The Covid-19 pandemic struck as season three of HBO’s award-winning comedy Barry was two weeks away from beginning production in March 2020. The unexpected and unavoidable delay means that by the time the new season finally arrives it will have been nearly three years since the season two finale aired.
“I think also literally right before the pandemic hit we had done our first table read, and then just a couple days later we were supposed to have a second table read, and we got the email of like, ‘All right, guys, we might need to be locked down for two weeks,’ and everyone flipped out. But, honestly, just knowing that we were going to be able to come back was a huge thing. It was a huge thing that kind of kept me going, the idea of just knowing that like that we had these wonderful, wonderful scripts to kind of work on at some point was actually something that really helped carry me through,” explained Anthony Carrigan (“NoHo Hank”) during the 2022 Television Critics Association’s virtual winter press tour.
“You go through these periods of like, ‘What’s it going to be like? Am I still going to be able to act when I get back to it?’ And you put on the costumes and you get back in there, and you just get right back into it, so that was really a big thing for keeping me sane and keeping me focused was just looking forward to the season,” offered Carrigan.
Co-creator, writer, executive producer, and showrunner Alec Berg remembers telling everyone it would be a few weeks before they could return to production. Writer, executive producer, co-creator, and series star Bill Hader recalled that Berg told everyone the target date was May 7th, which hindsight tells us was wishful thinking.
“In that time when the scope of how awful the pandemic was, we decided to write season four, and then while we were doing that, we went back and did a pretty extensive rewrite of season three. As far as how much time has expanded, you’re going to have to see the show,” said Bill Hader.
The critically acclaimed series follows Hader as a hitman who wants to leave that world behind to become an actor. According to HBO, season three will find Barry and the other characters attempting to make the right choices…whatever that means.
Hader believes there’s still a lot to explore regarding Barry’s acceptance of his violent past.
“His one kind of boneheaded way of trying to get in touch with himself ends up really hurting a lot of people. And I think this season…I don’t think he knew the extent that he’s hurt people, and I think that’s what he’s kind of learning,” said Hader.
Sarah Goldberg (“Sally Reed”) shared that she thinks all of the characters are constantly grappling with how they can become better versions of themselves.
“There’s all these fork-in-the-road moments and they all tend to make poor choices,” explained Goldberg. “So morality is sort of the undercurrent of the whole show which is what makes it so fun to play and the sort of moral duality in each of the characters.”
Every terrible thing Barry did throughout the first two seasons he did because he was determined to pursue a career as an actor, according to Alec Berg.
“[…] I just really enjoy thinking about the fact that every single thing that happens in the show is a consequence of Barry wanting a slightly better – well, not slightly, a very much better – life. But you could argue that every bit of that better life that he’s trying to achieve has led to all of this chaos. I mean, he obviously didn’t know it would be that bad, but he was warned,” said Berg.
The TCA panel participants kept the conversation spoiler-free so neither Bill Hader nor Henry Winkler addressed how the dynamic between Barry and Gene might change given the events of season two. However, Winkler’s joy in being a part of Barry was evident when he discussed the show’s publicity campaign suggesting people call Gene Cousineau for acting lessons.
“I thought it might have been the best campaign I’ve ever been part of, and I did the voice for the phone number so if you called the phone number you literally heard me talk to you,” said Winkler. “I was so thrilled to be part of that campaign.”
Asked if his approach to helping other actors is similar to Gene’s, Winkler replied, “Gene thinks and tries to be the best teacher he can be. And I have had the experience of five times of holding master classes, and it is one of my favorite things. I’m not sure I know what I’m talking about but whatever I’m feeling about what the actors in front of me are doing, it is my pleasure to try and get them to taste something different than they came into the room with, just by pushing them a little bit. So it goes back and forth. I take Gene with me, and I bring Henry to Gene.”
