Barry 04x04 live discussion + cast interview round up
Click to view• Tonight's episode is titled "it takes a psycho" and the description provided is as short as the promo: "Damn…"
[bill hader breaks down 04x03]
• Hader returned to The Prestige TV Podcast and broke down the episode.
• The opening shot was inspired by one in The Bridge on the River Kwai.
• About that Guillermo del Toro cameo: del Toro is a fan of the show, and he and Hader became friendly after del Toro emailed him about how much he liked Barry. del Toro texted Hader about appearing in Barry after the season 3 finale and there was a role for a "fixer" for NoHo Hank and Cristobal that they renamed "Toro" and arranged to shoot the scene in September 2020.
• Directions for his "Toro" costume were, "Edward James Olmos at the end of Blade Runner" and he brought his own cane to set as part of the costume. He was on set while they shot the opening scene of a guy with a machine gun riding in on a truck full of sand. Hader says del Toro was very sweet, though he did start teasing him when they began working on his scenes.
• Hader says that del Toro started jokingly texting their mutual friend Alfonso Cuarón and Cuarón texted Hader, "Guillermo is texting me that you have no idea what the fuck you're doing."
• Talks about Barry's journey this episode, says that hearing that Gene told the whole story to the Vanity Fair reporter was like when, "breaking up with somebody, and they dumped you but you think, 'they still love me,' and then you're talking to someone and they go, 'you know, they were just talking mad shit about you at this...they said how horrible you were to date.'"
• There's a thread throughout this season of Barry feeling threatened by Gene's narrative of what their relationship was and what happened during season 3. Barry's losing control and so that leaves him yelling at nothing.
• Because they shot the prison scenes in a working jail, most of the scenes from prison in this episode were shot in two hours. This includes scenes of Barry freaking out in the yard, the scenes walking to the shoot out, and the NoHo Hank and Barry phone call.
• Hader shot his half of the scene with his first AD reading Anthony Carrigan's lines. He talks about the matching shots in both scenes where the camera pushes in on them and says that it's supposed to represent Barry and Hank's heart rate going up as their argument begins in earnest.
• Hader had planned to shoot Hank's scene differently but ended up re-blocking the scene on the spot since they were running out of time at the warehouse location AND it was shot during a particularly bad heat wave in September, which made shooting difficult for cast and crew. Hader was on the phone with Carrigan to shoot Hank's part of the scene.
• Hader describes the Hank/Barry conversation as one that exes would have. Hank is "finally sticking up for [himself] to like, an ex-boyfriend who has always trashed you and you finally have the guts to say, 'all you do is take and take, and all you do is treat me like shit.'"
• Hank has a line where he calls out Barry for working with the FBI, and Hader improvised the next line where Barry flips the script and calls Hank a liar for claiming that. "That's how Barry's brain works. He's caught, he can take responsibility, and then he decides 'No, I'm gonna throw this back on you, and I'm gonna double down on this...it hadn't even occurred to him that he was working with the FBI and that that might be an issue. 'Cause he's selling Hank out, but he's so caught up in this anger about Cousineau."
• Fennessey says that it feels like the toxic relationship is fully broken, and Hader agrees. Hader also likes the scene where Barry calls Hank out on being a tough guy.
• Fennessey asks why it took so long to have Fred Armisen appear on the show, and Hader says that he'd "like to put everybody in" the show in some way, there just wasn't a part for Armisen that made sense until now. He says that's how Vanessa Bayer's incredible season 3 cameo came about, because the part just made sense for her.
• Hader says Armisen was so excited to have his hand cast and have a mold made for the stunt where his hand blows up.
• Hader says the hardest shot to get in that shoot out scene the one where the assassin falls through the ceiling, and they ended up having to put together two separate shots to pull that off. They first shot Barry's double take and then shot the scene of the man falling through the ceiling.
• He says that the most important part of shooting a scene like this is being aware of the geography of the room.
*noho hank voice* we’re fucked
yt vid/ tweet1/gif