Bill Hader on Barry, anxiety and body image

The Independent’s entertainment newsletter [SUBSCRIBE]( [SUBSCRIBE]( April 22, 2023 [View in browser](   I’m in a [reading]( purple patch. Don’t you love those? My recent run of books has been so good that I’m already nervous about the inevitable boring one that’s surely on the horizon. I’m currently loving Circus of Dreams: Adventures in the 1980s Literary World, a memoir by former Sunday Times literary editor John Walsh, which recently came out in paperback. He charts a moment in publishing where money sloshed about and novelists could become celebrities. And I devoured Run Towards the Danger, a book of essays by Women Talking director Sarah Polley. They explore everything from her experiences as a child star to not coming forward during the MeToo movement, and offer intelligent, insightful reflections on memory and the stories we allow ourselves to believe. I zipped through them in 48 hours. I also recently loved The Exhibitionist by Charlotte Mendelson, about a married couple, both artists; she’s more talented, but he’s a tyrant. It reminded me of the wonderful Brother of the More Famous Jack, and I highly recommend it. And, finally, the ultra-pageturner Pineapple Street, about a Brooklyn family of one-per-centers is set to be this year's hot summer read. Don't miss my interview with its author, editor turned debut writer Jenny Jackson, in tomorrow's books section. When I’m not trying to prolong my reading hot streak this weekend, I’ll be trying to get hypnotised by Derren Brown via my telly. Our TV editor Ellie Harrison[recommends Showman](, which he has been performing on stage for a while now, and finally gets televised this Sunday. “How the f*** did he do that?” one reviewer apparently asked. Brown [was on Desert Island Discs a few years ago](, and a relisten makes excellent preparation for trying to get into the mind of the illusionist. (Perhaps he gets thrown off from the mind games if you hum his favourite song). 'The Secret Life of Bees' at the Almeida Theatre (Marc Brenner) Elsewhere this week, Helen Brown [spoke to very tall funny man Greg Davies](, Ellie Muir found out about [the making of a documentary about the wonderful late Deborah James](, AKA BowelBabe, and I fell a bit in love with the Almeida’s new musical, [The Secret Life of Bees](. Oh, and in [Succession watch](, quote of the week goes to Marcia for this absolute burn: “We’re calling Kerry a taxi to the subway so she can go home to her tiny apartment.” But the best moment – Kendall’s evil little smile at the end of the episode – went beyond words. God bless Jeremy Strong. Have a great weekend, Jessie [@jessiecath](   What to do this weekend Exhibition | [Hilma af Klint & Piet Mondrian: Forms of Life](//link.e.independent.co.uk/click/31248524.4350/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaW5kZXBlbmRlbnQuY28udWsvYXJ0cy1lbnRlcnRhaW5tZW50L3RoZWF0cmUtZGFuY2UvZmVhdHVyZXMvY3JlZWQtMy13b21hbi1pbi1ibGFjay1iMjI5MjkxMi5odG1s/583d2887487ccd777a8b7489B29abeaaf The recently discovered Swedish mystical painter, feminist and abstract art pioneer, af Klint, meets an absolute don of classic Modernism, Mondrian, in one of the most eagerly awaited exhibitions of the year. Their surprising similarities – both started with landscape and things of the spirit – and massive differences are [fascinatingly explored](. Mark Hudson | Chief Art Critic   Theatre | [The Secret Life of Bees]( Based on Sue Monk Kidd’s bestselling 2001 novel, this new musical at the Almeida Theatre has the recipe for a hit: the book is by Lynn Nottage, the writer of acclaimed play Sweat, while Spring Awakening composer Duncan Sheik has composed the music. Set in the 1960s American South, it tells the story of teenager Lily and her family’s maid Rosaleen, who, in escaping their abusive home, find themselves working on a honey bee farm. I fell a bit in love with this show; it’s a [joyful, inclusive crowdpleaser](/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/secret-life-of-bees-review-musical-almeida-b2322756.html). Jessie Thompson | Arts Editor [@jessiecath](   Film | [A Thousand and One]( This haunting drama, in cinemas now, anoints R&B supernova turned actor Teyana Taylor as Hollywood’s next great movie star. She plays Inez, fresh from jail and tossed back onto the streets of early-Nineties Harlem, who steals back her son from foster care and tries to start afresh. AV Rockwell’s directorial debut hurdles through the years from there, the fraught consequences of her choices contrasted with an increasingly gentrified New York City. If the film drifts slightly whenever it leaves Taylor’s side, it’s only because she’s such an electrifying presence – all grit, pent-up rage and cheekbones. Adam White | Film Editor [@__adamwhite](   TV | [Barry]( Bill Hader, [this week's Saturday Interviewee](, is back with a final season of this satire/crime caper that’s both hilarious and