-Hi, my friend! -Hello, friend.
-I am so -- We were talking backstage.
The first two episodes of "Barry" that I watched --
it's just fantastic. -Oh, thank you.
-You play a hitman. -Uh-huh.
-Who wants to become an actor. -Uh-huh.
-How -- [ Light laughter ]
How did you come up with that idea?
[ Laughter ]
-I don't know.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-No, it was this thing where Alec Berg,
who I co-created the show with...
-He's a fantastic writer.
-He does "Silicon Valley" and -- and a lot of things.
We just thought --
You know, I said, "What if I played a hitman?"
And he went, "Oh, I hate the word --
just 'hitman,' just what it conjures up,
like cool guy and two guns and everything."
I was like, "No, but it will be me."
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-And he started laughing. -Uh-huh.
-And he went, "No, serious."
And I was like, "No, me as a hitman.
And what if he was a former Marine?" -- whatever.
And then, very quickly, somehow,
we just thought, "Oh, he should take an acting class."
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-I don't know. And then --
And then we went in to HBO and said,
"Yeah, I'm a hitman who takes an acting class."
And they -- they just went, "Um, all right, yeah, sure, sure."
[ Laughter ]
-You directed the first three? -That's right, yeah.
-Was that something that
you knew as soon as you were doing a show
that you wanted to direct some of them?
-Yeah, yeah, I really wanted to direct.
That's kind of what I wanted to do before, you know,
I was even doing comedy or any of that.
And it was interesting doing this and directing myself,
but, also, the other actors.
They wouldn't know -- like, Sarah Goldberg,
who was in that scene -- she's great in the show --
but she said she wouldn't know if I was reacting in character
or if I was reacting as the director.
-[ Chuckling ] Right. -'Cause she would be --
so, we'd be doing a scene and I'd be going...
[ Laughter ]
[ Laughter continues ]
And she's like, "Is that -- Is that --
That's -- That's the character, right?
That's not you?"
And I'm like, "No, no, no. No, no. That's the character."
-Uh-huh.
-Yeah. And he hates your acting.
No, no. [ Laughter ]
No, she -- No, she -- she's phenomenal on the show.
-You -- You have a fantastic cast --
Stephen Root, who's a great actor.
The acting teacher is Henry Winkler.
-Yes, Henry Winkler is in it. Yes.
-Who is one of those people --
and I'm sure you'll attest this, as well --
he came on this show -- he's one of those guys --
nothing would be worse than if he was a bad guy.
-No, yeah, he's the nicest human being on the planet.
-And you need it to be the case.
You need Henry Winkler to be as nice as he is.
-Yes. And then we cast him as a very angry acting coach.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-And there is a scene in the pilot
where he has to make Sarah Goldberg cry.
And he's yelling at her and everything.
And I went over. I go, "Henry, you got to really go at her.
Like, don't worry about the words --
you just got to, you know, try to make her cry."
And he pulled me aside.
He goes, "Bill, I need to understand something.
This man I'm playing --
he's an [bleep]" [ Light laughter ]
I said, "Yes, he's an [bleep]"
He went, "Okay."
[ Light laughter ]
And then, he did this take, and he went at her so hard.
And you were just -- We're like, "Whoa!"
[ Laughter ] And she was going, "Oh, God."
It's in the show.
She's like, "Wait, whoa, Henry, what's going on?"
He was just, like... [ Shouting gibberish ]
It was like, "Oh, Henry."
So, deep down, he's, like, a -- a maniac.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
Good to find out, and now -- -He's a monster. No.
-And what I'm so excited about is --
tonally, it's unlike anything,
not only have I -- that I've seen from you,
but I feel like very -- it's really funny, very dark.
-Yeah. -Has some great action elements.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. -And -- And did that
just kind of come in the process of -- of sitting down?
Or when you were like, "I'm gonna do a show for HBO --
I want there to be a lot of action, as well"?
-Yeah. It's like if the guy from --
you know, if -- if "Unforgiven,"
like, William Munny in "Unforgiven"
or the guy from "Taxi Driver"
met the people from "Waiting for Guffman."
[ Laughter ] -Yeah.
And they were like, "How much money do you need?"
-Yeah, they're like, "Boy, that's the idea of the century!"
[ Laughter ]
"We love it!"
-You just -- you did a premiere at South by Southwest in Austin.
-[ Chuckling ] Yeah. -I've heard you saying
it's fun to go to different parts of the country,
because of the way people say "Barry."
-Yeah, yeah. In Austin, it was like,
"So, man, you're with the show 'Barreh.'"
[ Light laughter ]
And I was like, "Excuse me?"
And they're like, "Barreh! Barreh! Would you --"
Yeah, and then -- and here, I come to New York, and it's like,
[New York accent] "So, Bill Hader
with the show 'Barry'!" [ Laughter ]
"It's 'Barry,' everybody.
Here he comes -- Barry, everybody.
Come in here."
And I'm like, "Oh, my God." -"Barry" different places.