Anthony Michael Hall, possibly best known for The Breakfast Club, Weird Science and The Dead Zone, has enjoyed a successful acting career spanning nearly 50 years. Now, as one of the main characters in Reacher Season 3, Hall reflects on his career and what he looks for when choosing a role.
CGMagazine sat down with Anthony Michael Hall twice ahead of the Reacher Season 3 premiere—once with co-stars Brian Tee and Olivier Richters, and once for a solo interview. During our one-on-one, we discussed what a pivotal year 2025 has been for his career, with the Reacher Season 3 release, The Breakfast Club‘s 40th anniversary and SNL 50 all happening at once.
Hall reflected on his time on Saturday Night Live in the 1980s and what it was like to reconnect with the show for its 50th anniversary. He also spoke with us about his production company, Manhattan Films, what goes into a 49-year career, and his character in Reacher Season 3.
[Beware Reacher Season 3 Spoilers toward the end of the interview]
We’re here to talk about Reacher Season 3, but this is a big year for you. You’ve got The Breakfast Club’s 40th anniversary and SNL 50. Is there anything special you’re doing to celebrate any of these milestones?
Anthony Michael Hall: Just attending. There’s there’s so much. It’s it brings up so much. Let me just start with this. I started in 1976. I was eight years old, and I was cast by Steve Allen, the late, great Steve Allen, in a play called The Wake. So a lot of people don’t know that because they thought I started actually as a young teenager, but it actually goes all the way back to that time.
So to come back to SNL [Saturday Night Live] 40 years later, I mean, it’s just surreal, dude, I can’t tell you. I took part in this Peacock series, the documentary, and I have to be very honest with you. I never watched the show when I did it. I was a 17-year-old kid who was over the moon, excited and thrilled to be there and to be a part of it. And I don’t know if you saw the doc yet, but it’s worth a look.
We just got really bashed by the critics and all that. And it was a very pivotal year, as you probably know and have read. Lorne [Michaels] created the show in 75. He left in 1980, and then he came back in this season. But with the Weird Year documentary details—which is really interesting—is it was a very pivotal year. There was a chance to show would have been cancelled or could have been canceled. And so, it was just amazing.
And I think what’s funny is I was I was shooting a show. I can’t talk about it, but it’s a huge Netflix show that’s going to be coming out. And I joined the cast of that right after I finished Reacher. So, I was in Toronto for most of last year.
Yeah! Toronto!
Anthony Michael Hall: Right on! And I went to Europe with my wife and our baby boy. I have a 20-month-old son. And basically while in Slovakia, visiting my mother-in-law with my wife and son, we were there for about ten days. I got the call from my managers at Untitled, Jason Weinberg and Mitch Mason, who I love, and they said, this opportunity came up for a new show. So anyway, I went to shoot it, and it was while I was there that I was asked yet again to do this doc and the interview.
And what happened was I happened to reconnect with Laila Nabulsi, who was the executive producer that year. And she was sort of like, although she wasn’t a writer, she was like Tina Fey before Tina Fey. She was the right-hand lady and a producer, and she was just a wonderful friend and person. So I reconnected with her on what became a three-and-a-half-hour call, and the catharsis kicked in.
So what happened was, after that call, we had so much fun just hanging out on the phone, talking, laughing, reminiscing, and all this stuff that just happened very organically. And then, what she sent me from Morgan Neville’s company, they had all the episodes, and so I watched them for the first time, believe it or not, this past summer while I was shooting, I watched. I had a great call with her.
And then I actually watched the show and what I’ve likened it to, and I want to recount this to you. It was like the last ten minutes of It’s a Wonderful Life minus Clarence, right? You get it. I was seeing everything through fresh eyes. And then, on that call and while watching those episodes by myself at like 4 a.m., the catharsis kicked in.
I think I had, like, I would joke with Laila, like career dysmorphia. I was always beating myself up about it, and I kind of buried it. I kind of suppressed what it meant to me, what it was. And although it was a challenging and difficult season on many levels, the joy and the happiness and the incredible people…
That’s why I mentioned that film, because I was looking at it and, you know, Madonna and Oprah Winfrey and young Tom Hanks and Jay Leno, and he had black hair and one little streak of gray in the front. All the hosts that year, and in particular, like Stevie Ray Vaughan, who was I was like, I idolized him. I loved his music. He was on that season and all the great music acts. It goes on and on and on.
