She plays Duncan Park, the head of a data mining company who is desperate to join the upper echelon of the tech industry hierarchy in the AMC drama DaringBilly Magnussen must find a deep well of need and striving.
“I sympathize with that,” Magnussen says. “I think we all suffer from imposter syndrome, and it’s easy to relate to any character.” On the other hand, he explains, “It’s exhausting, his never-ending drive, because he wants to be the best. At what point does your bank account seem big enough? How much property do you need?”
His character’s answer, unlike many real-life tech founders, is probably: “As much as possible, and then some more.” Duncan’s anxiety about his place in Silicon Valley is his motivating force, an external projection of deep-rooted psychological issues.
“Not good enough, weak, just below par,” is how Magnussen believes Duncan sees himself, pointing to a scene in the third episode when his character seeks a diagnosis by taking a neurodivergence test and cannot accept the psychiatrist’s assessment as “typical.”
“He’s constantly searching for: Why do I feel this pain?” And he wants that because I think the culture in the Valley is that you want to be a little bit away. “You want your brain to be different,” Magnussen says. “I don’t think he likes himself, and he’s kind of looking for an answer to why he hates himself. The truth is, calm down man, you’re fine.”
Duncan, on the surface at least, seems to know he needs to work on some things, which
That’s why he sees therapist Joan Felder (Sarah Goldberg). “I’m on the fence about that,” Magnussen says with a laugh. “It goes back to the point where he was fishing — he wants to know that something is wrong. He’s asking everyone to identify him instead of introducing himself. And I think that’s probably the great thing to do in Silicon Valley. Everyone goes to Joan for advice.”
The relationship between Duncan and Joan is not a typical therapeutic relationship for clients, to say the least. He calls her all the time, she fights with him — oh, and she’s insider trading, based on what he tells her, and he’s trying to sell a potential angel investor, Carl Bardolph (Zach Galifianakis), on his company using information she let slip from another client.
Off screen, the actors are much more in sync than with their characters, created by series creator and showrunner Jonathan Glatzer (succession, You’d better call Saul). “[Goldberg] “She has an artillery of weapons as an actress, and she knows how to use them with such grace and ease,” Magnussen says. “We’d talk about our scenes — do we know what we’re going to do? No, but we trusted each other enough to say, ‘Let’s see where it goes.’”
While conducting research for the role, Magnussen read about real-life tech moguls and found himself fascinated by some of them — but not always in a positive sense. “How can you say empathy is a weakness? Who are these people who want to live forever?” He wonders. “They fascinated me. I would go on these deep dives trying to understand, what was it that they were trying to create in Silicon Valley? What was the origin of the first, perhaps optimistic, idea that they had? I think they realized they had made a lot of money doing it differently, and they got greedy. I find that kind of sad.”
As for his career path, Magnussen is relishing the opportunity to be at the top of the list, having played a number of supporting roles in series such as Boardwalk Empire, Black mirror, obsessed and The bold type.
“A lot of times in my career, I’ve played side characters, just helping the main character move through her story,” Magnussen says. “I had this opportunity, and for some reason, I knew I could show vulnerability, fear, excitement, anger, all aspects of who Duncan Park is.” “Every character I played had some impact on who I was as a person – which I had to discover as Billy. Then Duncan came along, and I had to go to these dark places that Duncan asked for.” [of] Same thing, and the strange thing is that I will ask myself the same questions.
This story first appeared in the June standalone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To obtain the magazine, click here to subscribe.
