Chris Chalk on Playing Dick Hallorann

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from Season 1, Episode 3 of “It: Welcome to Derry,” now streaming on HBO Max.

When Chris Chalk first appeared in Episode 2 of HBO’s “It: Welcome to Derry,” devoted horror fans likely recognized that his character, Dick Hallorann, shares a name with the Overlook Hotel’s telekinetic chef from “The Shining.” Episode 3 confirms that this is no mere nod to another Stephen King classic, when the young Black soldier showcases his unique powers in a thrilling and terrifying sequence. Chalk’s Hallorann is a far cry from Scatman Crothers’ ill-fated incarnation of the character in Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film, though. “Everything I do is going to have some dignity,” Chalk tells Variety, and he brings that dignity to Hallorann with a strong purpose and intensity throughout the show.

Dick Hallorann was first introduced in 1977 as a magical character who shares Danny Torrance’s eponymous psychic abilities in Stephen King’s third novel, “The Shining.” He plays a prominent role in the book and reappears in its 2013 sequel, “Doctor Sleep.” In between the two, he is briefly featured in the 1986 “It” novel, albeit in a short flashback. Even Chalk admits, “I didn’t remember any of that stuff in the book. I mean, the book has 3000 stories. It’s OK to forget some of it.”

However, those intermittent flashbacks in “It” provide much of the source material for “Welcome to Derry,” so Hallorann’s canonical presence in the town is naturally expanded upon in the prequel series. Accordingly, Chalk restudied the source material and, with guidance from writer, director and executive producer Andy Muschietti, the ephemeral character came into full view.

Chalk’s Hallorann departs from past iterations of the character, though. Contemporary criticisms of “The Shining” will often point to Hallorann as a stereotypical, token Black character. “He’s literally a Magical Negro,” says Chalk. “But the trouble with a Magical Negro is that they’re the only motherfuckin’ Black person in the movie.” That’s certainly the case in “The Shining,” where Crothers’ Hallorann is among an otherwise all-white cast.

“Welcome to Derry,” however, steers clear of this outdated trope. Alongside Chalk as Hallorann, Jovan Adepo plays Leroy Hanlon, a Black Army Major with a wife and son, who have their own arcs and are respectively played by Taylour Paige and Blake Cameron James. There’s also Hank (Stephen Rider) and Veronica Grogan (Amanda Christine), a single Black father and his daughter, who work at the town’s movie theater and become scapegoats in the disappearance of some of the town’s kids. Other Black soldiers populate the Army base and town as well as Native American and Latino characters.

“To already have this huge selection of Black humans in the narrative, not just as props, but as essential to the narrative, I know we’re going to avoid these tropes, because the trope doesn’t exist if everybody there serves a purpose,” Chalk says, “I do happen to be a magical Black man, but in a world full of Black people, it doesn’t come off as gross.”

“Welcome to Derry” wears its racial commentary on its sleeve. Set in 1964, it expands upon the setting’s history of racial violence and segregation, which are peripherally mentioned in the 2017 and 2019 “It” films, but unavoidable in the novel. Even Hallorann’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance in the book describes his role as the founder of “The Black Spot,” a nightclub for Black soldiers stationed in Derry, which was burned down by a Klu Klux Klan-like group.

When we first meet Hallorann in the show, he and some other Black troops are kicked out of a local bar at the police chief’s insistence. They then return to the Army base, where they are similarly targeted until Hallorann’s name evokes some authority, the first sign that there is something special about him.

It’s soon revealed that the Army base is digging for some ancient weapon or power beneath Derry and that Hallorann’s abilities can help them pinpoint its location. Those abilities come into full effect in Episode 3, when Hallorann is tasked with guiding a helicopter over Derry in pursuit of the targeted spot. Using his abilities from the back of the chopper, Hallorann enters a trance, becoming increasingly distressed until his reality is fractured and the sequence cuts between the helicopter in the sky and a dark realm that Hallorann navigates within his own psyche.

“He’s just in the back of the plane, but he’s half in and half out of that reality, because he’s digging into another one,” Chalk says. To play that version of Hallorann, who is physically there but psychologically absent, Chalk focused on making his breathing appear intentional and trembles involuntary. Rather than study previous performances of characters “shining,” he turned to examples of real-world people pushing psychic barriers through herbalism and witchcraft across various cultures. “I won’t watch another movie because what’s the point? It’s just another person guessing,” Chalk says. He prefers to base his performance off of real people’s attempts at mysticism.

Meanwhile, playing Hallorann in his psychic realm is a calmer experience. “He thinks he controls it,” Chalk says. “There’s a calm, because he knows it’s in the psychic realm and nothing can hurt him.” Everything in the psychic realm is constructed of Hallorann’s own memories, and he knows how to navigate it. As those memories get hijacked by something dark and unknown, however, he adds, “the world starts caving in on him and collapsing on him.”

Audiences witness this when Hallorann sees the tower of Pennywise’s floating victims in his psyche. Visions of war and violence from his childhood flash before he snaps back to reality, where he has one foot out of the helicopter’s back door, saved only when Hanlon pulls him back.

While the actors were safely on the ground in a soundstage throughout the sequence, Chalk recalls, “Both Jovan and I got hurt. It was early on in the shoot, and when he saves me from opening the back, he popped my rib. That dude is strong. I studied Jiu Jitsu, so I was like, ‘It shouldn’t be that bad.’ But then I hit him against the wall and I threw his back out. So the struggle you see is actually two actors who got a little carried away and are really hurt in the scene.”

Luckily, the two actors healed, and the resulting scene is a thrilling mix of real-world action and paranormal mystery. By the end of the episode, Hallorann is having dinner at Hanlon’s house. After the meal, the two soldiers talk about what happened in the sky. Hallorann explains his powers to the best of his abilities. He also says that when entering Hanlon’s mind, he’s unable to locate any fear— a condition linked to amygdala damage Hanlon endured during the war. Given what we know about Pennywise and his appetite for fear, it seems that Hallorann and Hanlon may prove the first lines of defense against the town’s terrifying clown curse.

For real world bravery, though, Chalk commends Andy Muschietti alongside showrunners Jason Fuchs and Brad Caleb Kane for making a bold show. “I think it has some degree of courage,” he says, “They could have very well told one of the other stories from ‘It’ and it would be honorable, but I love that Andy and Jason and Brad said, ‘No, we’re going to do this version of racism that’s still very clear, and it’s still very visceral, but we’re going to do it in genre. We’re going to do it our way and add that other layer of horror.’ In my opinion, if we can ground an honest reality and tell this honest story, and then you add terror on top, people are going to respond.”