I find watching the show to be a really visceral experience. I physically feel tension, whether it’s the sexual tension, the dread, the anxiety, or the heartache, and I wonder how challenging was it for you as an actor to be in that vulnerable headspace for so long while filming this?

DOMHNALL GLEESON: Yeah, that’s interesting. I found it to be quite a difficult shoot, just in terms of the full-on nature of it. Yeah, it was intense. It was intense in a way I hadn’t quite been expecting. But I think that’s probably what was necessary to get the show to the right place.

You know the energy is always very high because the stakes are high at every moment in the show, you could lose everything or gain everything in a moment. All it will take is for the other character to say, “I’m committing to you or I’m going home,” and either one changes your life irrevocably. So yeah, it was an intense shoot in lots of ways, but there was lots of opportunities to have fun, too, and like hopefully that’s what’s in the series now. Hopefully, that high stakes thing is there and as long as it comes across in sort of a fun way then I think we’ll have done our jobs. 

I can’t imagine this show working without you and Merritt in these roles. Your chemistry is so electric and fun and alive. How was it working with her?

Yeah, she’s extraordinary, you know, she’s an amazing actor. I had seen her in a couple of things before we shot so already knew she was wonderful. And we had a couple of people in common that we’d worked with and I heard how amazing she was.

She’s just..she’s perfect in the part. I think we got into a groove pretty quickly and there didn’t seem to be a lot of backstory work needed to be done, but we still did it, but it felt like we got to a place reasonably quickly where we were able to do all the things to each other in the scene that were necessary. You can always talk to her to deliver whatever’s needed in terms of where the characters are supposed to be in the scene, so yeah it was great.

The writing on this is so fascinating to me cause it’s so sharp and real, but there’s a section that really struck me where you and Merritt are just saying, “Fuck,” back and forth. That’s the only word you guys were saying, but there’s such an emotional journey happening with each time it’s said. I’m wondering if some of that was improvised or are there notes in the script to help direct the emotional journey that your characters are going on? 

No, the writing was very very strong. I think there’s actually a couple of places in the script where they trade back and forth, “Fuck,” and I’m pretty sure they were both scripted.

You know, I don’t think there’s a lot in the show that’s from me and Merritt improvising. Like there were bits and pieces, but it’s all absolutely minor. It’s like all the stuff that works was on the page and sometimes I think it’s important to work your way around bits and pieces to keep it fresh and to keep you bouncing off each other and not to be expecting the next thing. Sometimes that ends up being helpful when they put it together, but often times it’s more useful just in terms of keeping things fresh on the day. Yeah, not never knowing what to expect from the other person. Yeah, the writing was very strong anyway and yeah so we were lucky in that regards.

I noticed just looking over your resume you haven’t done a ton of TV in recent years so I was curious what was it about this project that kind of made you say, “Yes, I really want in?”

Well, there was a couple of things, I had done some pretty heavy stuff just previously and I wanted something that was a little bit lighter, where you would be going in have fun. Yeah, I hadn’t done a lot of that just recently. So I read the script and it really reminded me of, like, “I’ve been on that train journey.” I did that train journey across America. It just really reminded me of lots of stuff. And I was like, “Holy shit this is crazy.” I just thought the opportunities were so huge in terms of saying something about love and I thought that was fascinating. And then a huge element was just Phoebe being involved. I just adore Phoebe, I’d worked with her very briefly previously, but I’d also, obviously, seen all of Fleabag and some of her other work and I just trusted her implicitly. I think that the work that she’s done that really matters to me has that great mix of being exciting and moving and having plot, but underneath it, it’s really underpinned by huge humanity and love and that’s what – if you’re entering into a contract for television they can be scarily long and I just thought, “Well as long as you have that underneath it it won’t get boring or it won’t get cheap,” which will always be the concerns. 

What was your favorite part about this whole experience and what do you hope audiences take away from it when it debuts on HBO?

Well, first of all, I hope people watch it. And then I hope people that watch it and really like it. I mean they’re the main thing, so I hope it means something. I think what you don’t want…I think there are some comedies that it’s great that it doesn’t really mean anything and it just makes you laugh. I think that is a huge thing that we need at the moment. I think that there’s something deeper going on with this, hopefully, as well. I think that there’s some sadness underneath it that only peeks its head out every now and again.

But I hope the relationship matters to people. Even though the protagonists are not always that nice, they’re not always great people, I do think there’s real love there and so I hope that transmits. I hope that that comes across and that it means that people lean in and start to hope for the character. I think that will be great if we could get to that place despite the fact that they’ve done these bad things in their lives. I think that will be an achievement if we can get to that place. So I’ve got my fingers crossed for t hat but you never know.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Where to stream Run