Anthony Carrigan’s Still Not Over That Big Breakup on This Week’s ‘Barry’
Someone needs to give poor NoHo Hank (Anthony Carrigan) a break on Barry.
As if last season’s dungeon lockdown and conversion therapy horrors weren’t enough, the fourth and final season of Barry first teased us with a happy life for the Chechen mobster—only to pull the rug out just halfway through the season. Our sweet Hank has been kicking back with his lover (and former rival) Cristobal (Michael Irby) in the desert of Southern California. How nice! How relaxing! But it’s almost too restful, and we quickly find out that this respite was short-lived.
To be fair, Hank is the one to throw the engine in reverse, backing right up into Barry (Bill Hader) territory again. While Cristobal wants nothing more than to start a simple sand business, to restock Los Angeles with the precious building resource, Hank demands that they free a now-imprisoned Barry—but later reverses that plan, when Hank finds out Barry is selling out him and the Chechen mob to the feds. Now, Hank is trying to restore his relationship with the Chechens, assassinate Barry, and deal with this sand business, all at the same time.
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Luckily, the sand business bought him a trip to Dave & Busters (the Barry team shot at a real location)—but even that came with a catch! “I had such a good time being there,” Carrigan tells The Daily Beast’s Obsessed on Zoom, about that trip to the arcade. “The only downside was that I couldn’t play any of the games. We can’t have everything!”
Below, Carrigan unpacks the explosive fourth episode of Barry’s final season, from Hank’s big fight with Cristobal to where he now stands with Barry.
What was it like to put on that business persona while Hank’s selling sand? Were you channeling, like, a guy on Shark Tank?
That was the idea. Although, Hank was also just trying to keep up with Cristobal. He had to run around the table to hit his mark, to be in the correct place [at the roundtable]. That stuff was so much fun. That’s a really technically difficult scene to do, because it was all done in one shot. We had a blast, though.
Where did the idea for Hank and Cristobal investing in sand come from?
I’m not sure exactly [about] the genesis of it. But I know that Bill and company were doing their research about sand itself, and that sand is a huge thing, in terms of manufacturing buildings. It’s a key ingredient for these things. There is a huge war over sand—which is kind of hysterical. It lent itself to this idea of what’s going to pull Hank and Cristobal back to Los Angeles.
While he’s not in the actual scene, we know Hank was around when the ground falls through and the mobsters drown in sand. What was that like to film?
Oh, it’s eerie! I was there for a lot of it, and we had the best team possible. It was real. It was a giant sand silo that we shot in, and it was absolutely absurd. But it was so cool to see something of that scale. It was truly terrifying to witness. I’m happy to watch it from a distance!
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At the end of the episode, Hank’s begging and pleading Cristobal to stay with him—was that an emotionally draining scene to film?
It was a lot. But it was also something that you do not get, ever, that array of emotions. The journey of that scene was a pleasure to work on, albeit intense and really heartbreaking. The process of doing it was also working with Michael Irby, who I just love. We found this organic way of really making it messy and making it like a break-up. It’s so sad, but also, our hope is that both of our sides would be understood by the audience. Hopefully, that tracks.
Anthony Carrigan and Michael Irby.
We don’t get to see the fall-out after that break-up scene. How do you think it affects Hank immediately after?
I certainly think that is a very specific decision to make, and one that will set things in motion from that point moving onward. It’s not something you come back from lightly. When you see Hank next, it’ll all track.
Hank betrays Cristobal, but he’s also just been betrayed by Barry. Do you see Hank’s disloyalty to Cristobal as a reaction to Barry turning on Hank?
Those two are very much connected. You see that Hank is constantly being told that he’s soft. He’s constantly being told that he doesn’t have what it takes. He’s made fun of for who he is. That is also informing his decisions. Even in Season 2, you see shades of it—he shows up to the acting class after Barry calls him an idiot. That’s when he’s truly menacing and threatens to kill all the acting students, and it’s because his feelings are hurt, and he feels that woundedness inside of him. Barry calls him soft, but Cristobal calls him soft too. He’s trying to prove himself in a way that’s really dangerous for everyone involved.
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We’re seeing him work through his trauma of being locked in the dungeon from last season. Did you have to reshoot those scenes, to now include Barry in the picture?
We shot new footage of it. I thought it was beautiful, because it signifies that Hank and Barry are on similar paths from that point on. But Hank gets it. He says, “I understand Barry now more than ever.” He’s being honest. It’s the truth.
Bill Hader directed each episode this season. What was it like working with him in that capacity?
I loved it. I loved it! I love working with Bill, he’s a genius. We also always have half days, because we basically do three takes. I’m so spoiled. But Bill, he wants to capture that essence of something immediately—find it and not work it to death. He’s such a considerate director as well. He has such specificity in his vision, but he’s also open to collaboration and he’s open to finding things in the moment. You really don’t get that often. I’m blessed to have had that for four seasons. It’s going to show in every episode of this last season that he’s really honed his craft.
This season has gotten really dark—which I love! But I’m curious how you feel about this show still entering as a “comedy” in the Emmys and other awards shows.
I don’t know! Classifying anything is hilarious. At the end of the day, a story is a story. If you can go from one extreme to the next, especially in the same episode, that’s a testament to how smart this show is. Plus, who cares? Who cares what people call it? It’s a unicorn. Let’s just accept that it’s rad, and that it’s so cool and different.
What was your initial reaction when you found out this season would be the end of Barry?
I was floored. It knocked the wind out of me, to be honest. But I was also just so impressed with how much it made sense, truly. That’s what, hopefully, the audience is going to take away from it as well. It’s so wild, and it’s so unexpected, but people are going to look back and watch the entire season through and say, “Oh, that makes total sense that all of these characters have this culmination in this way.” And it tracks. It’ll all make sense to the audience in the end.
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