EXCLUSIVE: Cooper Raiff spent eight years writing Hal & Harper, in all that time he never thought he’d be so lucky as to have Hollywood legend Mark Ruffalo play his dad.
“He is every bit as wonderful as you would imagine Mark to be,” Cooper told 9Entertainment.
Raiff managed to pique Ruffalo’s interest for the Hal & Harper role after he was just instructed by his manager to not bring up the show.
Stream all episodes of Hal & Harper now, only on Stan.
“Mark and I were in a meeting because we shared an agent and she told me not to bring up Hal & Harper. If the meeting went well then we could send Mark the script,” Raiff explained.
“But five minutes into the meeting I brought up the show because I just couldn’t let the opportunity go.
“Mark is the sweetest person ever and just right away he was so open and easy to talk to. It felt like that right away even in our first meeting.”
Stan’s new dramdey series Hal & Harper stars Cooper Raiff, who also serves as creator and executive producer, Lili Reinhart and multi-award winning actor Mark Ruffalo.
Raiff and Reinhart play co-dependent siblings doing their best to navigate long-term relationships, friendships, and situationships.
When their dad (played by Ruffalo) makes a big announcement, the two are forced to consider the current state of their lives and their complicated childhood.
The family are a relatable yet dysfunctional trio with an intense bond and love.
According to Raiff, that love was also there between the actor trio on set.
Raiff said he and Reinhart had “instant chemistry”.
After seeing Reinhart’s performance in Hustlers Raiff knew he wanted her for the role of Harper.
Without his own casting director at the time, Raiff made the call himself.
“I got coffee with her and just asked her to be my big sister and then we spent a year together getting to know each other before we even started shooting,” Raiff said.
As for Ruffalo, both Raiff and Reinhart thought locking him for the role of Dad would be “a long shot”.
“We didn’t think we would be so lucky to get Mark. He is Mark Ruffalo!” Reinhart told Today Extra.
“But he loved the scripts as much as we did.”
The cast’s connection and friendship came naturally.
Raiff smiled as he recalled a moment from shooting that had the whole cast laughing.
“We were doing a scene where Hal was telling the whole family that he got a job at J Crew, and for some reason, it tickled all of us, and we could not get through the scene for like hours.
“When one person got it together the other person couldn’t. I have never laughed that hard in my life, at least never over something as silly as a brand of clothing.”
While Hal & Harper will have you laughing, the story has a lot of heart too.
The show follows the family’s deep connection while delving into past trauma flashbacks featuring a grown up Raiff and Reinhart as their younger selves.
Raiff hopes that by the end of the series viewers find a similar sense of “healing” as the characters.
“I want them to feel safe, to feel very big feelings and have empathy for people who acting like children when they shouldn’t be,” Raiff said.
Stream all episodes of Hal & Harper now, only on Stan.
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