HBO’s massive hit “Barry” premiered last night for the last time — this is its final season — at the famed Hollywood Forever Cemetery simultaneously with its debut on HBO.
Former “SNL” star and Emmy winner Bill Hader (he plays now incarcerated hit man Barry Berkman) spoke to the outdoor crowd and explained, “This has been a long journey for me making this show, so it’s bittersweet. Alec (Alec Berg who created the show with him) couldn’t be here but thanks you all.”
Bill first thanked Henry Winkler, who has also won an Emmy for his portrayal of acting coach Gene Cousineau. Hader said of his co-star, “he’s one of the most beautiful human beings I’ve ever met. He’s also very concerned about the pastries on set. He will say to me ‘when should I tell the crew that I brought Bundt cake? I also have eclairs with all their names written in frosting.”
Hader went on to praise his co-stars among them, Sarah Goldberg, who plays his long-suffering actress girlfriend Sally and Hollywood’s hardest working character actor Stephen Root (he’s also in “Succession” and ten other shows and movies) who plays his childhood friend turned criminal, Fuches. Bill quipped that his upcoming scenes with Root were ‘kinda sexy.’
Hader recalled Anthony Carrigan –who plays the hapless gangster Noho Hank — “had like two lines initially in the show’s pilot. “But the way he listened, we realized he was great, so we started writing dialogue for him and went ‘holy shit!” He also paid homage to the crew. “I can write this stuff in my living room, but they take it and elevate it to something I didn’t think was possible.”
Bill got a bit emotional as he said, “the other day we watched the finale and I was like well that’s it. I walked to my car and said to myself and said, wow, I can say there is one time in my life where I was a part of something, it’s been a 9-year journey for me making this show. From the first meeting until that moment, the final episode, the whole experience, I can say just once I had it where it was just perfect. “
The Hollywood Forever cemetery is where great celebrities like Johnny Ramone, Burt Reynolds, Cecil B. DeMille, Chris Cornell, Mickey Rooney, Edward G. Robinson and more are buried. With the raves and awards that his show has and continues to garner, they probably agree with Bill, too!
PS Editors’ note: I watched “Barry” after “Succession” last night. Henry Winkler was brilliant on stage giving a theatrical flashback of everything that had happened to his character. — RF
