New York's hottest club is spicy.
[LAUGHTER]
This is Bill Hader.
From the incredibly odd short film
that started his career, to the stint on SNL that cemented it,
Bill Hader has always been associated with comedy.
He has a keen understanding of what makes people laugh
and he has used that Hollywood superpower
to great success over the years.
I need you morons to work eight times harder than you've ever
worked in your entire life.
I'm having a heart attack.
Get back to work.
Essentially, Hader created an image for himself
as a light-hearted and hilarious everyman.
So it came as a surprise to us all
when we found out that he is also capable of so much more.
It's a job, you know?
The money's good and these people I take out, like,
they're--
they're bad people before.
We jump into the details of how Bill Hader flipped the script,
make sure you like this video and subscribe
to Nerdstalgic if you're into topics like this.
Oh, and prepare for major spoilers
for the first season of Barry.
When Barry was first being marketed in 2018,
most of the trailers made it seem like a pretty standard fit
for Bill Hader, who is also the co-creator, alongside Silicon
Valley producer, Alec Berg.
The music was bouncy and the clips
were cut together to make everything
feel comedic and snappy.
I just saw you go to a place tonight I have never
seen before.
[YELLING]
OK.
I see you're still in that place.
I'm going to leave you to your process.
The only difference here seemed to be the premise.
Hader would be playing a hitman looking
for purpose in a washed-up stars acting class.
The hook of a tall, gawky Bill Hader playing a role typically
reserved for muscle-bound leading men
was more than enough to draw an audience.
And once we sat down to watch the first season,
it became clear that Barry was much more
than what the marketing materials would
have you believe.
The black-comedy drama was weighed down
by tragedy and hyper-violence, but provided
plenty of levity between its harrowing story beats.
Hader's award-winning performance
as the titular hitman turned actor
is commendable across all four seasons of Barry.
Through several impressive monologues, quiet moments,
and explosive scenes, he shows us
that he's much more than a guy on SNL
or a funny voice for an animated character.
He's an actor with an impressive range of talent
that crosses genre boundaries.
You do whatever it is you're good at because this is not it.
You want to know what I'm good at?
I'm good at killing people.
But there was one specific moment in Barry
that stands out, one where we had no choice but to take Bill
Hader seriously, and it shows up on Shakespeare
night in the seventh episode of the first season.
Loud, Fast, and Keep Going doesn't seem too out
of the ordinary on its surface.
There's the fallout of the poorly planned attack
on the Bolivian gang, Barry murdering his friend,
and the definitely equally high stakes of an acting showcase.
This is fairly familiar territory for the show
as Barry struggles to break free of the criminal underground
and live out his more legitimate and less murdery dreams.
But Episode 7 takes things to a new extreme.
We're Marines, you know?
They're criminals.
What do you think we were doing out there?
What do you think I do for a living, Chris?
After an already chilling scene in which
Barry shoots Chris, in an attempt to maintain his cover,
he goes directly to Cousineau's class.
While Barry only has to deliver a single line during Sally's
monologue, his less than stellar acting abilities
have everyone around him doubting
whether he can pull it off.
Barry, however, has other things on his mind.
In a behind the scenes interview with HBO,
Hader confirms that Chris's character was essentially
just a representation of who Barry wanted to be.
When he decided to kill Chris, he
was also symbolically killing the part of himself
that could imagine being a wholesome husband and father.
I didn't want to kill a Marine.
I'm not going to kill a Marine.
And because of that, now he has to kill the Marine.
So in Barry's mind, this act of murder he has committed
is doubly grievous, and Hader brilliantly
puts that turmoil on display.
[INAUDIBLE]
While waiting in the wings, Barry
strips off the old military uniform
costume Sally puts him in.
He's sweating and slowly falls to pieces as images of Chris
and his young family flash in his mind and on screen.
You can see the pain in his expression
as he tries to force out the intrusive thoughts,
but they just keep coming while Sally bombs on stage.
