Don’t ever ask ‘Barry’ star Bill Hader this question again
Bill Hader admits he’s not a fan of press junkets.
A recent episode of “Barry” — the dark HBO comedy that Hader co-created — perfectly skewers the relentless phoniness and inanity of junkets and the questions asked.
“You know what’s nice is when you get new questions,” the “Saturday Night Live” alum told The Post in a recent interview. “This is a nice interview because it’s, like, newer questions. It’s the stuff where they’re asking you, ‘How did you come up with the idea for the show?’ when you’re doing Season 3 and you’re like, ‘Google that question and my name.’ I’ve answered this, like, 50,000 times.”
The actor, 43, revealed that the inspiration for the “Barry” press junket within the show came from his own experience.
“That came from when I did a movie called ‘Skeleton Twins’ and someone had asked me something about suicide because that movie deals with suicide, and I was giving a thoughtful answer on suicide,” he explained. “And then he interjected, ‘I gotta go. One last question: What do you think of Ben Affleck as ‘Batman’? So that’s sort of where it all came from.”
In “Barry,” which is currently in its third season and has officially been renewed for a fourth, Hader plays Barry Berkman, a jaded hitman who finds a new sense of purpose after joining a drama class in Los Angeles. Henry Winkler, 76, won his first Emmy for his hilarious portrayal of his narcissistic drama teacher.
“Trainwreck” star Hader said he has to quell any thoughts that he’s acting against The Fonz because otherwise, “I wouldn’t get anything done,” he said.
“Same with Stephen Root. I’m such a fan of his,” added Hader of the 70-year-old actor who plays Barry’s handler, Monroe Fuches.
“So I just focus on what the scene is and we do that,” Hader continued. “I sometimes forget it until the crew will do something and he’ll go into Fonzie and start doing Fonzie — and then everybody loses their mind. ‘Oh, right, you’re an icon.’”
Hader shared that he has no issue playing such a depressed character.
“I never think of it that way,” he explained. “Everybody is always asking me, ‘Oh it must be so hard bringing that character at home with you?’ I don’t think about it that way.
“Maybe that’s why actors are so impossible as people is that it’s all like right here at the surface,” he continued. “So you’re working, writing and doing stuff and it’s, like, ‘OK, you have to do this scene where you flip out,’ you can just do it and go, ‘How was that?’ … ‘Oh, I need to do it right here for the light? Sorry, guys, let’s just do it again.’ Then you do it again.”
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