Anthony Michael Hall’s career spans four decades, beginning with his unforgettable roles in iconic 1980s films like Pretty in Pink, Weird Science, and The Breakfast Club. While those early performances cemented his status as the typical dorky average-Joe teen, Hall evolved into a versatile actor who has played heroes, villains, and everything in between.
Now he’s joining the third season of Prime Studios’ Reacher, about the military cop turned vigilante hero of Lee Child’s famous book series. In this latest installment, Hall portrays Zachary Beck, a wealthy and enigmatic rug importer harboring a dark secret. The character is a complex mix of mystery and menace.
Rolling Stone recently caught up with Hall on a Zoom call from the West Coast, as he was preparing to return to New York City for Saturday Night Live’s 50th anniversary celebration. The actor not only discussed his latest role but also reflected his brief time as an SNL cast member during the 1985-1986 season, Lorne Michaels’ first one back after departing in 1980 to explore opportunities in film and on Broadway — a period that is chronicled in the Peacock docuseries SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night.
“When I look back now, I’m just amazed,” Hall says of his stint on the show. “It’s just surreal to me. What a thrill it was to be a part of that whole environment.”
Were you familiar with the Reacher show or books before you signed on?
No, I was not. I was contacted by Nick Santora, the showrunner and creator. And then I became more aware of Lee Child. I read Persuader (the seventh Reacher novel, on which this season is based), and I worked with it throughout the season. There’s a lot excerpted from it, a lot of major sequences. It’s always challenging, obviously, to condense a novel into a series, or a season, or a film. My character, Zachary Beck, he’s really layered. On the surface, he’s a rug dealer, but he’s living (like) the Great Gatsby, so you know something’s awry there. And it turns out, there’s arms dealing. That kind of storyline was fascinating.
Beck seems to waver between being a villain and a good guy. Do you prefer playing one side or the other?
Having played a lot of villains, I try to always humanize them, give them some humor, something interesting. So, I love playing villains. It’s a lot of fun. But I like what you saw in this character. That was kind of intentional — something I talked to Nick about, too. There’s a criminal aspect to Beck, and he’s moving and shaking, and doing his thing in the underworld. But, Nick and I also discussed his relationship with his son. There’s a sadness, a certain alienation his son felt, (because) Zachary wasn’t there for him due to his exploits. There’s a lot of dynamics at play. But then Zachary also has a game face when he’s dealing with this network or these criminals. I liked testing those parameters, playing with the coloring of it, so the audience doesn’t really know what to make of it.
Beck’s home is ridiculous — an enormous mansion overlooking the ocean. Where was this season filmed?
We filmed in Toronto. That house was in an estate a couple hours north of the city. They sort of CGI’d the Atlantic coast, so it looks like Maine. But, just incredible. I actually requested a whole book from the art department; I just wanted to see the drawings and all the cool stuff that they do when they’re prepping a show. So they gave me a whole book just on the Beck house, and it was just a great undertaking.
The character of Reacher is known for his size. You’re over six feet tall. But what was it like doing scenes with somebody as large as Alan Ritchson, who plays Reacher and is six feet three, and new cast member Olivier Richters, who towers over everyone at seven feet two?
Two big guys, man. I have a lot of respect for Alan. He’s very focused, he comes to work very prepared, he’s very vested. He has great respect for the process, he’s very interested. He’s a producer on the show, too. Olivier, very nice guy. A big gentle giant. And the two of them, the funniest thing I can say is that they were both constantly eating. I think it was every two hours people were handing them food. Alan and Olivier brought their own snacks.
How did your role on the show come about?
I had a meeting with Nick, which led to a test I did for Amazon. And then I found myself up in Toronto. I’ve done a lot of work (there) in the last 30 years. I love working in Canada. I think Canadians are great. They work very hard, but there’s also a really cool, laid-back quality that they have. I grew up in New York City; Toronto reminds me of that. It’s almost like Canada’s Manhattan. I’m going back to New York for the SNL 50th anniversary, which is crazy. I can’t believe I was part of that show 40 years ago, when I was 17. It’s crazy.
You still hold the record as SNL‘s youngest-ever cast member.
I used to beat myself up on it because we got so panned, the reviews and everything. I was joking with one of the producers, Laila Nabulsi, who’s a friend of mine. We were talking about doing these interviews for the SNL documentary series on Peacock. I have career dysmorphia, because I made it such a big thing in my head of how bad it was. And then I watched the episodes about six months ago, before I did the interview, and some of it was good, but it was almost like an It’s a Wonderful Life kind of experience. I’m going, like, “Look at all the people I got to work with, all these fellow actors, and then there’s Stevie Ray Vaughan and Sam Kinison.” It was incredible. But the show is so crazy. It’s such a marathon. It’s a six-day-a-week job, it goes hard. And then you’re rehearsing for half the week. There’s also the competitive aspect. People are very competitive, and it’s an interesting grind. I’m just amazed, like everybody else, that it’s in its 50th season.
As someone who was a kid during SNL‘s John Belushi years, how big of a deal was it for you to end up on the show?
Oh, it was huge, because in the Seventies with Belushi, and Chevy (Chase), and Bill Murray — I was a little kid. But I remember asking my mother every week, “Mom, can I stay up? I want to watch SNL.” And then by the time I was in high school, it was the Eddie Murphy years, and I was a huge Eddie Murphy fan growing up. He meant a lot to me. I remember being in 11th or 12th grade, at home on the weekends, watching Eddie. So the fact that I was actually there a year or two later, because Lorne had seen me in the John Hughes films… Unlike 99 percent of the people that have done the show, I didn’t have to audition and do that whole thing. So it was a warm welcome, and a real honor to get the call from Lorne. After I agreed to it, I was, like, shitting my pants for a month. I’m walking around the city going, “I can’t believe I’m going to be on SNL.” Have fucking panic attacks, like, “Oh, my God.”
