Bill Hader (‘Barry’)
The Last Laugh
The Daily Beast
4.6 • 661 Ratings
🗓️ 25 July 2023
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Bill Hader (2023 Emmy-nominated actor, writer and director for HBO’s ‘Barry’) is well known as the most generous “laugher” in comedy. But when he’s talking about his increasingly dark HBO series ‘Barry,’ those laughs come with a razor sharp edge. In this episode, the ‘Saturday Night Live’ alum goes deep on the mental state of his hitman character as the show approached its final season. He also reflects on his anxiety-filled SNL experience, why he and John Mulaney never made that rumored Stefon movie, the specific genius of ‘Documentary Now!’ and why he couldn’t stop laughing at Paul Rudd’s final ‘Mac and Me’ prank on the final week of ‘Conan.’
This episode was originally published on April 26th, 2022.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is The Last Laugh! |
| 0:06.5 | I'm Matt Wilstein from The Daily Beast, and this week, we are kicking off a series of episodes with 2023 Emmy nominees by revisiting my conversation with one of the most accomplished filmmakers working today, who also happens to be one of the funniest people alive, Bill Hater. |
| 0:24.7 | Last month, Bill's series Barry wrapped up its four-season run on HBO, |
| 0:29.9 | and now he is a three-time Emmy nominee for writing, directing, and starring in the final season. |
| 0:36.7 | And given that this podcast is currently on |
| 0:38.9 | hiatus, and both the writing and acting guilds are on strike, I want to take this opportunity |
| 0:44.1 | to really celebrate the incredible work he did on both fronts in this series. I hope you enjoy |
| 0:50.4 | this one as we are planning to spend the summer listening back to a bunch of really great episodes we've done with this year's Emmy nominees, especially since they won't be |
| 0:59.6 | out there promoting themselves during the strike. This was a fascinating conversation that not |
| 1:05.0 | only went deep on Barry's extremely dark trajectory, but also looked back at Bill's early |
| 1:10.7 | days at SNL, the Stefan |
| 1:12.6 | movie that never happened, and highlights from one of my other favorite shows he co-created, |
| 1:17.7 | documentary now. So whether you miss this one the first time or just want to spend a little |
| 1:23.2 | more time with him now that Barry is off the air for good. Here's me with Bill Hater. It's very |
| 1:30.2 | exciting to have you on the podcast and to have Barry back on the air. I've really been enjoying the |
| 1:36.8 | new season. I got to see a bunch of episodes and really loved it. I mean, now, as we're talking, |
| 1:42.9 | the show's about to premiere |
| 1:44.4 | its third season. Just how does it feel for you to sort of be on this, this precipice of having it |
| 1:49.3 | back out in the world after you've been now working on it for quite a while? It's very strange, |
| 1:54.2 | especially, you know, we had our premiere last night and yeah, it's very strange. It's a strange it's a it's a bit surreal but you know it's a it's a cliche but it's true |
| 2:02.8 | once it's done and it's out there it's kind of like it's not yours anymore you know we've been |
| 2:07.6 | kind of i've been sitting with this for three years in a you know lab you know with the writer |
... |
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