Barry's Bill Hader Reveals "Stupid" Moment of "Fan Service" Cut From Series Finale

While Bill Hader's titular character was obviously a beloved component of HBO's Barry, Sarah Goldberg's Sally and Anthony Carrigan's NoHo Hank were also integral figures in Barry's journey. Despite how they were both important for all of Barry's four seasons, the pair didn't actually collide until the series finale, and while this collision came with plenty of dramatic weight, Hader recalled how he nearly offered audiences a more direct and emotional connection between the characters, though the stars themselves and other creatives involved in the project let him know this was merely arbitrary fan service that didn't make much sense within the narrative.

WARNING: Spoilers for the Barry series finale below

In the series finale, Hank has taken Sally and her and Barry's son John hostage, with Fuches (Stephen Root) kicking off a bloodbath in which Hank is killed. In his final moments, Hank grabs the hand of a statue of his former lover Cristobal, whereas the original plan was for Sally to put Hank's hand in the statue's.

"I was completely exhausted by the time I was writing Episode 8, and this is what I mean by when you do fan service you f-ck yourself -- I had it in my head that the audience is going to be so excited Sally and Hank are meeting each other. What do these two characters have in common? He loves Barry and she loves what Barry did for her, so it's like an ex talking to the new girlfriend but maybe they find some sort of connection and sympathy for each other," Hader recently recalled to TheWrap. "So at the end when Hank is killed, in the initial version, Hank brings his hand up because he's dying, and then Sally took his hand and put it in Cristobal's hand as a way of being like, 'I'm gonna get you back with your guy,' and all this stuff. Sarah and Anthony, to their credit, were like, 'Why are we shooting this?' And I was like, 'No, no, no this is good!' This is the problem when you read sh-t about your show is people are like, 'Oh, it's so bleak,' and I thought this was a nice moment, so it's a reaction to people going, 'Why is it so bleak?'"

Despite not sharing many scenes with one another throughout the series, it would seemingly make sense to make the most of Sally and NoHo Hank finally appearing together, but the events that led to the moment were far from heartwarming. 

"They were like, 'I don't think our characters would do this,' and Sarah's like, 'He just had my son captive, why would I do this?'" the filmmaker admitted. "So we went back and reshot his death scene on stage, just Anthony looking up and then he starts to realize he's dying and then the closeup of him grabbing Cristobal's hand. That was all shot in reshoots because I had straight up the most sentimental, unearned, weird-ass moment."

While Hader would point out that the way the scene was initially filmed was "stupid," it was a learning moment and he ultimately landed on what was a more organic conclusion.

"But this is what I mean, A. You can't do fan service. B. It's dangerous to get caught up in what people are saying about your stuff, because then you get insecure and start changing it. And then C. You've gotta have people around you that say this is wrong and listen to them," Hader confessed. "I've been on plenty of things where people are like, 'I'm doing a scene that makes no sense,' and the filmmaker or whoever it is is just not listening to you. And sometimes they're right and sometimes they're wrong, it doesn't matter, but the bigger thing is being ignored. I don't think I ignored Anthony and Sarah, but it was at the end of the shoot and I was just like, 'I don't have any other ideas.' I remember Sarah, even the way she played it she was like how do I make this super silly sentimental moment somewhat real? She's kind of looking at him like he's a freak and she's like, 'This is the only way I can make sense out of this Bill, I'm sorry.'"

All four seasons of Barry are now streaming on Max.

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