And I tell you, it was just very freeing and really exciting because I was seeing everything with fresh eyes, and that’s why I liken it to It’s a Wonderful Life, minus Clarence. I felt like George Bailey. What happened was that I then decided to take part in the interview and the doc because Laila and I have truly reconnected as friends for these last six months, so when we did it in the fall, I said to Laila, I said, “Do you think Morgan and his company would be cool that if we do our interview together?”
In other words, just talking to each other because it’ll be more natural. And so that’s what we did. So it was like we were picking up on the conversation that we had, and it was just wonderful. I’m getting chills now, honestly, in my arms because I was thinking about it.
And then I really watched the show and then I had this kind of out-of-body experience. And like the end of the film, I just realized all the friends and all these great people that I loved and the sense of community. It’s like that last scene in the house, an angel gets his wings, you know? Just amazing. So, I was just flushed with gratitude. And then I was like, “Yeah, I gotta do this interview.” And then we did it, and it was really fun. And I thought the doc turned out really well.
So, yes, the 40th anniversary of The Breakfast Club. Amazing. I mean, I had that for the vacation film [National Lampoon’s Vacation] a couple of years ago, and I think of that great quote I was here, I think it’s attributable to Isaac Newton, but “We were all standing on the shoulders of giants.” If I may, in my life, Steve Allen, at age eight, put me to work and the first of what became the now a 49-year career. Amazing. And I’m so grateful.
Certainly, John Hughes. And even before that, Matty Simmons and Harold Ramis. And then, capping it off, my sort of Mount Rushmore of mentors and people who looked out for me, the giants in my life, in my career—Lorne Michaels, you know.
So it’s my long-winded answer, but it’s the sentiment of it because I was just like, “This is amazing.” And then the events were just incredible. Were you there? It was unbelievable. You know, it really was amazing.
You say it’s a long-winded answer, but just so you know, from our perspective, it’s a passionate one. And that’s beautiful to see someone still so passionate. You say a 49-year career, right?
Anthony Michael Hall: For real. Yes, ma’am. Really grateful. Over time and over the decades, because what I do—and you know this has a creative—there’s no guarantee of anything. There’s no promises made, and the only promise kept is to yourself to continue and somehow feed yourself and make a living, as they say.
But then I think of that classic axiom of, like, if you do something you love with passion, you never work a day in your life. And I’ve just been so grateful that it’s been a long career, and I’m just amazed by it. So cut to Friday night at Radio City. I mean, it was just incredible. I’m such a music fan. So, to see Eddie Vedder, to see Post Malone with Nirvana, all these people, I mean, just incredible.
And I can’t say I would have pegged you for a Post Malone fan.
Anthony Michael Hall: Oh, I know! I have big ears, meaning wide tastes, because I grew up listening to classic rock and hip hop kind of correlated with my childhood right here in Manhattan. So, I’ve always been a fan of that blues. I listen to everything. I’m a big jazz fan, and yeah, I love Post. I think he’s great. I really do love his music. Yeah.
Very cool. Now touching on The Breakfast Club and SNL specifically, especially with you reminiscing about them right now, do you have any memories of favourite moments on set or favourite skits from SNL or anything like that?
Anthony Michael Hall: This is funny. We did, in one episode, a very fun Weekend Update thing where Downey [Robert Downey Jr.] and I were—I don’t know who wrote it, but we kind of co-wrote it—but we were doing a book review of a William F. Buckley book, and all of our sort of critical notes were punctuated by farts. And I somehow had the stupid skill of making a fake fart under the arm. And it was just really stupid and totally sophomoric and goofy.
But I remember how nervous I was doing that segment with Downey. That was fun. I mean, Downey and I, we also did Hall and Oates one week, and it was so funny. I mean, I had a goofy wig on, and we were imitating Hall and Oates, and then Downey came out and they literally constructed these cowboy boots that he was, like, kneeling into. So he could be up to my hip next to me.
Goofy as hell. Backing up Madonna with Terry Sweeney. And we were making fun. It was like a Spanish variety show sketch, and I was dancing and in tights, and it was just like the stupidest shit that I look back now. And so anyway. Fun stuff, fun stuff.
And now I’m just much more lighthearted about it. And I joke with Laila, I think I, as I said to you earlier, it’s like I had career dysmorphia. I made too much out of what it was, and I tried to bury it in my head, you know? And now, the fact that I’ve had this long of a career and my career took a different route, a different trajectory, doesn’t diminish my love for what the show is and was and has been. I just love comedy.
