The Waterfront star Holt McCallany on Season 2…
Holt McCallany is the king of taking part in tough fathers.
Fresh off starring as the Von Erich household patriarch reverse Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White in the 2023 wrestling drama “The Iron Claw,” McCallany, 61, now performs a boozy philandering dad in “The Waterfront.”
“It’s funny because [‘The Iron Claw’] was one of my performances that [‘The Waterfront’ creator] Kevin Williamson saw that…. led him to consider me for this part,” McCallany, 61, completely told The Post.
The “Mindhunter” actor said that his characters in “The Iron Claw” and “The Waterfront,” are very different, but they share “this idea of tough love. This idea that blood is thicker than water, and family comes first.”
Holt McCallany as Harlan Buckley in “The Waterfront.” DANA HAWLEY/NETFLIX
Holt McCallany in “The Iron Claw.” Courtesy Everett Collection
McCallany’s character Fritz Von Erich noticed many of his sons tragically die younger.
“I always felt like Fritz got blamed for a lot of things that weren’t really his fault,” he famous. “They’re both very imperfect flawed men, but at the end of the day, I found a way to admire both guys.”
The “Fight Club” actor added that he enjoys discovering a approach to play characters who “make choices that we might not always agree with, but fundamentally, we still root for the guy anyway.”
Now streaming on Netflix, “The Waterfront” is helmed by “Dawson’s Creek” creator Williamson, and follows the Buckley household, who preside over a fishing empire in the coastal North Carolina city of Havenport. They’ve landed in scorching water after smuggling medicine on their boats.
Holt McCallany attends Netflix’s The Waterfront Screening on May 29, 2025 in Austin, Texas. Getty Images for Netflix
Holt McCallany as Harlan Buckley in “The Waterfront.” DANA HAWLEY/NETFLIX
The household consists of Harlan (McCallany), his spouse Belle (Maria Bello), and their adut kids, including former soccer star Cane (Jake Weary) and recovering addict daughter Bree (Melissa Benoist, “Supergirl”). Topher Grace performs a drug lord.
Williamson told The Post that he based Harlan partly on his own late father.
McCallany, who was born in New York City to an performing household – actress Julie Wilson and actor Michael McAloney, who produced the Tony profitable 1970 play Borstal Boy – revealed he also integrated components of his own father into the position.
Holt McCallany as Harlan Buckley, Maria Bello as Belle Buckley in “The Waterfront.” DANA HAWLEY/NETFLIX
Holt McCallany as Harlan Buckley, Topher Grace as Grady in “The Waterfront.” DANA HAWLEY/NETFLIX
“I saw things in him that reminded me of myself. And I saw a lot of things in him that reminded me of my father, who was a very heavy drinker and made a lot of bad decisions, and was still a successful guy and won a Tony Award on Broadway and accomplished a lot of extraordinary things. But [he] was a very flawed individual in many ways,” said McCallany.
“So it’s interesting, Kevin wrote [Harlan Buckley] in a way that was inspired by his dad. And then I kind of played the guy in a way that was inspired by my dad.”
Netflix hasn’t formally announced a Season 2 renewal, but he teased that there are “rumors” that the show might return “sooner rather than later” — and “as early as the spring.”
Holt McCallany as Harlan Buckley in “The Waterfront.” DANA HAWLEY/NETFLIX
Holt McCallany as Harlan Buckley in “The Waterfront.” DANA HAWLEY/NETFLIX
In the instant future, he’ll be in the 2026 French film “Guru,” taking part in a character carefully based on the motivational speaker, Tony Robbins. But rely him out for showing in “The Adventures of Cliff Booth,” the sequel to Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.”
“Everybody thinks that I’m in the sequel to ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,’ because I was listed in Variety as being part of the cast, but I’m not actually in that one.”
McCallany does, however, have big plans in New York City.
He quipped: (*2*)
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