‘Barry’ Star Bill Hader Explains Why He Apologized To Vince Gilligan Over ‘Breaking Bad’ Comparisons

As the seasons went by, Breaking Bad got darker and darker. And it was already plenty dark in the first season. The same can be said of Barry, to the point where creator and star Bill Hader felt compelled to apologize to Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan for the similarities between the shows.

“Yeah, I saw him and the writers at a thing and said, ‘Man, I really feel like I owe you a check.’ [Laughs.] And especially for season one. There was a joke that people were calling it Breaking Good and stuff like that,” Hader told the Hollywood Reporter. “But it is true.” There were no hard feelings between Gilligan and Hader, who dropped by the Better Call Saul writers’ room.

“On a personal level, I visited the Better Call Saul writers’ room way early just to be like, ‘How do you guys do this’ And so I just watched them hang out for a day,” Hader explained. “I also hung out with Vince off and on for a couple weeks, and we got along really well. I never watched a lot of television, but I did watch Breaking Bad pretty religiously. I was just impressed because of the propulsive narrative of that story.”

Hader took all the right lessons from Better Call Saul, because like the Breaking Bad spinoff, Barry is having an incredible final season.