Because when I was a kid, my heroes were like, George Carlin was the first one, then Richard Pryor. So I was a kid listening to music. I was listening to Van Halen, The Police, and reading Rolling Stone and Creem Magazine and listening to comedy albums. That was, you know, what kind of fueled me as a kid? Music and comedy, you know?
Awesome. Now we’re talking about your 49-year career here. What’s your secret? How are you still going? And how do you stay this excited about it?
Anthony Michael Hall: You know, the answer has a couple of layers to it. I mean, just the idea of never giving up. You know, just being grateful. The fact that I had a thick skin and I had a certain determination. And I’m just so grateful for it because, obviously, we know at any age, the industry can be tough on people, and sadly, some people don’t make it through. Same thing in the music business, obviously.
I credit my mother raising me. I was raised by a mom who was a single mom for 12 years, and then my mother remarried when I was 12, and I had a stepfather who was wonderful and adopted me. And then they had my sister. So, I think I credit my faith. You know, I have a belief in God. And I think, you know, just being raised in the city.
The city was a great educator and education for me. I have a production company. We’ve been producing some independent films in the last three years. We produced two, and one was called The Class. It was kind of a modern-day spin on The Breakfast Club, actually. Original script, but it’s available, and that’s on a streamer now, so that’s great. And so I partnered with that writer/ director, a guy named Nick Celozzi on that.
We just produced another film called Roswell Delirium. Same thing where I partnered with a really talented writer/director of independent films named Richard Bakewell. And that’s a great film we have. I’m proud of it. It’s a really nice film that is actually kind of set in the 80s, and we’ve got some really good actors in it, Dee Wallace Stone is in it, and a bunch of really fun people and a cast of young actors, too. That was really fun.
So, you know, developing and trying to build upon my own production company, which I named Manhattan Films because of what I said, being raised here, that was really my greatest education, I think, being a kid growing up in the city, which some people think it would not be a good idea. It was a great thing for me, I loved it.
I actually went to the Art Students League, which is literally downstairs across the street from here, as a kid, so I was very ambitious as a kid. I would study. I used to study taekwondo. I went to the Art Students League, I studied dance, I took drums, and I was really, when I look back, I in some ways, I think I was more acted from 8 to 12 than I was in my teenage years. But such a blessing.
It’s a long answer, but I feel like my passion, my appreciation and gratitude for my work, and also knowing that it was never a promise given, you know, it was like it’s always hand of mouth. Back to what I mentioned earlier. You know, there’s no guarantee of anything. So I think I just am grateful that I had a thick skin and a hard head to just keep going and never give up, you know? Not that show business is hell, but I love that famous Winston Churchill line. Right. “When you think you’re in hell, keep going.”
That’s fair.
Anthony Michael Hall: Hell, at times. Because, again, there are no promises of anything. You know, I think it took me a long time to get comfortable in my own skin because I had such an early start and I had such success early on. And then I really made a commitment to myself, even at that age, that no one would ever take that from me. My own inner voice told me, I’m going to keep going with this, and I’m going to do this for myself. I was passionate about it.
And I have been all my life now that there’s sort of an ebb and flow to that over time. Of course, I’ve had many tough seasons and quite honestly, sometimes periods where it’s been a couple of years before…when I couldn’t get work, and that happened in my 20s. It happened in my 30s. So you just keep going. And it’s just, I think, that sense of persistence and dedication. You master it, and you just want to keep going.
In talking about your career, do you have a type of genre or type of type of character that you find yourself going back to? You’ve been the nerdy guy. You’ve been the bad guy. You’ve been the good guy.
Anthony Michael Hall: You know what I think, what I figured out early in my life, the actors that I love so much were actors that had that ability to go from light to dark. Like, for example, Jack Nicholson was my favourite as a kid. Christopher Walken, the great Meryl Streep, who was there the other night, Ben Kingsley. So many people who inspired me could go from light to dark and cross genres and all that.
So that’s something that always mattered to me. I always wanted to kind of mix it up. And I think part of that comes from a sense of wanting to or having to prove yourself over and over again as an actor. Again, coupled with no guarantee. It’s tough, man. It’s like being a musician. Some people struggle for years.
That leads me into Reacher, then. You are, as I mentioned in an interview with you yesterday, on “Team Bad,” if you will, but your character is a little more in between. Obviously, you’re doing some not-so-good things, but you’re also doing worse things because you’re stuck. How do you feel about that gray area? Do you think that’s playing into that light-to-dark that you’re talking about?
