Will Harrison Tells Us How He Finds Balance As Punch’s Leading Man

Photos courtesy of Will Harrison.

Theatre can take a lot out of an actor, but Will Harrison seems to be thriving on the grind. Best known for Daisy Jones & The Six, the 29-year-old is currently starring in James Graham’s Punch at Manhattan Theatre Club. Harrison delivers a standout performance as Jacob, a teenager who accidentally kills a stranger with a single punch, leaving him to face incarceration and a restorative justice program. It’s a role that’s as physically demanding as it is emotionally charged, and a performance that captures the full weight (and reward) of being a leading man. Yet, there’s still a spark when he talks about it all: the exhaustion, the ritual, and the thrill of stepping on stage night after night: “It’s kind of like living in a fever dream,” he explains. “Every hour of the day is spent conserving energy or debating how much you can expend and still make it through the show.” On a call last week, we got a closer glimpse into a day in Harrison’s life while finishing out his eight-week run, including Theraguns, doomscrolling, and the grounding comfort of routine.

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“You leave kind of jacked up after a show, and it takes a minute to wind down. We end up staying up a little late, and then sleeping in, waking up, grabbing coffees, and making some breakfast. I’m staying in Hell’s Kitchen, because I wanted to just be able to walk to the theater every day. The last show I did, I was staying in Bushwick and commuting to Lincoln Center every day, and that was a bit much. I leave the theater by the time I’ve gotten out of a costume and said hi to folks who are there at the stage door. It’s usually about 11PM by the time I’m out. Then if I can go home and go right to sleep, I will. But often I get hungry, so I end up eating too late of a meal and then crashing.”

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“I have two full ice pack boots that come apart. You strap them over your entire foot and they keep your foot, ankle and calf cold. During the show, I’m running around and jumping so much, and the shoes that I wear are not the most supportive. After a while my feet get a little torn up, so I bought those to use when I get home at night. When I have two show days, I put them in the freezer in my dressing room, and I put them on between shows while I take a nap. They’re a little crazy, but they have honestly saved me. I’m going to give them to my dad when I’m done because he’s a mailman and his feet get more sore than mine. He’s excited to inherit those.”

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“That’s my little sexy mic garter. One is on and one is back up in case that one fails. Then there’s a mic that goes down the back of my neck, and comes all the way under my hair and hangs underneath the front of my hair. So I put the show boxers on, and then I put the pants on. And then sometimes I also have sweatpants on over that. There are a lot of layers. I have to take on and off so many clothes on stage, so I have to be really careful. I’ve learned now to make sure that as I’m taking them off they don’t touch my mic, because if they snag one of the clips and pull the mic off, it flops around and it’s stressful on stage.”
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“I have a pretty thorough vocal warmup that I do every night before the show to make sure all the different ranges of my voice are warmed up, so I’m not going to have crazy voice cracks on stage. I remember early on in the process, Victoria Clark gave me her recipe for what she has to take care of her voice. It’s jasmine green tea with two spoonfuls of honey and five Ricola cough drops melted in, which really soothes your voice. If you have a second off-stage to just take a sip of that, it kind of calms everything down. That’s a pro-tip that I have now employed. You really have to take such good care of your body when you’re doing this, otherwise it just will fall apart. Honestly, it’s kind of a wonderful side effect of doing this show. You’re kind of whipped into shape by it. I will say though, the vocal stuff does become kind of second nature this far into the run. You’re very used to what it feels like.”

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“A lot of the creative team is from Nottingham, so our director gives us notes in a Nottingham accent, and so does our movement director. The playwright, James is also from Nottingham. At some point, our director, Adam [Penford], would say my name and I’d respond in the accent and with some Jacob attitude. And he was like, ‘You have to stop doing this.’ The thing is, I can never get sick of it. It’s been such a dream of mine to tackle a dialect like this. We have such amazing actors from the U.K. who are so saturated in American culture that they are so good at doing these American dialects. I grew up watching so many of them and being amazed years later when I figured out that they were English or Welsh or Scottish.”

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“That’s an All’antico Vinaio sandwich, and a soda, which I shouldn’t be having before a show. Coming into this process, I was not in the shape that I would’ve wanted to be in. I was coming off of doing a show that I put on a fair amount of weight for. That was a creative decision on my part, because I was playing a real person who definitely had a couple pounds on them. So I leaned into eating whatever I wanted, and backing off on cardio. But this show was so physical that I had to really quickly jump into a healthier lifestyle. It’s kind of balanced out to the point where now doing the show every night and running around that much, I can kind of do whatever I want, and the show keeps me completely in shape. It’s sort of balanced out.”
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“The Theragun… I mean, I wish it was sponsored. It’s not sponsored, but it saved my life. I use it before the show every night, and at intermission, and when we’re done. Then the resistance band is just to warm up my muscles to get ready. We have physical therapy as well. They come twice a week to work on anything that is going south. There’s a beginning portion of the process where the adrenaline of performing it live finally is second to none. It’s really the most thrilling thing. And then the more comfortable you get in the show, and the more your body relaxes, the tired feelings kick in. But now I think it’s reached kind of this nice plateau where your body is sore, but it’s really used to what you’re doing, and it’s ready to do that every night. It’s a pretty rigorous schedule, and it’s kind of weird. It’s like living in this strange fever dream where every hour of the day is just conserving energy or debating how much energy you could expend and still have energy to do the show. It’s just like, this is life for a little while.”

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“We hang out as a cast all the time, and we have our haunts around the theater that we can jump over to. It’s always great to get to that point, because rehearsals are exhausting and everyone wants to get home after those long days. So when you finally get into performances and people have a little energy to have some drinks afterwards, it’s great cast bonding. The show leaves me a little bit both amped up and completely exhausted. It’s a very strange place for your brain and body to be in when you’re so tired, but also full of adrenaline. The things I would normally watch to unwind, now I’m maybe just too open or vulnerable to watch. I try not to unwind with the doomscroll, but I do fall prey to that sometimes. Although–and now this is the weirdest thing. I’ve never played golf in my life, but I watch people play golf on YouTube. It’s barely interesting enough for me to pay attention to, but also just completely mindless. It’s become the thing I do when I get home to turn my brain off.”

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“This lovely woman was waiting for an autograph at the stage door, but she had been sitting in the front row with that dog. When I’m on stage, I’m talking to the audience the whole time, so I was immediately greeted by this tiny dog in the front row, who was impossible to ignore. It’s been really moving to see the responses to the show. The really interesting ones for me are from people who are involved in this kind of work in the real world. There was a young woman there with her father, and she was like, “I’m going into restorative justice, and I learned a lot from watching the show, and I’ve read the story in the book.” That was really inspiring to have her there, and feel like we could have inspired some change and some action in the real world through it. Some lawyers have also come and really been moved by the story. We’ve had really great outreach by MTC who brought along people that should really see it. Any way to learn about the restorative justice process is great, but to see people respond to it who have a specific interest or involvement in it has been really gratifying.”