Robert Downey Jr. was part of that cast with you, and nearly as young. Were you guys treated differently at all as newcomers and teenagers?
The first thing that comes to mind is maybe just people just saying shit when not in our presence, like, “Who are these two fucking kids?” I mean, I was really a kid. Downey was only 19, I was 17. I don’t know. As I said, without getting specific, I don’t remember anything. There was nothing ever malicious, but there was just a very competitive environment, so I think a lot of the so-called adults at that time might’ve looked at me and Downey like, “What the hell? How the hell did these two get here?” Which, by the way, we felt too. How the hell did we get here?
Were you and Robert working behind the scenes together? Did you find yourselves gravitating toward one another as a team?
We did, yeah. We wrote sketches together. Also, Lorne did some interesting things, too, where he would send us to meet with writers. So, we’d have meetings set up with Don Novello, who played Father Guido. He was great. And then we’d go meet Michael O’Donoghue, one of the great writers that had been there from the beginning of the Seventies. You meet with all the writers, you check in with everybody, you see what they’re working on, you see how you can be of use, of help. But then you quickly learn to write your own stuff, too.
I have to ask about the William F. Buckley book review bit you two did on Weekend Update, where you appear as “literary critics” and just make fart noises the whole time.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It seemed like a good idea. I have no idea how that made it past read-through, but I’m sure we were doing the fart sounds at read-through. Good old toilet humor.
Did you guys write that?
I can neither confirm nor deny. I actually don’t recall. Either way, it’s embarrassing. It’s just goofy shit that guys laugh at. So, it probably was us.
Was there any writer or host or crew member who gave you helpful advice or took you under their wing?
There was a party for Lorne’s company, Broadway Video. They would do releases of (SNL compilations), the Best of Belushi, Best of Aykroyd. So they did a release party for the Best of Aykroyd, and it was at the old Hard Rock on 57th Street in Manhattan. Downey and I went, and this was weeks before we were going to start (on the show). And there was a moment where Aykroyd pulled us aside — and it was just great, because I’m meeting this legend; I loved him particularly, right? — and he really gave us a sense of how it was going to be. He goes, like, “You guys are going to love it. There’s going to be a couple hundred people in the room, and you’re going to feel the beam of the camera hitting you, and you’ve got to know you’re going out to 20 million people” or whatever. So he was the first person to give us a front seat to it, in a way. He gave us a great descriptive take on it, which was really cool. And he was also just such a nice guy. He was great to me.
I watched the Peacock documentary episode on your season and was shocked to learn about Francis Ford Coppola coming on as a guest director.
It was amazing. Yeah, that was a trip. We were all nervous and excited, and he really was there (for) a part of it. I mean, he was actually directing, but he was playing himself doing it. It was really funny.
Did any of your agents or anyone express concern over you doing TV or even SNL specifically at that point in your career?
No, just the opposite. I think it was a surprise. It was great. No, I don’t think there was any kickback towards television or anything. But I have to say, that was a time where things were — it was kind of separated, right? There was a notion about TV actors and then people who did films, and as we talked about earlier, that’s obviously dissolved over the years, which is a good thing.
Do you think being on SNL impacted your movie career in any way?
Well, not in a positive way. Not to make fun of myself, but yeah, I didn’t really take off on the show, obviously, and it was a rough year for the show in some ways, creatively. But what’s interesting is that, (as) the (Peacock) documentary brings to light, it was kind of a linchpin year. It was a very pivotal, turning-point time, Lorne’s first year back. There’s a historical context to it now, but the doing of it was amazing. And again, even throughout the week, there was so much — beyond the live aspect we would have to pre-tape and shoot the little fake commercials or different live shoots. There’s just a lot to it, so it was just an incredible experience to be a part of. Whether or not you had a breakout sketch that week or not, just the doing of the show was really incredible. So, I have good memories too.
What was the atmosphere like at the time? It seems like NBC wasn’t happy with the show, and a few cast members returned.
To be honest with you, we weren’t exposed to that, because as cast members, we’re working with the crew, and we’re onstage, and it’s mainly focused on the creative aspects of the sketches and getting that all prepped. We weren’t really exposed to the politics. But I know it was a challenging year, because it wasn’t doing as well as they’d hoped, and there was a concern that it might be canceled, which the documentary gets into, which is interesting. Because of course, they just kept chipping away at it. It makes me think of that… Well, it’s a trope that’s kind of cheesy, but the Costner film, the baseball film — what was it called?
Field of Dreams?
Yeah, totally. That one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, everybody milks the hell out of that one. And Lorne really just, you have to give him credit, it’s amazing what he’s done with it — how it’s evolved and all the great people. That’s why watching it and talking about it helped me lighten up about it all. I think I beat myself up about it, when in fact it’s more important to look at it, reflect, and go, “Wow, this is incredible, the fact that I was even a part of this.” I’m grateful to Lorne, and NBC, and people for believing in me and at the beginning of my career when I was just a goofy kid, and I was having fun with it. And certainly, a great learning experience. I saw some coverage of what Downey said recently, and that was cool, too: Taught him what he wasn’t. I could attest to that, too. We weren’t necessarily sketch-comedy players or polished comics, but we had done comedies and we’d come from films and doing that, so the fact that Lorne saw something in me, and also Downey, all of us, it’s incredible. But what it means now, at 50 years — it really is an institution, in the best way, creatively. So, it’s an honor.