Reacher Star Anthony Michael Hall Talks Joining the Show & Prepping for His Role

With a career that spans nearly five decades, Anthony Michael Hall has played a variety of roles. Some fans may know him as Brian Johnson in The Breakfast Club, while superhero movie enthusiasts will probably recognize him as Engel, a news reporter terrorized by the Joker in The Dark Knight. Hall is adding another high-profile title to his resume as he joins the cast of Reacher in the show’s third season, portraying Zachary Beck. Reacher, of course, is based on the popular Lee Child book series, and Hall made sure to check out the source material after he was cast.

“Once I got the job, I did read the novel and I really liked it,” Hall said in an interview with ComicBook when asked if he read the novel Persuader to prepare for his role. He continued, “And I have to say, Nick Santora, our showrunner, a great guy who gave me this opportunity along with Amazon Prime, I want to salute them for this. In the world of Lee Child and Reacher, this [Persuader] is a beloved and favored book in the Reacher series. So, yes, I did use the book. I kept it with me on set, just kind of looking to get details and to get a sense of how Lee wrote. [The book] was with me all the time.”

Hall discussed what he drew from the book to help inform his performance on the show.

“Well, you know what they go into,” he said, alluding to the content of the novel. “Very interesting descriptive of Zachary Beck, but I think that’s where I take the ball from there. In terms of the performance … I requested a meeting with Nick and then I screen tested for him … there’s a wide range to play with. There’s a lot here. You know, this guy was on the surface of being bored of Bizarre Bizarre [Beck’s rug company]. That’s true to form that same man in the book. But as you see, ultimately, there’s this guy’s a criminal, and he’s working within a network of people. That’s sort of the storyline.”

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Reacher Season 3 is described as, “Based on Lee Child’s novel Persuader, in the third season of the action-packed series, Reacher hurtles into the dark heart of a vast criminal enterprise when trying to rescue an undercover DEA informant whose time is running out. There he finds a world of secrecy and violence—and confronts some unfinished business from his own past.”

Hall also touched on other influences he drew from outside of Child’s text. Interestingly, music played a sizable role in his shaping of Beck.

“You know, for me, there’s prep involved because you got to learn your lines,” he said. “And that’s always primarily, working with the novel, staying in touch with the voice and with sense of story. You know, I use music a lot, to be very honest with the kind of contextualizing I’m doing. Depending on the parameters of the scene and what’s needed … I’m a big jazz fan. I think I usually worked with music … could be anything from Led Zeppelin to hip hop to jazz.”

New episodes of Reacher premiere Thursdays on Prime Video.

Are you excited for the actor to be part of Reacher Season 3? Let us know in the comments below!