Bill Hader Talks Getting Back Into Character for ‘Barry’ Season 3
Q&A
It’s been three long years, but one show we’re really looking forward to seeing return — and dominate — the TV landscape is HBO’s Emmy-winning dark comedy Barry. And it comes back after one heck of a nail-biting cliffhanger. In the Season 2 finale, contract killer/wannabe actor Barry (Bill Hader) is outed as a murderer to his beloved theater coach, Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler), when Gene learns that his meek student was responsible for taking down the woman he loves. Ouch.
When the twisted tale picks up, not much time has passed and Barry has to make a lot of quick decisions if he’s going to keep himself from going to jail for his crimes. And if Barry thought he had a lot to redeem himself for before, well, now it’s a lot deeper of a hole he’s dug. Below, creator and star Hader carves out Barry’s next moves.
The show has been off the air since Spring 2019. And yet, three years later, fans are really excited for its return. What do you think has helped shape that?
Bill Hader: I do feel like a lot of people watched it during the pandemic because everybody was just binging shows. Some people I’ve talked to are coming to it recently, so the time off hasn’t been as long. But then the nice thing that I’ve also heard through the grapevine from people that work on this show is that people like to rewatch it because it’s not that big of a time commitment. You can kind of binge the whole show in a weekend if you wanted to. So, that was also nice to hear that people have gone back, which always surprises me.
Do you think that the time you had between Season 2 airing and putting together Season 3 has helped you build an even stronger third season?
Yeah, I think so. I mean, I hope so. We were two weeks away from shooting when the pandemic happened, so we were supposed to air this time last year if the pandemic hadn’t happened. And then that day just pushed us. We took off, I think it was April until October, which was a lot, and then the pandemic happened, and then it was like, “Oh s–t,” you know, I didn’t think it was going to be that long.
So when we were writing during the pandemic we said, “OK, let’s start [writing] Season 4.” And then while we were working on Season 4, we started to go back to Season 3 and go, “Oh, you know, this could connect to this…” and we could kind of smooth things out in Season 3, so they work better in Season 4. And then in doing that, it just turned into me sitting down in the morning and just kind of doing big passes at Season 3.
Now, given that your costar Henry Winkler is probably one of the kindest people on Earth, how hard was it to shoot the darker scenes this season that will come from Gene knowing Barry’s secret?
Henry doesn’t like to go dark that much. He’s uncomfortable with it. He did tell me at the end of the season, that doing Season 3 was the most intense work he’s ever done in his career. He’s never done scenes like this before. They were very intense. Each season, the show kind of ratchets up and the situation keeps getting worse. He doesn’t like it, and you do have to push him in that area, which is an area that he naturally doesn’t go in and doesn’t like being in, which I understand, but then he always delivers. We’ll get there, but I do push him. [Laughs] That doesn’t mean I’m like yelling at him. It’s a lot of me going [in an apologetic tone] “I know, I know, Henry, but do another one.”
HBO
And for you, the moments where you’re slipping into Barry’s killer mode: Is there anything that helps you as an actor to flip that switch?
No, no, it’s really interesting. A lot of people ask me about how I play Barry, but it’s a thing that I genuinely do not think about that much. My head is so into making sure the story is working and directing that when it’s like, “Alright, we got to go,” it kind of takes you out of it in a good way so you’re just reacting.
Where is Barry mentally when we begin this season? Is he still trying to make amends?
I think after what happened at the end of last season, he took a big step back. We always talked about it in terms of like, in Season 2, he was on the wagon. And at the end of the season, he fell off the wagon. And so now it’s kind of, can I get back on the wagon again? Or is that even an option for me?
What about Barry’s career? Is he still focused on trying to become an actor at this point, or is that pushed aside with all this other drama?
I mean, the thing with his acting career that’s so weird is that even when he doesn’t focus on it, things tend to ratchet up for him in a weird way. And so, yeah, it seems like he’s better off not focusing on it because that’s when he tends to get work.
HBO
And what about his relationship? We see Sally (Sarah Goldberg) in the teaser, so I have to assume that things aren’t totally done between these two.
They’re trying to figure their thing out. Sarah gets a lot [in Season 3]. She’s incredible. It’s really good. I think people are going to be really knocked out by the work she does. Her storyline is much more different than what most expected from it. So it’s interesting, and they’re trying to make s–t work. I think there’s a genuine feeling of like, there was always a choice with the show, which is you can make it a glib kind of hitman comedy without any real-world consequences to it. And I think that’s what Barry’s realizing is that you can’t go through these things and not have some sort of — he’s trying to get some sort of redemption for himself, but what he’s finding is there are these consequences he didn’t really think about.
And then there is Fuches (Stephen Root), who was the one to deliver the news to Gene. What does that relationship, or lake thereof, look like now between him and Barry?
We’ve always seen the show as having these two fathers [for Barry] — his acting father, the guy who’s going to give him the life that he wants as Cousineau, and then the old father [Fuches], who’s actually being realistic with him, saying, “Well, what you’re good at is killing people.” And so, Barry doesn’t want to be with that father.
In Season 2, both of those relationships are pretty frayed. So we don’t really know where it’s going to go. Like, we ended the season and kind of just went, “Alright, let’s see what happens.” I think that Season 3 was definitely the hardest season to write because it just was like, “Oh, man, we really put ourselves in a corner here.”
HBO
If you had to attribute one goal to Barry this season, what would you say that is? Redemption, or something else?
Forgiveness. He just wants to be forgiven.
Is there anything else you’d like to tease about these upcoming episodes?
This season goes deeper with each individual character. And in doing that, there’s some pretty intense stuff, but I think it’s still funny. I’m really proud of it. It definitely feels like each season becomes its own. It’s becoming more of its own. It’s not going to just be the same thing again.
Barry, Season 3 Premiere, Sunday, April 24, 10/9c, HBO and HBO Max
