Bill Hader has revealed how he managed to score a Guillermo del Toro cameo on the HBO dark comedy series, Barry. Hader, who co-created and stars as the title character in Barry’s currently airing final season — spoke of del Toro’s impromptu appearance on the show in an interview with Deadline, saying the director “did a great job” in his role for the upcoming third episode of season four. 

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“We can say Guillermo del Toro’s in the third episode, and he’s very funny,” Hader said. “He did a great job… He had two different takes on the character, and they were both really interesting.” While details around del Toro’s role remain scarce, Hader did reveal that The Shape of Water director “brought his own cane” to set, as well as his wife Kim Morgan. The Barry episode del Toro appears in is set to air on April 23. 

As for how he managed to wrangle the director into a cameo, Hader revealed that as a friend and long-running fan of Barry, it wasn’t so difficult to get del Toro involved in the show. “How it came about, actually, was [del Toro] said, ‘I’d love to be in your show,’ and I went, ‘Oh, yeah,’” Hader recalled. “Then, I wrote a part for him and said, “Hey, man. I wrote a part for you. The character’s named Toro.” 

After initial surprise, del Toro agreed to appear in Barry, and went so far as to suggest his own wardrobe. “He got really kind of excited, and then next thing I know, Tiffany [Hasbourne], who’s our costume designer, came up and went, ‘Uh, so Guillermo has his own cane,’” Hader said. “He went to a fitting, and he did it. He was great.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Hader revealed that del Toro is one of multiple guests to feature throughout Barry’s final season. Though he remained tight-lipped on exactly who will make an appearance, Hader hinted that the guest spots are “really fun,” and that two of them will be as speaking roles. “Actually, you won’t see them, but you will hear them,” Hader teased. “There’s two people that you hear in a later episode, voices that you might recognize.”

I used to admire Bill Hader as an actor (not just comedy, the man has huge range) but now I feel that way about him as director… Barry S2 Ep5

— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) May 6, 2019

Del Toro has long sung his praises for Barry, having declared some episodes “10/10” and commended Hader’s talent as a director for season two. “I used to admire Bill Hader as an actor,” del Toro wrote in a 2022 tweet. “But now I feel that way about him as director.” Guillermo del Toro’s most recent film, a modern adaption of Pinocchio, arrived in 2022, and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at this year’s Oscars.