Find a character that helps you sort out your own mess.
Bill Hader’s character “Barry” is one of the most nuanced and brutal modern protagonists.
It’s no wonder that the idea for an anxious hitman-turned-actor came from somewhere inside Hader. It came from maturity in seeing the world where people turn out more like the characters in Goodfellas than in other movies, and also in dealing with his own anxiety as a person.
Hader used to pepper the famous movie directors who frequented the SNL set with lots of questions. He wanted to know the how and the why of their work. Now, Hader is figuring out these big questions for his own work. And for his own psyche.
Barry was born out of Hader’s anxiety. As he says in his Hollywood Reporter write-up, “Anxiety is always fighting those voices in your head saying, ‘Here’s all the bad things that are going to happen.’ Weirdly, I have a harder time with day-to-day stuff, as opposed to running a TV show.”
Author: Jason Hellerman
This article comes from No Film School and can be read on the original site.
