How Guillermo Del Toro Wound Up With A Role In Barry Season 4
In the world of "Barry," the titular assassin-turned-actor has made quite the laundry list of on-again, off-again enemies. From his longtime handler Monroe Fuches to the lovable Chechen mobster NoHo Hank, many have turned from being Barry's friend to wanting Barry dead. In Season 4's third episode, "you're charming," NoHo Hank and Cristobal react to Barry's cooperation with the authorities regarding the pair's growing "crime utopia" exactly as expected: they look to see him assassinated.
Assassinating someone in federal custody is no mean feat, however, so the pair consult with an absolute monster, a man called Toro, who arranges the hit with a pair of assassins who also happen to be podcasting gearheads (it's Los Angeles, everyone has a podcast).
If Toro looks surprisingly familiar to you, it's obviously because he's played by none other than Guillermo del Toro of Pappy McPoyle fame on "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" (in addition to being one of our era's greatest living filmmakers). The surprising and excellent cameo cements del Toro, a longtime "Barry" fan, forever into the series' history. In an interview with IndieWire, series creator Bill Hader reveals that the cameo began as all great collaborations do, via a random text message.
'I didn't know if he could act or not'
In the interview, Hader recounts that, out of the blue, "Guillermo sent me a funny text [asking], 'Could I be in 'Barry'?" Hader continues to reveal that del Toro may not have fully expected the cameo to happen. "I think he didn't think I would [ask him]," the "Barry" co-creator explains, "People say [they want to be in the show] sometimes, and it never happens."
Hader had an idea. "But then I thought, 'Actually, there's a part that he'd be really good in,'" Hader says, "I called him and said, 'Yeah, I have a character for you. His name's Toro.' And he went, 'Oh, man. Really?'"
Hader leveraged the character's name to further entice the creature feature king to commit. "I said, 'Well, the character's called Toro, kind of saying, 'Well, now you've got to do it.'," Hader explains. The pair found a date that worked with del Toro's schedule.
It all was a bit of a gamble. "I didn't know if he could act or not," Hader details. Moreover, it was hard for the auteur to leave the directorial instincts at home. As Hader explains, "He would give me s**t about how I was blocking [ ... ] he said, 'The eye-lines won't match because you're on too wide of a lens.'"
Hader took it in stride. "I was like, 'Guillermo, it's not really your call, man.' [...] 'Cate Blanchett didn't say this s**t to you on your last movie,'" he humorously recounts, reiterating, "But no, he was very sweet." The scene is as short as it is excellent, but the surprisingly impactful scene sets in motion the rest of season 4.