Billy Magnussen Knows Exactly What Kind of Leading Man He Doesn’t Want To Be

Thanks to that decision, Magnussen has been one of the most steady actors in the industry today. He’s brought his talents to the Oscar-nominated films like Bridge of Spies, The Big Short, and No Time to Die. He’s appeared in Disney live-action blockbusters like Aladdin and, most recently, Lilo & Stitch. He earned a Tony nomination for his role in Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. He has his own production company. He has seemingly done it all from the sidelines in supporting roles, and now, he’s stepping into the spotlight as the lead in a series backed by one of the Succession producers. For all his success now, he has all the gratitude because of the support system he’s had through the many rejections he’s faced. “People only see the wins, and the amount of no's that are there — it breaks you. I couldn't have moved forward without these people in my life. It really meant the world to me.”

Magnussen's Early Roles Gave Him a Road Map for His Career

Magnussen’s road to the sweater-knit vests of the Bay Area starts in Brooklyn. After graduating from the North Carolina School of the Arts, he moved to the Big Apple, found representation, and eventually landed a contract role on the hit CBS soap opera, As the World Turns. “God, that was a lifetime ago. It was awesome,” Magnussen remembers. Magnussen's turn (pun intended) as Casey Hughes taught him not to hesitate because at the time, his livelihood was on the line. “That alone puts you in a different headspace completely," he says, remembering the days when he would get 40 pages every day. "It's so much dialogue and preparation, and it trains that muscle to just digest dialogue and make choices. You're forced to make a choice because of the limited time of preparation. It teaches you: don't hesitate.”

From soap operas, guest spots on popular procedurals Law & Order: Criminal Intent and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and supporting roles in films like Damsels in Distress starring Greta Gerwig, Magnussen’s star began to rise when he was cast in the Stephen Sondheim movie musical Into the Woods. Admittedly, this was my first introduction to him. When I mention this, there’s still affection for his part as he, unprompted, exclaims, “Agony!” The A-list ensemble included the likes of Emily Blunt, Chris Pine, Anna Kendrick, and Meryl Streep. For Magnussen, at the time, it taught him that he belonged in these spaces, too. “You deserve to be there. You don't have to apologize to be somewhere when you earn your stay. That was a big one. Because you get scared. I've always gotten scared. I'm like, ‘Oh, my God, they're going to find out I have no clue what I'm doing.’ But no, you earned your space, and why don't you take it up? You don't have to be apologetic for being you.”

Into the Woods was also a unique opportunity to learn from veterans in the field. During his downtime, he had a front-row seat to a three-time Oscar-winning actress. “I remember watching Meryl Streep from a distance doing a scene, and I was like, ‘This looks weird. Why does it look weird?’ I was just off to the side watching it. What she was doing, I wasn't into it. But then I went and saw the monitor, and what she was doing on-screen was so brilliant. She knew her proscenium. She knew what her stage was. For a guy who came from theater, I always was animated with my body, my whole being. She always knew what stage she was playing on and the size and the view.”

Could We See a ‘Game Night’ Sequel? Magnussen Hopes So

Before getting to The Audacity, our chat takes another pit stop: Game Night. Directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, the 2018 comedy movie about a game night gone wrong was a surprise hit that even Magnussen didn’t fully expect. “I just knew I loved the script.” With a cast including the likes of Jason Bateman, Rachel McAdams, Sharon Horgan, and Jesse Plemons, everyone believed in it and made something that stood out. “We were in an era where comedy was mean. It was like abusive comedy around that time," he explains. "These guys were smart about it. They put it on its head. They were situationally funny and character funny. I think everyone dreams of having a game night like that.”

Game Night is seen as lightning in a bottle, especially in our current movie landscape, where comedy films struggle to find a space on the big screen. As much as audiences would welcome a sequel, Magnussen is realistic but hopeful. “That cast was crazy. Will we ever get everyone on the same page again? Well, I would hope so. Let's put it out into the zeitgeist.” Not just the cast, he really wants to work with Daley and Goldstein again. “I keep asking to put me in something again. Please let me be a part of it!”

