David Harbour is best known for his role as CIA agent Gregg Beam in Quantum of Solace, as Shep Campbell in Revolutionary Road, and as Russell Crowe’s source in State of Play. He has held numerous TV roles - both big and small - in shows like Law & Order, The Newsroom, and Elementary. He is currently playing the role of Chief Jim Hopper in Netflix’s Hellboy in a new reboot.
Screen Rant got a chance to talk with David Harbour at San Diego Comic Con 2017, where we discussed the differences between Hopper from Stranger Things and Hellboy and what the production status is of the comic book film.
I loved your character in the first season. It was my favorite character of the show. How different is it playing that character and then going into something like Hellboy? Because those are a lot different. And what is the status of Hellboy?
David Harbour: They are. Yeah. We start shooting in a couple of weeks. I go to Bulgaria in August, late August, end of August and then we start shooting I think in mid-September. And I’ve seen, we’ve done makeup tests and everything. And it looks really great. And the monsters and everything about it looks really special. I can’t. Everything is top secret at this point, but it’s beautiful and beyond my expectations. And I was very nervous going in that it would be not what I expected. I’m excited about it. I’m very excited about it.
And yeah, Hellboy is his own thing and I really like him. I’m starting to fall in love with him. He’s got a lot of issues. Hopper is a bit more of an adult than Hellboy. Hopper is kind of a child in certain ways, but I think Hellboy is really a hellboy and not a hellman and he’s struggling with his own destiny, this horrible destiny of being the Beast of the Apocalypse and not wanting to do that and be a sweet guy inside and having tons of father issues. Like, the fact that he’s an adoptee in General Brooms, the fact that he was spawned by these Nazi Occultants are all things that he himself takes on and feels guilty about. He smokes cigarettes and he hates himself and I think he has a really good heart and he’s a sweet kid and he’s trying to figure out all of these father/mother issues and I think we’ll see that expressed in the movie as well. So it’s complicated and it’s really beautiful and exciting to start to work on. There’s a lot to draw there and a lot of complexity that to me, I don’t know we always get to see in severe movies. It’s very much a character piece. Our model for it is Shakespeare. I mean, it’s very much like Hamlet in a certain way. So it’s exciting to play as an actor.
