Killer Instincts

Bill Hader delivered the most revelatory TV performance of the year, playing a hit man in HBO’s Barry. Now he’s ready to be terrorized by a clown

- Mary Kaye Schilling

MY 84-YEAR-OLD MOTHER HAS A crush on Bill Hader. This is surprising; she’s more of a Tom Hardy girl. But when she watched HBO’s Barry, the half-hour show Hader co-created with Alec Berg, she became a little obsessed. She hadn’t watched the comedian during his eight seasons on Saturday Night Live or seen the films Trainwreck or Superbad. She did not, in other words, decide to watch Barry because of Hader; she watched because it was about a contract killer. (She’s also a crime and murder girl.)

At the end of the pilot, as Hader and Berg broke down the episode for viewers, my mother finally heard the high-pitched voice and giggle familiar to his fans. She burst into laughter, delighted by the disparity between the buff (for Hader), deep voiced former Marine he plays and the outright nerd he is in real life. “How does he do that?” she asked. “You mean sound like Kermit the frog?” asks Hader when I bring up her response. “I’m attractive to people of that age,” he adds. “Tell your mother I’m single again.”