Initially, it seems like Barry will miss his cue
and leave Sally standing up on stage completely on her own.
But from out of the darkness, he appears, sobbing and barely
holding it together.
He delivers his line.
My Lord, the queen is dead.
The crowd perks up, perceiving what
they believe to be the first solid performance of the night.
He exits, allowing Sally to finish
her monologue with renewed sincerity
and receive a standing ovation.
It's a powerful moment, made all the more intense by the fact
that we've never seen Barry cry before.
Actually, we have never seen Bill Hader
have that kind of emotional reaction on screen before.
As he told Entertainment Weekly.
There's other, more seasoned actors
who qwew like, oh, you're fine.
I can do that like this.
But for me, I had never really done anything like that.
In previous episodes, we had seen
Hader fly into horrifying rage or make
genuinely moving speeches.
But one thing we hadn't seen up to that point
was a true, emotional meltdown.
So his crying on stage felt different.
It felt vulnerable and agonizing, and more
than a little uncomfortable.
And we don't get time to sit with those feelings
because Shakespeare night isn't over.
After Sally's standing ovation, we
follow Barry deeper into the community center
as he continues to struggle.
Cousineau comes in to congratulate him
on his performance and Barry only breaks down further.
Unlike the quieter and more intimate moment on stage,
this outburst isn't completely unexpected,
though, it's just as effective.
Henry Winkler plays the moment with the perfect amount
of humor.
You know, I have a few notes.
They can wait till Monday.
But we're still left feeling viscerally
uneasy as an audience as we watch
Barry push through his pain.
Even though this man is directly responsible for the death
of a good friend, we feel for him.
When he emerges from the rec room
to stand totally alone in a room full of people,
it's heartbreaking.
And when Sally confronts him to tell him he's a real actor,
Barry's response is even more of a gut punch.
That was acting, Barry.
You are a real actor.
I am?
Yes.
There's desperation in Hader's tone here,
and an almost childlike gratification
upon hearing Sally's praise.
She leaves on the tragic and hilarious advice--
Whatever you did tonight to get to that place, that's
your new process, OK?
All you have to do is do that every time.
Barry, once again, finds himself alone.
He stands center stage, and after a moment
of contemplation, his bewildered face changes
and we're left with a more ambiguous, yet solidified
expression.
And then the episode ends.
Because of his inner conflict, we as an audience,
don't know what Barry is thinking at that moment.
He's more of a wild card now than ever before.
It sets up the final episode of the season perfectly
and that conflict only escalates through the rest of the show,
but it all starts here.
And Barry is the one responsible for stirring up
all these feelings.
So this is the part where we remind you
that up to this point in his career,
Bill Hader was best known for doing stuff like this.
I'm a first time caller, so I don't
know if anyone has ever mentioned this,
but that guy Greg is an alien, right?
Greg is not an alien.
It's easy to dismiss comedic actors
as shallow, low-brow performers that
are only good for a laugh, especially when the person
in question is Stefon.
Well, they have a Jewish Dracula.
Oh.
What's his name?
Sidney Applebaum.
[LAUGHTER]
With Barry, Hader didn't just do a surprisingly good job.
He, along with Alec Berg, created a character and TV show
that was meant to showcase his heretofore unknown acting
abilities.
Chances are, nobody else would have given him the chance,
so he did it himself.
Through that drive and creative ambition,
he fundamentally changed our perspective
on who he is as an actor.
Not only that, but he likely altered his career trajectory
for the rest of his life.
He shattered his SNL image with a single on-screen meltdown
and pulled double duty as a comedic powerhouse
and a tortured veteran.
Luckily for us, Hader has gone on record
to say he's only interested in making weird things moving
forward.
That means we'll get to enjoy more of his writing and acting
talents as time goes on.
But for now, we'll just keep rewatching Barry.
Thanks so much for watching today's video all
the way to the end.
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[MUSIC PLAYING]