This post contains spoilers for the end of the series Barry.
From the very first moment I entered Gene Cousineau’s acting class, Bill Hader‘s Barry Berkman looks up Henry Winklerhis teacher is sort of a father figure—a methodical man, helping him get in touch with his emotions, or maybe just finding a safer place to put them. But that impulse was never fully reciprocated. Via BarryAfter four seasons, our deeply traumatized hitman gradually becomes a performer, somewhat inadvertently ruining his mentor’s life: killing Gene’s girlfriend, ending his class him effectively and eventually sent him into exile. After a daring time jump and other Conspiring to blame Gene for his lover’s death, it’s no wonder that when being put in the same room as Barry again, Gene decides to shoot his former student dead in no time.
In this scene, Barry only has time for two brief words when he realizes what is about to happen: “Oh, oh.” That’s more than Winkler was able to muster when Hader, who also co-created the show and directed the final season, was quite practically pitching the idea to his co-star. “I was speechless,” Winkler said Vanity Fair. “I just make sounds.” Gene goes on to serve a life sentence — not that we see this fate play out for ourselves. It was revealed in the filling parody film Barrythe final scenes, recreating the events of Barry through the strange lens of Hollywood. How does Winkler feel about it all? We get into it.
Vanity Fair: Barry has officially ended. How do you feel?
Henry Winkler: I’m just sad now. We finish in early December; We had some reshoots. We had a launch party. Then no one was seen. Sarah is in England. Stephen is shooting something. People are everywhere. And I’m sad.
Let’s step into this finale. What was your initial reaction, especially to Gene’s ending?
Oh my God. So for half a season, Bill said, “I think we finally broke the eighth episode, the end. Do you want to know how it ends?” And I went, “Sure.” And he said, “You shot me.” [Pause] I’m a pretty quiet person. I was speechless. I just make the sound. I don’t even know how to react to that. i shoot you. OH. Okay, that’s—okay. I went and had a burrito. And then we got there and we did.
What do you think about Gene killing him? How did you play it?
It’s so scrary. The real moment started when I was lured into a hotel room at the end [episode] seven, and then they blame me for everything. How did that happen? After that, I had nowhere to turn, and I think I went crazy by then. I really – the switch turns on and leads me to a point of no return.
Compare that to season one. Have some reflections for you in the performance and just in the experience of doing the show, on what Gene went through? How did this relationship between him and Barry lead to this extremely violent ending?
You think about that first year, the teaching, the antics and the hoax, and how that led to this ending of the whole show—I was never, in an actor’s imagination my wildest, would come up with this, would imagine that this would happen, no matter what this man put me through.
What is it like to actually film it? How did you block it out with Bill? How many times did you do it?
We did it twice. The first time I remember, I shot him in the shoulder. He sat down in a chair, plopped down on it, and said, “You don’t have to do this, Mr. Cousineau.” And I shot him twice. But then in the final he just said, “Oh, oh.” It was like he couldn’t believe it. You can hear the pin drop [on set]. Our armorer and support people were extraordinary how careful they were when we handled a gun on that set. That is my experience. And it’s scary to think about shooting at this person with a gun – my character hates this character, who loves me, who sees me as his father. It’s so complicated that I don’t know what I’m doing.
You’ve had a pretty long and stellar career. Have you ever had to do something like that before filming?
Do you know? Not that I can think about. I’ve held a gun before, when I did a show called Numb3rs. I have to go to the shooting range. I asked an FBI technician to teach me how to hold a gun. But I’ve never been in such a dangerous situation that I actually took a human’s life.
Does the transformation that comes with the time jump get you into that space?
Gene’s physique is a costume. We stopped filming Gene [for awhile]. I have a beard. I take pictures of my beard every week. I sent it to [production manager] Aida Rodgers and Bill. They say, “Let’s keep growing. No, keep growing. And then finally, long enough, they called me and we started filming again. And I was at a kibbutz where I was helping people build their homes. I have learned to be a better person. The only thing is, what they didn’t show you were collapsed houses.