[REACHER SEASON 3 SPOILERS AHEAD]
Anthony Michael Hall: Interesting, right? And ironically, I’m wearing gray. Well, you know what? I thought that’s what I found very compelling about this role, Dayna. I had a great conversation with Nick Santora going into this, and I’ll submit to you that he told me he had me in mind the whole time. I still had to audition and do a screen test, obviously, Skydance and Paramount and our friends at Amazon Prime and MGM.
But, you know, I learned at a certain point in my career I shifted, and I would make a request to meet with the filmmakers. I did this with David Gordon Green. I met with him before Halloween Kills, and then I still had to go do a screen test and kind of bring it and do my thing. I met with him, and then I screen tested, and I was so happy to land the job.
And then, for all its complexity, I love that. And there’s something, even when I got to Toronto before we started, I had great calls with Nick, and I said to him, “Look, I’d like to I don’t like to repeat myself.” And it kind of is an extension of what we’re talking about, playing different parts over time, “And so I want to give you different options. I want to push it.”
Sometimes, I do that, and sometimes, I’ll make a choice, which is a little method actor of me where you keep a little distance from somebody who might be your nemesis on screen. In this case, it was Alan [Ritchson]. And so, I was pushing it a little bit and I was playing and providing different options. And to be very honest with you, I haven’t shared it with anybody yet. I kind of threw Alan off a little bit to start.
That was intentional because I was just kind of playing; I was getting into the skin of the character, but again, with this arc, it’s incredible because then it goes back to family, because the more important relationship and what’s revealed about him, about Zachary is that, he’s under the gun.
We think he’s the boss, and he’s obviously living behind this veneer of being a rug importer. And obviously, he’s an arms dealer. There’s a lot more at play there because he’s living like The Great Gatsby, and you’re going, “What the hell is up with this guy?” There’s a certain toughness and a kind of boss made guy kind of aspect to him.
But the heart of the story for me, for his character, is the relationship with his son. And I will submit to you like I grew up without my biological father. I did not meet him until I was 22. So I had that to draw upon, and I did. But then, as I said, my mother remarried, and my stepfather adopted me. And then they had my sister. And so, really, I also experienced being a part of a nuclear family and having a great father in my life.
But to be very honest with you, I had been Richard Beck. I’d been without my father. And so that was powerful and very compelling. And I think one of the things that I learned even before I met Johnny Berchtold, who’s a great guy—by the way, he’s like 30 and he plays ten years younger than he was. So I could relate to him. He had a youthfulness and just a beautiful brightness about him that I really liked. So I thought that it was really important just to love him. Just to really feel like he was my son.
Now, back to having a family. I suddenly found myself becoming a father. Right? And then a year that it took to do the show, my son turned a year old. So it was amazing. And also, by the way, the Dutch giant Olivier [Richters] had a daughter, so they were literally like Reacher babies that came from season three. Isn’t that cool?
That’s awesome!
Anthony Michael Hall: I’m getting chills because of all the stuff, you see the overlap? There’s like a lot of overlay.
It’s meant to be.
Anthony Michael Hall: Yeah. And I think it’s also about having the awareness to incorporate those things from your own life. I think the title of acting or being an actor, it’s like a misnomer. Like you’re trying to be as real as you can. You know, one of my favourite lines on acting is Spencer Tracy, who said, “If you want to be an actor, don’t get caught doing it.”
That’s a good one. That makes sense, right?
Anthony Michael Hall: That’s one of the other great lines, and it’s so simple. He said acting is, you know, you hit the mark. You look him in the eye and tell the truth. So I think in a world, in a culture of celebrity and social media and everything that the world has become, that’s the reason I don’t look at my work. I just go from inside, and I go with my instincts and I try to provide as many options as I can.
But I had such a rich and cool character here [in Reacher Season 3]. He’s tough, but he’s also falling apart. You know, you think he’s the boss until he realizes he’s not. There’s a time clock built into the story. So he’s he’s in a race against, screwing up, and he’s in fear of Quinn. And then I think when you get to the more poignant stuff with the son, it’s really powerful because it’s a fractured, broken relationship. He’s estranged from his son.
So I think, like all of us, forgiveness, learning to forgive himself. That’s such a hard thing in life, isn’t it? I’m still learning it in my late 50s, in my own personal development. So there’s that aspect. And then the idea of redemption. He’s trying to redeem himself to his son, and he’s seeking that. He’s looking for an olive branch because he knows he wasn’t there for him. And, uh, so that’s quite a role, you know.
