Jennifer Lawrence Could Have Made A Cameo In Barry Season 4 Episode 6
This article contains spoilers for season 4, episode 6 of "Barry."
There have been some amazing cameos in the fourth season of HBO's "Barry," including Guillermo Del Toro, "CODA" director Sian Heder, and Fred Armisen, but we almost got a cameo from none other than Jennifer Lawrence. The "Hunger Games" and "Causeway" star would have played herself, much like Heder, and it could have given her a chance to show off both her dramatic and comedic chops. In the end, showrunner and star Bill Hader decided to take the story in a different direction that omitted Lawrence's role, and we got something completely different (and totally terrifying) instead.
Hader sat down with The Wrap to discuss the sixth episode of season 4, which he detailed as a chaotic experience that ultimately turned out great. There were several storylines that got changed or dropped, so Lawrence's wasn't the only one, but from what it sounds like, the scene would have been pretty wild. Sally's journey through season 4 has been a traumatic and turbulent ride that can't possibly have a happy ending, but it's also been truly compelling television.
It's all just a daydream
In the episode, Barry (Hader) has taken off to kill an old friend and Sally is left behind with their son, John. She starts giving the boy vodka in order to get him to sleep so she can be alone, which is pretty dark, even for "Barry." She then has a terrifying and surreal ordeal that leaves her shaken, but originally Hader had something totally different in mind, in which Sally sees a Barry Berkman movie is being made and she decides to launch a comeback:
"You see her read it and you see all these people online and on social media saying who they think should play Sally, and then she looks at John and then you cut and they get on a plane and fly to LA. They go into Warner Bros. and they see that it's her and they're so excited. They say, 'You're not gonna believe this, Jennifer Lawrence wants to play you.' Then she goes to this party and sees Natalie who's so nice to her, like, 'You taught me everything' and apologizes to her. Then she meets Jennifer Lawrence and Jennifer is like, 'You know what? You should play Sally, not me,' then you cut and realize Sally is still at her keyboard and this has all been her daydream."
Seeing Sally and Lawrence together would have been a blast, but wish-fulfillment daydreaming wasn't in the cards for Sally because Hader felt it was too similar to Gene Cousineau's (Henry Winkler) arc. Instead, we got a totally different kind of mental break, and it was a whole lot scarier.
A different kind of crack-up
Instead of giving Sally a powerful daydream that ends up leaving her cold, the writers decided to take a different direction and gave her a waking nightmare. Working with writers Liz Sarnoff and Duffy Boudreau, Hader tried to figure out exactly what Sally's journey in the episode was supposed to be. In the end, he decided to just wing it, coming up with the nightmarish sequence where Sally is followed by a shadowy figure and experiences a man ramming his truck into her home, knocking everything over. Hader described the sequence as a "manifestation of her guilt," which has only grown since she decided to go with the devil she knew and run away with Barry.
Things aren't going great for Barry, Sally, or John, and there are only two episodes left before it's all over for good. We're nearing the endgame, and if it's half as scary as Sally's break from reality, we're in for a rough ride.
New episodes of "Barry" debut on HBO and HBO Max on Sundays after "Succession."