Will Harrison Packs a Powerful Punch in His Broadway Debut

Age: 29

Hometown: Ithaca, New York

Current Role: Will Harrison is making his Broadway debut as Jacob Dunne in James Graham's Punch, a new play based on the true story of consequence, redemption and forgiveness as Jacob connects with the parents of the young man he killed with a single punch. 

Credits: After graduating from Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, Harrison quickly found his way to the screen as a regular in the TV series Daisy Jones and the Six and Manhunt, as well as the Bob Dylan film A Complete Unknown. This fall, he can be seen as Buster Murdaugh in Murdaugh: Death in the Family on Hulu. Harrison previously starred in The Coast Starlight off-Broadway at Lincoln Center Theater. 

Start the Tapes
Hailing from upstate New York with hardworking parents (his dad's a mailman and his mom's a nursery school teacher), Harrison's creative ambitions came about in spite of his strict upbringing. "I think I got bit by the acting bug because we specifically weren't a movie or TV family," he said. "There was no cable in our house. I miss every SpongeBob reference. We had a VHS player and I would watch the same movies over and over and over again." Harrison lists Disney's Robin Hood, The Lion King and The Little Mermaid as films in the rotation, which fostered his love for imagination and music. "It was that forbidden fruit situation," he said. "I was told that I wasn't going to [watch TV] all the time so I went, 'OK, what if I spent the rest of my life doing exactly that?'"

Stepping Center Stage
When he was 15, Harrison's family moved to Massachusetts where he attended a Waldorf-style school. That decision was formative for the actor, who found his way onstage due to the school's unique class structure. "No matter what, we always did a play at school," Harrison said. "Two-and-a-half hours every morning were on a specific subject, and at the end of the year we'd do a play based on that subject. I just got obsessed with [doing the plays] and it led me to doing summer Shakespeare." Harrison's early role in The Tempest promoted his love for the art form, which ushered him into leading productions of Macbeth and Waiting for Godot in high school. "[Waiting for Godot] was the best, and it's one of the first plays I read that I was like, 'Oh, this is just ridiculous. This can be anything. If this is something that stood the test of time, then there are no rules.' And that was really exciting."

Try, Try, Try Again
Not only did Waiting for Godot guide Harrison toward a deeper meaning behind acting, it continues to give him his life's motto: "Beckett's quote, 'Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better,' is just tops for me," he said. "That's the most fun thing about theater. You've got to just fall on your face over and over again until something works." 

What's in a Name
One throughline found in Harrison's vast resume is his proclivity for portraying real people; singer/songwriter Bob Neuwirth in A Complete Unknown, John Wilkes Booth's accomplice David Herold in Manhunt, Buster Murdaugh in the upcoming Murdaugh: Death in the Family series and now, Jacob Dunne. "I think that one of my strengths is a groundedness in performance," he said of the pattern. "At the end of the day, you're looking for someone who feels present and grounded in who they are so that it's not a stretch to imagine that they are a real person and not putting on so much of a character."

Nature vs. Nurture
In Punch, so much of what the characters experience is a result of what identifies them: class, upbringing, neighborhood, friends, even the quality of their cell phones. On a trip to Nottingham, England to visit the real Jacob Dunne and see where the events happened, Harrison found himself at his own crossroads. "I was not ever in an environment where it would have gone as far as in Jacob's case, because I was in a much more sheltered and safer environment in many ways," Harrison said. "But there's so many similarities between us. I was a little aimless and getting in trouble from pushing the limits as far as I could push them. I was searching and bored and a bit of an adrenaline seeker. But I was lucky enough to find something that I loved and thought I was good at and could pour a lot of energy into. I think now Jacob has that, with sharing this story and his activism. I don't take for granted that he's willing to talk about everything. It's a traumatic event to relive over and over again. It's such a sensitive thing, and to know that you have the blessing of the people who are closest to it is really important. It's what gives you permission to go all out."