It’s not just his former castmates’ demanding schedules. Magnussen is also keeping busy between his starring role on The Audacity and his production company, HappyBad Bungalow. When he flipped our chat back to me and asked who should join The Audacity for Season 2, an idea popped into my head: his Game Night cast. “I'll try my best. I'll pitch it.” Weeks later, I asked his Game Night co-star Lamorne Morris what would it take for him to join the AMC satire and he’s game, pun intended. “Hopefully we can make that happen, right?” Jonathan Glatzer, the ball is in your court.

Magnussen Knows the Responsibility of Leading a Series Like ‘The Audacity’

This isn’t Magnussen’s first time playing in the tech world sandbox. In recent years, he’s popped up in projects like Black Mirror and Made for Love. However, what stood out for The Audacity in particular is Glatzer’s profound, prolific voice. “What makes a great writer is that they're able to articulate a brilliant idea eloquently and have it communicated to someone else. Once you read his words, you're like, 'Oh, I know that feeling.' It's so funny how he got to that emotion and how he's articulating that thing that I felt before. Once you read that and his work, that's really the driving force working with a creative like that.”

Speaking of Glatzer, The Audacity marks the first time he is solo-showrunning a series. Having worked on the likes of Better Call Saul, Bad Sisters, and Succession, Glatzer is making a daring step forward, and it’s something that Magnussen gravitates towards. “For some reason, in my career, I've always gravitated towards people who are daring, and when it's their first time doing something. I just want to celebrate that. It's nice to work with veterans and stuff. But don't you want to be a little messy and be like, ‘Oh my God, what are we going to come up with today?’”

In the same vein, The Audacity marks Magnussen’s first time being number one on the call sheet, instead of as a supporting actor. He knows that he has the responsibility to set the tone for the production and his co-stars. “For my first time being number one on the call sheet or lead of a show, you set the temperament of how you're going to operate. I knew from bad experiences being under a shitty number one that setting the tone of having space for every actor, no matter how large or small the role is, is that they're coming in to give it their best. How can I make the space feel welcoming enough that they can be the best they can be?”

Magnussen is supported by an impressive cast: Simon Helberg, Zach Galifianakis, Sarah Goldberg, Meaghan Rath, Lucy Punch (another Into the Woods co-star), and Rob Corddry. It matters to both him and Glatzer that they created a space where everyone is listened to and feels like they could show off themselves fully. “We bonded just knowing that everyone's in a safe space.” And, on a personal front, Magnussen adds, “I just want to be good enough for them because I'm such a fan.”

Magnussen Is Searching for Duncan Park’s Humanity in ‘The Audacity’

Duncan Park is unlike any character Magnussen has taken on. Duncan is neurotic, delusional, and ruthless, capable of horrible things like blackmailing his therapist or screwing over anyone who gets in his way. Yet underneath that, there are glimpses of vulnerability and heartbreak. The loss of his friend and partner, Hamish, still weighs on him. In the Season 1 finale, his wife Lili (Punch) delivers a bombshell revelation that Jamison (Ava Marie Telek) isn’t his biological daughter. “I feel bad for him.”

It seems like Duncan continues to hit new lows episode to episode in Season 1. With every hit he takes, Duncan is that much more motivated. There’s a relentless drive to him that keeps him going, and you can’t help but root for him. Magnussen recognizes that a unique balance is necessary for the audience to want to go on this journey every week with him. “You find the vulnerabilities of the characters. I think people can latch onto human emotion. Everyone knows what it feels like to be brokenhearted or hurt or abused or scared. They know what it feels like, and to have a character show that vulnerability is what bonds us as an audience, I think.”

Duncan’s story is just getting started. Season 1 ends with a new partnership forming between him and Carl Bardolph (Galifianakis), with Bardolph accepting Duncan’s pitch to acquire PINATA. As Season 2 begins to take shape, Magnussen is interested in exploring Duncan’s humanity. “What I love about Duncan, playing him and bringing him to life, was he started probably as a young man in the Valley with hope. Then greed, corruption, power, the toxicity of Silicon Valley bled into him. I want him to find his humanity again. I think he tries to get it all the time. That was probably the impetus for him getting a therapist. He's like, ‘I just got to get back to where it was.’ But he's just so far down the rabbit hole that he's constantly fighting that.”

