Bill Hader on ‘Barry’ season three: ‘Chickens have gone home to sleep’

The stars of “Saturday Night Live” who helped define the show in the 2000s now play some of television’s most winning characters. Jason Sudeikis is constantly frustrated about “Ted Lasso.” Andy Samberg recently wrapped up eight seasons as a careless detective on “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.” Will Forte returns with more raw antics on “MacGruber.”

But with HBO’s dark comedy “Barry,” Bill Hader will plunge where his former “SNL” co-stars zag. In the series co-created and co-produced by Hader, he plays a stoned assassin who, fed up with his dirty craft and yearning for a fresh start, stumbles into a new life with as an aspiring actor in Los Angeles.

Barry sees an opportunity for redemption in the form of Sally Reed (Sarah Goldberg), his serious but cocky actor girlfriend, and Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler), his mean but soulful acting teacher. older brother. (Hader and Winkler have both won Emmys for their performances.)

But like the mafia leaders who angered Al Pacino in “The Godfather Part III,” Barry’s underworld associates — including the cowardly but vengeful Monroe Fuches (Stephen Root) — pull him back. left behind a morally bad life he so desperately wished to leave behind.

“Barry” is often hilariously amusing, especially when it distorts the vain ambitions of young actors struggling on the margins of Hollywood or follows Barry’s fumbling attempts to conceal bloody truths. blood in his secret profession. But it’s also gritty, fearless when it comes to portraying the morally worst characters.

The third season of “Barry” premieres on HBO on Monday after a three-year hiatus. (Covid was forced to halt production in March 2020 and filming was finally resumed last August.) Hader, a movie enthusiast with a keen eye for dramatic details and action choreography, directed the first two episodes of the new season.

“He’s very capable as a director,” said D’Arcy Carden, who took on a supporting role in “Barry” as one of the protagonist’s aspiring actors.

“I remember in season one, I had this moment where I was shocked at how good he was, but then I said, ‘No, this is what he was born to do.’ He happens to be a comedian and a great actor, but that’s kind of a sidekick.He’s, like, a manager. (Hader reportedly plans to direct every episode of the show’s fourth season.)

In an interview with NBC News this month, Hader laid out his (spoiler-free) vision for a third season and reflected on some of the cinematic influences that shaped the series.

The conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

NBC News: I know there’s a lot about season three that you just can’t screw up, but can you give me an overview of Barry’s character arc this season?

Bill Hader: I can say: “The rooster crowed home.” [Laughs heartily.]

There’s a side to the character that can be sympathetic and even naive in a childish way, but we know after two seasons that he’s capable of heinous acts. As an actor, do the darker aspects of this character’s personality weigh on you?

Not really, no. You do these [dark] scene and then we move on to the next thing, you know? You do a really intense scene and then it’s like lunch. [Laughs.] You’re sitting there talking to someone who’s just been in that really stressful scene.

It doesn’t have to be some heavy stick with you.

No no no. I think if I let it get to that point, I’ll never leave my house. [Laughs.]

I was shocked to learn that it has been almost three years since the season two finale aired. [The episode, “berkman > block,” aired on HBO on May 19, 2019.]

It’s wild.

During that time, the world has changed dramatically, with a lot of chaos and turmoil. Has the experience of the past few years changed the show’s DNA in the slightest or changed the way you perceive it?

You know, I think in some ways, yes. It’s not just the pandemic, it’s everything that’s going on in the world, and how it’s affected people’s emotions. You’ve seen people lose their minds and seen people close to you get depressed and a little crazy. I’m sure that has found its way into this season, no doubt.

I know you’re a serious movie geek, like anyone who’s watched Video Criterion Collection or hear you on”Products are subject to change“ podcasts can attest. Of this season’s directorial episodes, are there any films that stood out for you?

Cinematographer and first assistant director and I watched a few just to get an idea of ​​blocking [action]. “Rosemary’s Baby” is a movie we watched. I remember watching some of the movies “Burn After Reading,” the Coen brothers movie.

All in all, you watch a lot of content and then it’s like naturally seeping into the show in ways you don’t even realize. It even until I [sound] mixed up in the last episode of season two, when Barry was walking frantically through the convent, where I went, “Oh my god, this is ‘Taxi Driver,'” you know? [Laughs heartily.] “Unforgiven”. Rain and all that.

It’s interesting that you mention “Taxi Driver”, because the first two seasons gave me a strong Paul Schrader vibe. [Schrader wrote the “Taxi Driver” screenplay and has since gone on to direct several films about disaffected loners.]

Oh, yes, yes. Loner.

The main character is shunned.

If we had a vo [voiceover track], it will be the full Schrader. I’ll sit in my room writing down anything, anything Oscar Isaac [“The Card Counter”] and Ethan Hawke [“First Reformed”] working on his last two films.

I like his stuff, but weirdly his favorite movie is “Mishima: A Life in Four Cha Chapter”. He really knocked it out of the park with that movie. It was a man driven by ideals that led to self-destruction.

If you’ve watched the first two seasons and you believe you know how far the show will go in terms of Barry’s morals, what do you think will be the biggest surprise about the new series?

Barry has been really horrible to everyone this season. When we found him, he was desperate and he was still looking for a purpose, as he said. But we had to write everything honestly, and there were a lot of scenes in there that were pretty hard to watch, you know?

It’s like: Well, we can try to make it [horrible behavior] funny, but that’s not funny, so you have to play it honestly. If you downplay it or say, “He’s bad, but only up to this point” – that’s oddly more annoying to me. You want to show him all your honesty.

You really can’t excuse someone who’s basically a murderer.

That doesn’t feel real. I like real crime stuff, and you never see that. You never see a killer who can live a normal life and is not the least of a monster competing and totalizing those who love them, or shun them. Barry tries to hide it, but this season, we decided soberly that everything needs to be public.

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