nail-bitingly thrilling in equal measure. The new season picks back up with Hader’s hitman-turned-thesp behind bars for the murder of police officer Janice Moss – and he’s spiralling. Our critic Louis Chilton [gave the show’s swansong five stars](, calling it “as bold and unpredictable as ever”. Ellie Harrison | TV Editor [@Ellie_Harrison](   Books | [Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson]( Succession, The White Lotus, The Menu and Triangle of Sadness: stories about the superrich are definitely A Thing right now, and here comes another (very good) one. Jenny Jackson, editor of brilliant writers such as Gabrielle Zevin, Katherine Heiny and Kevin Kwan, has penned an intensely readable, witty debut novel about a family of one per cent-ers. Pineapple Street charts the fortunes – figuratively and literally – of the Stockton family, in one of the most compulsive pageturners of the year. Read my interview with Jackson tomorrow. Jessie Thompson | Arts Editor [@jessiecath](     [The Saturday Interview – Bill Hader]( [Oscars image]( The final season of Bill Hader's 'Barry' airs this month Patrick Smith [spoke to Bill Hader and his excellent furrowed brow](, about everything from the final season of Barry to anxiety and body image. Hader also discussed the parts he'd no longer play, saying he's reconsidered his previous thoughts on the Saturday Night Live roles he's scrap. Don't miss it – it's a joy. Bill Hader as Barry Berkman in ‘Barry' (HBO) Read an extract from our Saturday Interview below… Hader’s face is an orchestra of expressions, all quivering eyebrows, lupine smiles and grimaces played for laughs. He is dry and laconic, with a midwestern accent that flits between adenoidal and baritone. He is also, by his own admission, a bundle of anxiety, which seems to manifest itself in moments of quiet self-effacement or hyper-critical introspection. Maybe it’s no surprise, then, that Barry so successfully probes the darkest corners of the human condition while retaining a gloriously offbeat sense of humour. Not that the end of the last series was particularly funny, as Barry’s sinister past finally caught up with him. “When season three aired, people were like, ‘Wow, it's not really a comedy anymore’,” says Hader. “And I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ And then you go back and watch that last episode of season three, and I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, really funny.’” He’s being sarcastic, of course. As with Breaking Bad, a drama to which Hader says his show is indebted, Barry is very comfortable plumbing the depths of humanity. Abusive relationships, PTSD, mass murder: the series tackles it all, with an unnerving smile creeping out from the corner of its mouth. “I find if there’s a drama that doesn’t have some humour in it, or if there’s a comedy that doesn't have some sort of real representation of human emotion or something,” he says, “it usually doesn’t work.” [Read the full interview here](   Weekend Shelf-Care Weekend Shelf-Care Ali Smith The author of the recent groundbreaking seasonal quartet novels is at the Cambridge Literary Festival this weekend to deliver the inaugural Room of One's Own lecture. The new series aims to look back on how far women writers have come since Virginia Woolf's own lectures, which went on to become the indispensible book of essays that the event is named after. Few writing today delight in language as much as Ali Smith, so her lecture is bound to be as playful as it is wise. A book I recently read and loved is… Mister, Mister by Guy Gunaratne. It's the novel as vital work. In it Gunaratne gives voice to the realities that get repressed, lost or redacted from the mainstream news's version of our communal reality. My three fantasy literary dinner party guests would be… Katherine Mansfield, Grace Paley, and my dear friend Jackie Kay. There'll be laughter, argument, warmth, dancing, and nobody going to bed till 5am. Not finishing books: my stance is… Sometimes books, like symphonic pieces of music, don't structurally deliver or come together till you reach their end. So every unfinished read is possibly a lost or missed coalescence or understanding. My writing routine is… ...has a life of its own, comes and goes, and always laughs out loud at me telling it there's a deadline. Ali Smith delivers the inaugural A Room of One’s Own Lecture tomorrow, Sunday 23 April, at the Cambridge Literary Festival [cambridgeliteraryfestival.com]( £99 £20 for 1 year ✓ Full access to Premium news analysis ✓ Advert-free reading across web and app ✓ The Independent Daily Edition newspaper ✓ Puzzles, virtual event tickets and more [SUBSCRIBE NOW](   [INDYBEST]( / [BEST BUYS]( [12 best beauty buys under £20, according to a beauty writer]( A look inside what the beauty business experts [really buy,]( from [Elf lipstick]( to [Byoma serum]( and [M&S perfume](. 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