But as Barry enters its third season, it’s no longer surprising to see Hader carry an emotionally nuanced scene on his back. The subtext is always the same: How did he do that?Įarly in Barry‘s run, the same could have been asked of Hader, who is still probably best known as Stefon, the giggling nightclub guru from Saturday Night Live.
Each subsequent time that Barry gives a competent performance onstage, the reaction is similar – stunned silence that gives way to effusive praise. But it impresses Cousineau so much that he invites Barry to join his acting class. It should be after all, it’s really a confession. The specifics he conjures – about a family friend who’s like an uncle lining up this job where he only kills “pieces of shit” – are vivid, and the performance feels almost uncomfortably authentic. In the series premiere of HBO’s Barry, the title character (Bill Hader) delivers what Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler) thinks is an improvised monologue about a soldier returning home from Afghanistan and killing people for money.
