David Harbour Talks Learning ASL for ‘DTF St. Louis,’ Shares a Line From ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ and Wants a Christopher Nolan-Directed ‘Warcraft’ Movie

The 51-year-old New York-born actor plays Floyd, a performance built around four months of daily American Sign Language practice. The work earned him his first Emmy acting nomination since 2017 — and his first in the limited series category, this time as an executive producer through his production company, Bravo Axolotl, the banner he founded in Dec. 2022. I’d like to pick it up again; I just got real busy and I put it down.” Learning the language, he says, rewired something in his brain.

So there’s a lot of that in Floyd. He’s a dreamer, a sweet guy.” One of the performance’s signature moments is an interpretive dance during a concert sequence, witnessed by his nominated co-stars Jason Bateman and Linda Cardellini — the scene I flagged as the one that makes Harbour a contender. It was shot with remarkable speed.

I only shot one take of the complete thing,” he recalls. I knew what I was doing, but I had somebody across from me to help me out.” “DTF St. Louis” arrives with 13 Emmy nominations, making it one of the year’s most recognized miniseries.

For Harbour, who also served as a producer, the group recognition means more than the solo attention he received during his first Emmy campaign. I was jobbed in,” he says. It’s my baby.” Reviews have framed Floyd as the role that finally sheds Harbour’s “genre actor” label.

Harbour resists the idea that the label was ever a cage or a hurdle to his progress as an artist. It was a matter of whether the world would give me the opportunity. And even if the world won’t give me the opportunity, I’ll just do it myself.” Harbour recalls shooting a scene with Bateman on “DTF St.

Louis,” surrounded by crew members he first met on “Stranger Things,” who had watched him run around with prop guns as Hopper. These people love it so much that you don’t want to let them down or leave them hanging.” Harbour is already busy. He’s excited about “Evil Genius,” a dark comedy romance directed by Courteney Cox that is set to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.