For scores of North Americans of a certain vintage, it’s hard to recall a time in contemporary pop culture that didn’t include Anthony Michael Hall.
During the 1980s, the American actor, now 56, was ubiquitous, the reigning go-to nerd in a trio of teen-themed hit comedies – Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985), Weird Science (1986) – all helmed by late director John Hughes. Hall also appeared in the original National Lampoon’s Vacation from 1983, which Hughes wrote.
Hall was also a cast member of Saturday Night Live for one high-profile – if critically decimated – season (85-86) noted for the return of showrunner Lorne Michaels and co-stars Randy Quaid, Robert Downey Jr., and Joan Cusack.
By the time Hall appeared in Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands in 1990, the then-22-year-old was a veteran focused on consistent work in film and TV – even if the parts were slightly less marquee. But Hall’s star appears to be ascending again, this time as something of a badass. He nailed a role in 2021’s Halloween Kills opposite Jamie Lee Curtis, which followed an acclaimed run in a cable adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dead Zone in the early aughts.
Up next is a role in Season 3 of the hit streaming series Reacher, about a brawny, elite ex-military cop-cum-drifter – played by Alan Ritchson, picking up where Tom Cruise left off in a pair of earlier film adaptations – who seems constitutionally unable to escape conflict. Hall plays Zachary Beck, a wealthy rug importer likely trading in something more sinister whose complicated relationship with his sensitive son pins his conscience. (Hall says his casting in another hit streaming series will be announced soon).
Reacher Season 3 is based on Persuader, the seventh novel in the Lee Child-penned Jack Reacher series. Hall appears in all eight episodes, which are propelled by some tremendously twisty writing and a very punchy soundtrack featuring everything from The Smithereens to The Prodigy.
This crowns a string of 2025 milestones for Hall, notably The Breakfast Club turning 40 and SNL turning 50, an event that found Hall celebrating with… well… seemingly every celebrity in New York at NBC studios. Zoomer reached Hall there ahead of Reacher’s Season 3 debut on Feb. 20 on Prime Video, where it airs weekly until its finale Mar. 27.
KIM HUGHES: Were you a Reacher fan – either the series or the novels – before being cast?
ANTHONY MICHAEL HALL: I kind of stumbled upon it. I had not seen the films with Tom Cruise. Once I got the call about it, I watched the first season and really enjoyed it. It reminded me of some of the films I loved as a kid: Billy Jack, Clint Eastwood films with an ‘anti-hero’ hero. Reacher’s a nomad and there’s so many interesting aspects to his character. Often, I request a meeting with the filmmaker to get a sense of creative objectives and goals. I did that with [Reacher series creator] Nick Santora. Amazing guy, former attorney who, 20 years ago, wrote an episode of The Sopranos on spec and it led to a very successful career. We really connected. Even though I had to do a screen test, Nick told me he had me in mind for this the whole time. That was flattering.
KH: Was it difficult to step into an established show in Season 3? Maybe less so here as there aren’t multiple recurring characters…
AMH: I am fearless at work. I’ve been at this long enough that I didn’t have any hesitation. Coming into a show that’s already successful means you’re working with pros. That gives a sense of comfort. Plus, we were filming in Canada [in Toronto, Hamilton, and the town of Millbrook, Ont., playing New England] which I’ve done quite a bit [including The Dead Zone, shot in Vancouver]. In aggregate I’ve probably lived there maybe four or five years.
There’s a sense of adventure with this job. You’re hand-to-mouth for much of your career and that takes a certain boldness. Getting work is a gift. I also became a father; I now have a 20-month-old son, so I could relate to my character being a father. Yes, he’s a criminal but there’s also a lot of deep pain there. He is seeking forgiveness for himself and from his son, so there was a lot to work with over the arc of eight episodes. Every great drama starts with a family, and everyone can relate to that pain.
KH: What was the hardest thing to get right with this role?
AMH: I’m 56 and the vision started going when I was about 50, so all the reading – I had all eight episodes in my hand – and there’s lots of dialogue. But I also had the novel to work with. Lee Child’s style of writing is interesting. He moves between third person subjective to then being inside Reacher’s head. Working with Alan Ritchson … he’s such a good actor and he has located this innocence within the character. I like the choices that he makes. He’s very aware of the process and where the camera is.
KH: You attended the super-star-studded 50th anniversary of SNL. How was that?
AMH: Amazing. It was dreamlike, almost out-of-body. I’m going to correlate something, so bear with me. This is my 49th year in the business. I started in 1976 when I was eight years old, and I was hired by the late and truly great Steve Allen to play him as a boy in a play he had written called The Wake. I remember auditioning for Steve Allen not far from where I am sitting now. Here I was this morning doing interviews back at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.
Sunday night [Feb. 16] was the three-hour special from 30 Rock. I had not been at the historic Studio 8H in 40 years since I did SNL. Forty years! The passage of time! People often think I started as a teen with John Hughes, but I was just a little boy when I started. And you saw the special. What is it the millennials say? I got all the feels! I saw Eddie Vedder and Jack White and everybody! And here’s good trivia. In 1995 I made a film called The Death Artist, which was a remake of Roger Corman’s film A Bucket of Blood from the 1950s. Will Ferrell was an extra in that film. That’s how long I’ve been in the business.
KH: I see from your Instagram account that you frequently attend smaller town screenings of your films like Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club and then do Q&As afterwards. I bet those are fun.
AMH: That was inspired by Comicons. They’re so fun. My wife Lucia is from Slovakia and doing these allow us to do these ‘work-cations’ where I work a few days but then we go explore these corners of the country. Plus, they become reunions with my fellow actors. I get to tell great stories to an audience.
KH: Indulge me a question I’ve always had about The Breakfast Club: what happens Monday morning after detention? Do the five kids remain allies or return to their cliques?
AMH: I think John intentionally left that open-ended, and up to the audience to decide. It’s like that scene where Judd [Nelson] is climbing in the rafters and begins to tell a joke but never delivers the punchline because he falls through the ceiling. The film asks, ‘What do you think?’ That film has become a kind of anti-bullying thing which wasn’t its intention but its message that we are all more alike than we are different is very powerful.
You know, I owe my career to John Hughes, but also to Steve Allen and Lorne Michaels, these people who saw something in me as a kid. John knew I felt that way. I didn’t get a chance to see Lorne this weekend, but I certainly acknowledge his impact on me. Thinking of that difficult SNL season I did, the so-called ‘weird year’ and eleventh season – which wasn’t that great in retrospect and really got bashed by the critics – I think I have career dysmorphia. Like body dysmorphia, but different [laughs]. It wasn’t so bad. Looking back, I’m thrilled about all the people I got to work with.
The new season of Reacher is streaming now on Prime Video.
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