David Harbour is undergoing a total physical transformation for his next major role.
Harbour, 50, looked completely unrecognizable when photographed on the set of his upcoming true crime thriller, Evil Genius, on Monday, November 10. The actor traded his typical brown hair and manicured mustache for an unruly gray beard and hairstyle, wearing a light-blue short sleeved button down and overalls that appeared to be draped over a padded suit. In some photos, he could be seen donning a tan jacket and glasses.
Directed by Courteney Cox and based on the 2018 docuseries of the same name, Evil Genius centers on real-life deliveryman Brian Douglas Wells’ high-profile 2003 bank heist. Often referred to as the “pizza bomber” case, Wells claimed he was forced to walk into an Eerie, Pennsylvania bank to demand $250,000 with a real collar bomb locked around his neck. When the police cornered him, the bomb detonated and killed him before it could be disarmed.
While Wells initially appeared to be a victim, FBI investigators later concluded he was a willing participant in the scheme but thought the bomb was a fake. Wells, for his part, maintained his innocence up until his death.
The film is written, directed and produced by Cox, per Deadline, and will also star Patricia Arquette, Michael Chernus, Garret Dillahunt, Danielle Macdonald, Tom McCarthy, Gregory Alan Williams, Ryan Eggold, Owen Teague and Harlow Jane.
“I’ve been fascinated by Evil Genius since I first saw the documentary,” Cox in a statement shared with Deadline earlier this week about the film. “It’s stranger than fiction. At moments darkly funny and yet deeply emotional. A story about love, loneliness, manipulation, and the people on the fringes who get pulled into something much bigger than themselves.”
Harbour’s new look comes just days after he attended the world premiere of Stranger Things season 5 in Los Angeles on November 6. Harbour looked dapper for the event, rocking a pinstripe suit for the event while arriving with costar Millie Bobby Brown.
The duo were all smiles as they posed for photos and gushed over each other on the red carpet. Their appearance came on the heels of the Daily Mail’s report that Brown, 21, filed a “harassment and bullying” claim against Harbour during filming for Stranger Things’ final season. (Brown portrays Eleven on the Netflix sci-fi series, while Harbour plays her adoptive father, Jim Hopper.)
Executive producer and director Shawn Levy, however, claimed that reports of tension between the costars were “wildly inaccurate.”
“There’s so much noise around it, but the truth is that we view this crew and this cast as family, so we treat each other with respect, and that’s always been [the] bedrock,” he told The Hollywood Reporter on the carpet, adding that at “the end of the day, that’s the job — you have to create a respectful workplace where everyone feels comfortable and safe. So we did everything to build that environment, and we’re proud of the fact that we did so.”
Brown, for her part, gushed over her on-screen dad at the premiere, telling Extra, ““We’re so lucky to have each other. The show means so much to the both of us, and to everyone here. This has been the last 10 years of our lives.”
