Bill Hader in the third season of Barry, which starts tonight on Neon and SkyGo.
Bill Hader in the third season of Barry, which starts tonight on Neon and SkyGo.
I'm in a press junket talking about press junkets with Barry co-creator/writer/director/star Bill Hader. It's a meta Hollywood moment straight out of the Emmy-winning show that mines black comedy from an atypical portrayal of the entertainment business that's centred around a hitman who becomes an aspiring actor.
Hader is ona Zoom call to discuss the highly anticipated third season, which begins on Neon and SkyGo tonight, in which we see Barry's newly successful actor girlfriend Sally (Sarah Goldberg) participate in a press junket to promote her new drama series.
The depiction doesn't shy away from the oddness of this showbiz ritual that the public is rarely exposed to: Sally's promoting a serious drama about abuse, but the journalists keep asking her who the next Spider-Man should be.
When I ask Hader why he wanted to depict a press junket in the show, he says he was inspired by an incident from when he was promoting his 2014 film The Skeleton Twins at a press junket:
"I remember a guy saying: 'So your character tries to commit suicide, what do you think about people doing that?' and then in the middle of asking that, he goes: 'Oh we're running out of time, what do you think about Ben Affleck as Batman?' And I was like, 'oh my god! It's the incongruity of those two things'.
With its main character suffering from PTSD-related rage issues, Barry has always balanced humour with darkness, but things get considerably grimmer in season three as Barry's murderous deeds begin to pile up.
"He's a little bit tougher to like this season," acknowledges Hader. "His back is against the wall and he's given up so much hope for himself that, when people are in that state - especially someone like Barry, who has a lot of rage issues, to put it mildly - it's going to come out on the people he cares about. What he decides to do this season is insane."
Hader admits the more intense scenes are "tough to do."
"Those are moments in the writing when you go: there's a funny way we can go here and a real way and it's like: let's do it the real way. Because I think trying to lessen it and be cute with it is really offensive."
The heart of the series has always been Barry's friendship with his acting teacher, Gene Cousineau, played by TV icon Henry Winkler (aka Fonzie in Happy Days). That relationship was blown up at the end of season two when Cousineau learned that his girlfriend was killed by Barry.
Henry Winkler in Barry.
When I later speak to Winkler, he says he initially questioned the darker turns in season two but has now accepted the direction of the show.
"You get on the train. I just thought: okay, this third season is going to go where it goes."
Winkler says his Emmy-winning performance has reinvigorated his career somewhat.
"I played the Fonz when I was 27 years old. I got Gene Cousineau when I was 72. Now I have had a career of bumps and turns [and] there are things that come along that are like...a gift. Gene Cousineau, hands down, no hyperbole, is a gift in my life."
He also has fond memories of a trip to New Zealand in the year 2000.
"Here's the great thing about being a celebrity: they call you up and say: 'Would you like to go on [ESPN TV series] Fly Fishing the World. We're going to outfit you, you can bring your son, you'll go to New Zealand.' I went to both islands. I fished for 10 days. I caught three fish."
