Bill Hader Knows The Exact Moment He Decided Not To Kill NoHo Hank (For Now?) On ‘Barry’

Bill Hader has made some good decisions in his life. He said yes to SNL; yes to Hot Rod, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs; and yes to making a show about a hit man who joins an acting class that has become the darkest comedy (or the funniest drama) on TV since BoJack Horseman. But Hader’s best career decision is when he didn’t kill NoHo Hank in the Barry pilot.

“I was almost killed in the first episode,” future Emmy winner (hopefully) Anthony Carrigan, who plays NoHo Hank, told the Los Angeles Times during a conversation with his co-stars. After Sarah Goldberg (Sarry) rightfully pointed out that it’s hard to imagine Barry without the easily duped Chechen mobster, Hader added, “We were lining up the shot where you were supposed to get shot, and I went over to our [director of photography] and [Barry co-creator Alec Berg].” He asked them, “Should we kill him I don’t think we can kill him.”

They didn’t kill him.

In the scene that Hader is referring to, Barry walks up to a car with three passengers: NoHo Hank and two henchmen. We see the henchmen get shot and die, but not NoHo Hank. Barry thinks he’s dead, but he falls behind the door and gets away (this happens off-screen) as Barry walks back to his car.

— rod (@girassollle) May 22, 2023

The Barry series finale airs this Sunday after Succession.