As he searches for Duncan’s humanity as a character, he’s also begging the real Silicon Valley to hold onto their humanity, too. “Every industry is built up of, or is a culmination of, people. People make industry. I just want these people to hopefully hold on to their humanity a little more. I know you can do this, but should you?” The Audacity is a dark comedy that is entrenched in the 1% of the Silicon Valley bubble. Duncan Park has made his fortune by selling people's data. “Don't accept the cookies!” has been Magnussen’s constant refrain throughout this press run, and he means it. “We realized over time that the people running the show started making a lot of money selling your data, your information, and they steered clear of the ethical responsibility they have.” Magnussen goes on to equate trust between these tech companies and consumers to that of personal relationships, rather than just the assumption of trust with personal data. “How do you meet someone in real life? You have to spend time with them. You have to get to know them. And then you can start letting your guard down and let your boundaries in. But for some reason, it's just forced to accept cookies. Who's the third party?”

Like much of Hollywood, Magnussen is also hesitant about the rise of AI and its seemingly inevitable inclusion in our lives. “We see that jobs are going to be lost for people. Opportunity is going to be lost, and I'm forced to use this thing? Why don't you show me that it's actually going to do something good? Maybe it should cure cancer. Let's have it cure cancer. Then I'll be like, ‘OK, I'll bring it into my life.’”

As someone in his early 40s (“vintage” he likes to call it), Magnussen is saddened for younger generations who are held hostage by their internet footprint instead of being present. “I heard a thing that depressed me a little bit, that the younger generation doesn't really dance. They go out, but they don't dance because they're scared of being filmed. That has to be scary. I think it's kind of sad to move through the world being like, ‘I'm always going to be recorded, and I can't ever live it down.’ Growing up is about making mistakes. It's about being awkward. It's about having pimples on your face. We all go through it, and we should. It develops us as a person.”

Being present matters to Magnussen, and it’s something that he tries to protect as much as he can. “I try as much as I can to stay away from technology and just be with people.” But he acknowledges technology can be an amazing tool if used properly. “I think it's just meant to be used delicately. For some reason, I think what it has done is prioritize the wrong things in life a little bit. Your social media presence or your internet footprint, I don't know a better way to say it, is so much more important than your authentic being. When you're online, everything's curated. We're then promoting mediocracy, and I don't think that's a good place to be operating from.”

Throughout our conversation, I’m struck by how often Magnussen praises his former and current collaborators. He’s quick to recognize a person’s humor or their prolific way of thinking. In an industry ruled by competition, Magnussen is more interested in seeing everyone thrive. “There are a lot of times when I've been in situations in this industry where I was like, ‘Why am I in a competition right now? Why is that happening? Why am I competing for some reason?’ There's no reason to compete. Every idea has the space to be developed and blossom.”

For Magnussen, the best part of acting is the community. “We are in a communal art form, and that's the best part of it. I don't have to do this alone.” It’s this type of mentality that he has for his production company, not only for building his own circle but to uplift new voices and the younger generation. “We're a community, and we should enrich our community, not be so self-masturbatorial and just be ‘me, me, me.’ That's why I started HappyBad Bungalow. It was because I believe there are people out there that are so much more talented than myself in so many facets, and why can't I use whatever leverage I have to celebrate them?”

Life isn’t slowing down for Magnussen any time soon. Between The Audacity Season 2 and his own productions, Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning is set to release in October this year. A companion film to the David Fincher masterpiece The Social Network, Magnussen joins Mikey Madison, Jeremy Strong, and Jeremy Allen White for a continuation of the Mark Zuckerberg saga. Although he was tight-lipped about his role, Magnussen didn't hesitate to praise Sorkin. “Aaron Sorkin is amazing to work with. I loved it so much.”

Years ago, Magnussen was called the “happiest actor in Hollywood” in an interview ahead of Game Night’s release. When I mention it before our time wraps up, he’s shocked. “Wow, that hit me in the feelings weirdly.” From his perspective, he’s happier now than he’s ever been. He doesn’t live in Los Angeles anymore. “I think that helps, not living in Hollywood.” But it’s more than a location, it’s a mindset shift. “I'm so grateful for many facets of my life. I know my career is not my life. I think at that point, probably when that [interview] came out, I just thought life was about my career. And now it's just not. These wonderful opportunities I get, I'm just like, ‘Oh shit, that's a great treat.’ I didn't expect anything like that. All I can do is have gratitude because I could’ve not had this career.”

Photographer: Andrew Lipovsky | Producer: Carol Cooks | Groomer: Benjamin Parker Thigpen