HBO/AMC
After making a name for himself as a key player on Saturday Night Live, actor, writer, and director Bill Hader has virtually reinvented himself in recent years thanks to his bravura, Emmy-winning work on the acclaimed HBO series Barry.
Barry — which is currently in the midst of its endlessly gripping fourth and final season — has become so successful, in fact, that it now finds itself being mentioned in the same sentences as Breaking Bad, which is obviously a next-level compliment given that the Walter White saga is considered to be one of if not *the* greatest television shows of all time.
Hader himself, however, seems to be a bit embarrassed by those comparisons, as he revealed in a recent interview that he actually apologized to Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan for the apparent similarities between the two series.
“Yeah, I saw him and the writers at a thing and said, ‘Man, I really feel like I owe you a check.’ [Laughs.] And especially for season one. There was a joke that people were calling it Breaking Good and stuff like that,” Hader said in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“But it is true. On a personal level, I visited the Better Call Saul writers’ room way early just to be like, “How do you guys do this?” And so I just watched them hang out for a day. I also hung out with Vince off and on for a couple weeks, and we got along really well. I never watched a lot of television, but I did watch Breaking Bad pretty religiously. I was just impressed because of the propulsive narrative of that story.”
After Barry concludes, Hader — who directed all eight episodes of the final season — says he’s working on a couple of scripts, including a horror project that he thinks he’d star in and direct.
New episodes of Barry will hit HBO and HBO Max on Sunday nights until the series concludes on Sunday, May 28.
imagine telling someone a decade ago that this is what would happen to Bill Hader pic.twitter.com/gm2Z6EiNgE
— Eric Italiano (@eric_ital) April 29, 2023