Who is Finnigan McCormack? Eric McCormack opens up about working with son for first time in Hunting Party

American-Canadian actor Eric McCormack and his son, Finnigan McCormack, are making headlines with the recent launch of NBC's The Hunting Party Season 2.

In the series, the father-son duo plays the same fictional character, serial killer Ron Simms, with Finnigan playing the younger version and Eric playing the older.

Finnigan McCormack, now 23 years old, is Eric's son with his ex-wife, Janet Leigh Holden. As per a report shared by Style last year, Finnigan pursued his studies at Northeastern University’s College of Arts, Media, and Design. The NBC drama marks Finnigan's debut in show business, an opportunity he embraced to learn more from his dad.

According to a report shared by Us Weekly, the duo never expected to play a serial killer character role together.

“I think if you’d asked either of us if we can be in something together, we probably wouldn’t have said, ‘Oh, let’s play the same serial killer,'” shared Eric.

Eric McCormack says acting with his son Finnigan McCormack fulfilled a long-held hope

In an interview with People Magazine, Eric McCormack expanded that he didn't imagine sharing a serial killer role with his son for one of his major projects, but what he did imagine was growing old with Finnigan McCormack.

"I think parents always, they come at it from two different angles. Some people are like, 'God, I just wish he was six again.' I loved him when he was 4 or 5 and 6, but I've always had this sort of hope that one day we could be grownups together."

"I foresaw that one day I just wanted to hang with this guy. And I do." added Eric.

Finnigan McCormack also opened up about the experience.

"This is an entirely new experience for both of us, I mean, what's weird is that we didn't get to necessarily be in the same scene together, but we're playing the same person, so we had to think about the character the same way and how A is going to land to B. That was really special to be able to bond on crafting the character."

According to an interview with Us Weekly, the idea for the father-son to play the same character actually came from the show's creators, Jake Coburn and JJ Bailey. It was revealed that Eric booked the role first.

“Based on the hunch, Finn has done a bunch of acting but none that they would have seen. It was just a gut feeling they had,‘Why not get your son on?’ When I put him on tape, I just thought, ‘God, they were right.'” shared Eric.

Finnigan McCormack opens up about the fear behind his debut acting role

Finnigan McCormack also shared his fear in the Us Weekly interview, regarding playing a serial killer.

“As a debut opportunity, I definitely had that slight fear of, ‘Is this like Psycho in the ’60s? Am I just going to have this permanent [connection] to being the serial killer guy who goes under people’s beds and injects them with something?’ That’s terrifying,” explained Finnigan.

Finnigan McCormack expanded on the thought process that helped him understand the character better, a contemplation that would help him do justice to the character.

“That’s a terrifying thing. But what made it a bit easier to go through with is finding the little slivers of empathy in a character so sad and lonely,” he shared.

Finnigan McCormack shared about the character study and revealed what terrified him the most.

“All things considered, the one thing that kept me going is that what makes it the creepiest is that he doesn’t necessarily intend to kill the people. Or rather, he doesn’t want to kill the people that he hangs out with. He just needs connection and he’s found it through his elaborate and terrifying process that it includes having to keep them still and paralyzed. As much as it helped me create the character and make it more three dimensional, it also just made it even more terrifying,” he explained.

In an interview with NBC, Eric McCormack also shared what makes the show different and the tips he shared with Finnigan McCormack for a better character study.

"The interesting thing about The Hunting Party is that the team is not just trying to catch the bad guys. They're trying to psychoanalyze them and see how they tick, and so all of that stuff is in there," shared Eric.

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"As Finn and I sat in our hotel rooms a few days before starting, I kept saying to Finn, 'Everything you need to know is there, more than any other script that I've done. This [has] exactly why he did what he did. And his mother was this, and his father was that,'" added Eric.

The Hunting Party airs on NBC on Thursdays, and new episodes are available to stream on Peacock the next day.

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