McKinley Belcher III (‘Eric’) on the ‘deeply cathartic and satisfying and fulfilling’ experience playing Ledroit [Exclusive Video Interview]

This article contains minor spoilers about the Netflix limited series “Eric.”

“I was excited by the prospect that the show was set in the 80s and him being both a Black and queer man, there would be a lot of him that would not be safe to share with the world,” shares McKinley Belcher III about what most appealed to him about his character Ledroit in the Netflix limited series “Eric.” The actor portrays an NYPD Missing Persons officer who investigates the disappearance of one of the show’s central characters, Edgar (Ivan Morris Howe). He says the character allowed him to “explore things that I’ve experienced in my own life” and was “a challenge.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.

“Eric” depicts many troubled father-son relationships, especially between Edgar and his father, Vincent (Benedict Cumberbatch), a puppeteer who has a history of substance abuse. The audience learns early on that Ledroit had a complicated relationship with his father, too. Belcher says that detail really “struck” him. Right before production on the limited series, the actor wrapped a Broadway run of Arthur Miller‘s “Death of a Salesman,” a play in which his character, Happy, is “looking for validation from his father and never gets it.” He sees Ledroit as “very much in that vein.” In the backstory he crafted, his father was “disapproving of who he was at his core, including his sexuality.”

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Belcher III has lived in New York for a decade and says that he was thrilled to “tell a story rooted in the city that I’ve grown to love.” Born in the same year in the 1980s in which “Eric” is set, the actor did research into the New York City life of the time, especially “how the city’s relationship to policing has evolved or not evolved.” The themes of parenting and loss were also incredibly potent for him as his sister passed away during production. He shares, “I’m meditating on and figuring out how to grieve in my life and then I’m also living in the body and the heart of a man who is mourning in real time.” Because of this experience and his past roles in which he’s shadowed real police officers, the performer characterizes the show as “life crystalizing in a really serendipitous way.”

Ledroit is a man in mourning because his partner, William (Mark Gillis), is dying of AIDS. Belcher notes that the show is set during the AIDS crisis and it therefore depicts the “stigma for queer people” that resulted. “I thought it was really important and exciting for me to get to honor the truth of what it would feel like to be navigating that kind of fear societally,” comments the actor. While “Eric” often depicts how Ledroit’s “sexuality is leveraged against him and almost weaponized,” the series also highlights the “tenderness” between him and William. As the performer puts it, “This queer love was so special and is probably unlike anything he’s experienced before and unlike anything he will experience for the rest of his life.”

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Intertwined with the central mystery of the disappearance of Edgar is another case about missing person Marlon Rochelle (Bence Orere). Belcher says he “was so excited that Abi [Morgan] included [the storyline] in the show because we get to see in a very real world practical way in which institutional racism is at play,” referring to the fact that the disappearance of a white child is covered much more extensively in the press than of a Black child. The actor believes Marlon’s case “very much haunts” Ledroit and that the detective “very much sees himself in these young men and young boys.” It is that personal conviction that gives him his “unrelenting determination to not settle for an easy answer or give up.”

Belcher shares many scenes with Cumberbatch as Ledroit investigates Edgar’s case. The third episode features an intense interrogation scene between the two, which the actor calls a “really exciting day” for him. “Artistically, it was the first day I got to see Benedict in all of his glory,” shares the performer, adding that what he admires about him is that he’s a “true collaborator.” As the series reaches its conclusion, Ledroit must let out his rage at the injustices he has uncovered. The star says that “it was deeply cathartic and satisfying and fulfilling to find places to let some of that pressure release” and that it was “deeply satisfying” to explore how Ledroit learns how “to accept himself.”

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