Lee Pace attends "The Running Man" UK Premiere at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square on November 05, 2025 in London, England. Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment Logo text A mask and minimal dialogue were never going to deter Lee Pace from working with Edgar Wright on The Running Man. Within the film's deadly reality series of the same name, Pace plays Evan McCone, the chief Hunter who's tasked with eliminating Glen Powell's Runner character, Ben Richards. McCone and the game show's executive producer, Dan Killian (Josh Brolin), prey on the desperation of innocent people like Richards, all while manipulating their audience through disinformation and deepfake technology to believe that the Network and its Hunters are only ridding the country of criminals and ne'er-do-wells. McCone and his Hunters then benefit from their manufactured lies when misled civilians step up to aid their murderous efforts. Related Stories Movies Original 'Running Man' Writer Reacts to Glen Powell Movie's Soft Opening: "I Was Rooting for It" Movies Box Office Upset: 'Now You See Me 3' Sprints to $75M Global Win as 'Running Man' Chokes on $28M There may be some commonalities between the dystopian world of The Running Man and the real world right now, but Pace is more optimistic when comparing our present day to the satire Stephen King published in 1982. "[The Running Man] was Stephen King's, as Richard Bachman, interpretation of what 2025 might look like when he was writing back in 1981," Pace tells The Hollywood Reporter. "He was sensitive to a growing hostility in this country, but the good news is we don't live in a world where The Running Man is possible. I still hope the audience finds it thought-provoking, including what it says about media, power and violence." The fictional Running Man series' ability to manipulate through the guise of populist entertainment also has Pace contemplating his own lifelong devotion to entertaining people, albeit in a much more responsible way. "There have been many times where I have felt like a deeply unserious person by pursuing this with my life," Pace says. "But the older I get and the more opportunities I get to do it, I now feel like the ability to entertain people is such a worthy thing to do with your life." The Running Man illustrates all the terrifying ways that our evolving technology can be used against us, and so Pace can't help but wonder how his Halt and Catch Fire character, Joe MacMillan, would engage with today's breakthroughs in fields such as artificial intelligence and augmented reality. MacMillan could be described as one of the earliest "tech bros," as his fictional work in the '80s and '90s arguably helped put us on this current path. MacMillan may have ended the AMC series by exiting the tech industry in favor of being a humanities teacher, but Pace is of the mind that Big Tech hasn't heard the last of him. "I don't think Joe McMillan ever retires. I can't imagine what he would do with his time if he wasn't looking forward and trying to see which way the wind blows," Pace says. "So I think that his story continues in an interesting way, and I would be fascinated to see what [Halt co-creators] Chris Rogers and Chris Cantwell would imagine Joe MacMillan to be doing in this time." Below, during a conversation with THR, Pace also discusses his primary motivation on the Running Man set, as well as how Halt and Catch Fire lasted for four seasons despite being one of the lowest-rated cable series on television. *** When Edgar Wright offered you the chance to play a masked man named McCone, how did that conversation go? First, to get a call from Edgar Wright, saying, "I want you to be a part of my film," it was such a pinch-me moment. I'm such a fan of his. He described what he wanted to make and what he wanted out of this character, and I was like, "Yeah, this sounds like great fun." And I have to say, from that first conversation and the script that I read to the movie that I saw, it's exactly the same. He made exactly the movie that he had in mind before we started filming. Lee Pace stars as McCone in The Running Man. Paramount Pictures McCone's got a secret. Did that third-act reveal tip the scales as far as your commitment? Yeah, he's a complicated character. He's mysterious, and he withholds a lot throughout most of the movie. I like a mysterious character. Then the complexity of him emerges towards the end, and I also like a complicated character. I still had a good time trying to make McCone be as relaxed and unbothered as possible throughout his pursuit of Ben Richards. So it was definitely great fun playing the character. You had to find ways to express your character without the use of your face. Did you offer up a number of alts on the day such as the kis