I’ve only seen the first episode the other night, but I hope that stuff connects because, that kind of vulnerability and hopefully the work that I did, well, that’s what people want to see, be it in the context of a drama or a comedy. They want to see, they want to see if you’re a comedian, they want to see your joy, and then they can experience that too. You know what I mean?
Well, I have to tell you, they gave me up to episode six of Reacher Season 3. I haven’t seen the last two. And it’s torture, but it’s it’s come off so wonderfully. And, like I said, I’m chomping at the bit to get those last two episodes here, so it did well. You should catch up. Watch your work. It’s good!
Anthony Michael Hall: Without waiting another 40 years?
Yeah, maybe! Did you know much about Reacher beforehand? About the books, the show or anything like that? Or did you have to dive in before you got into this role?
Anthony Michael Hall: No, I was aware of the [Tom] Cruise films. I had not seen them. And to be very honest, I didn’t watch the show until this came up. And then I watched the first season, I enjoyed it. To me, it was kind of reminiscent of a lot of those anti-heroes of the 70s that I loved as a kid. Story wise and context are different, but like Billy Jack or Clint Eastwood, there’s an element of that to him, you know?
And he’s sort of nomadic, like the Billy Jack character or even Kung Fu as a kid. I love that show. So that idea that he’s sort of a nomadic, he’s kind of on his journey, and he’s kind of stripped himself down. I found something really interesting about Alan’s performance. And I wanted to share it with you.
He’s a great-looking guy. He’s a big dude. He’s got even bigger for that. But that’s all fine, you know? And that’s the exterior. But he makes some really interesting choices where—and I think it’s true to the book—but two things. One thing I liked about when I read Persuader—that was the only novel that I read, which this season, is based on. As a writer, you can appreciate that he kind of shifts from third-person subjective storytelling to when you’re in the writer’s head. That’s really interesting.
And I think one of the things that was compelling and interesting to me about Alan was he makes his choice where it’s almost like there’s moments where, and I say this respectfully, it’s almost like his character is on the spectrum. There’s a sort of childlike innocence about him, which is beautiful. And I think that was a really nice shading and colouring, if you will, to his role and his performance in the series [Reacher], which I found really cool because all the other stuff is great.
It’s obviously a very stoic aspect of what he’s doing, and he’s creating. And I found it to be a really cool guy. I mean, he’s obviously very focused on his work. He had been, I think, struggling, he admits it himself, for 20 years, working to build his career. And he’d had some great credits and done his thing. But this was really a breakthrough for him. And I also can relate to that.
Having done The Dead Zone, I started at eight, and I didn’t have a TV show until I was in my 30s. At that point, I had worked a long time as well. So I could also appreciate that in terms of his workload, you know, being number one on the call sheet, the fact that you have to enact a sense of leadership because you have a producer role.
And that was what I, what I kind of ultimately earned on The Dead Zone and had so I could relate to him as well. I mean, all that I kept close to the vest. It’s not stuff that I shared with Alan per se, but I can actually relate to him a lot in ways that I don’t even think he knew. But that’s cool, too, because that was another perspective for me.
But yeah, really proud of the show and so happy that it has an audience, man. Listen, without the audience, we wouldn’t we wouldn’t have our jobs. So, I mean, it was really great to discover it. It was such a big hit. I guess it’s going to be seen in 240 countries. And it’s amazing in itself. And then I have to say, I’ve worked for Netflix and Amazon [Prime Video]. I did Bosch before this, and it was another great show adapted from Michael Connelly’s books.
I’m just really, really grateful and thankful to Amazon Prime and MGM, and I’ve had a good run with Netflix. I’ve made a bunch of films with them. I did War Machine with Brad Pitt about ten years ago and then Trigger Warning and then, uh, even the upcoming, which I can’t mention, one on Netflix. So it was really a very happy surprise to take part in both these great shows. A lot of fun.
We are pretty much at our time, but if you could give me a one-sentence summary of Reacher Season 3, what would you take away from it?
Anthony Michael Hall: My honest God hope is that it’s the best one yet. And I say, I was really struck by the production values, everything I saw in the first episode screening the other night, and I saw it for the first time. So I just hope that it has an impact and that people enjoy it and that it even exceeds expectations. But I hope it’s better than, even better than, the first two seasons were for fans. I hope they enjoy it.
Amazing. Thank you so much. It’s been awesome to talk to you. I’ve been a fan of you my whole life. So this is a moment. So thank you very much.
Anthony Michael Hall: Nice to meet and talk with you.
You too. Thanks very much.
