Bill Hader Talks About His Lead Character’s Affection Affliction as Consequences Begin to Stalk BARRY in Season 3

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede Does Barry Berkman know what love is? The lead character in HBO’s BARRY, a frustrated but lethal hitman and wannabe actor played by Bill Hader, seems to be struggling with the concept of love as Season 3 begins, Sunday, April 24, only on Crave. Examples: Barry tells his girlfriend Sally, played by Canadian Sarah Goldberg, that he loves her. But his actions include aggressively yelling at her to the point that her co-workers are traumatized. Barry tells his acting coach Gene Cousineau, played by the legendary Henry Winkler, that he loves him. But this comes after Barry has threatened Cousineau’s life. There are a lot of moving pieces in BARRY, which is part comedy, and part mob drama. But does a portion of the journey also involve Barry struggling to understand love? “Yeah, I don’t know if he’ll ever really understand,” said Hader in a virtual roundtable interview with a handful of journalists. “I think that’s the question, because I don’t know if he’s good at connecting with people. I think he is someone who kind of sees himself as the victim in all these situations. As he says to Sally, ‘I was having a day.’ He can be like that, and then not think that there’d be any consequences. He can do what he did to Cousineau, and think there’s no consequences. So yeah, I think that is a thing with him.” With at least the parameters of consequences beginning to squeeze Barry in Season 3, Hader admitted, “he’s a little bit tougher to like this season. And those scenes are tough to do. There are definitely moments in the writing when you kind of say, ‘There’s a funny way we can go here, and a real way. So let’s do it the real way.’ I think trying to lessen it, and be cute with it, is more offensive, you know? So be real with it, and show that, well, this is the guy.” Of course, BARRY wouldn’t be BARRY without hilarious moments, too, many of them provided by odd and unlikely drug-mafia leader NoHo Hank (Anthony Carrigan), as well as the family friend who groomed Barry to be a hitman in the first place, Monroe Fuches (Stephen Root). But Hader – who also is the co-creator (with Alec Berg) and an executive producer, while also directing many of the episodes – was inspired by personal experience for a really funny sequence in the third episode of the new season. Without giving too much away, it has to do with media junkets, which are a big part of the entertainment industry, but it’s a world that the public doesn’t get to see too often. Sally, who met Barry in acting class, now has her own semi-autobiographical scripted TV series coming out, so she’s doing brief on-camera interviews with various entertainment-news shows, one after the other. The interactions – including one specific question – are laugh-out-loud funny. “I was in the writers’ room, and they were asking me, ‘When someone has their own show, what happens? And I’m like, ‘Well, you go and do press,’ ” Hader explained. “They said, ‘what’s that like?’ And I said, ‘you just get asked the same questions over and over.’ I remember my first press junket, and I thought, oh man, I’m going to get asked questions – to be honest – like the ones you guys are asking. I’m not blowing smoke. But you know, asking, like, what does Barry think of love? Or what do you think about the current state of comedy? These questions that you guys are asking are the ones I thought I would get, and I’m being totally sincere.” Hader continued, “I was in a movie called The Skeleton Twins, and I remember a guy asking, ‘so … your character tries to commit suicide … what do you think about, you know, people committing suicide, and all this stuff?’ And in the middle of me answering, he goes, ‘oh … we’re running out of time … what do you think about Ben Affleck as Batman?’ ” At that point, Hader had to pause, because he was laughing so hard at the memory. So fans can look forward to what Sally faces in Season 3 of BARRY. billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv