The Coen brothers movie that changed Bill Hader’s life: “It’s embarrassing”
Usually, when looking for tips and tricks on how your favourite moviemaker got into the business, it can be hard to pinpoint them for inspiration. To find the movies they are willing to hang their hat on and describe as one film that completely changed their life. But for Bill Hader, it is actually kind of easy.
Hader, who made his name as one of the most hilarious stars of Saturday Night live in recent years, as famed for his impressions of Vincent Price as he was for being one of the most reliable corpses on set, the actor has now not only stood in front of the screen but stood behind it too.
Barry was a hit show when Hader brought the series to screens across the world. Soon enough, he would take on a more hands-on role and direct some episodes, even gathering up an Emmy for ‘Outstanding Directing Comedy’, which all suggests that he has a long career in the big chair coming. But the main reason for this, and perhaps why he was so comfortable doing impressions of long-forgotten movie stars, is that Bill Hader is a devotee of filmmaking.
Hader has shared a collection of his favourite movies from time to time, but there is one picture, and one set of directors, who have always inspired him: Coen brothers and their classic movie Barton Fink. Released in 1991, the film follows a playwright who moves to a Hollywood hotel, struggling to write his first screenplay and adjust to the inner workings of the film industry.
As one of their earlier movies, it’s fascinating to see the thematic evolution throughout their work and how the foundations of this are laid, with nihilism and uncertainty being an integral part of the plot. The film is not an easy one to understand, and perhaps one that cannot be understood, and that might well be the reason Hader loved it.
“In high school, I was such a movie snob, but I had to pick one movie I loved in high school, it would probably be Barton Fink,” Hader explained in one interview. “That movie had a pretty big effect on me, even though I saw it when I was in middle school. It was a movie that I would show friends, and I would say 90% of them didn’t get it, and I thought that was weird. But I had the confidence of mind to think ‘no, there is so much more going on in this thing than what is happening’. The bravery of the filmmakers to trust their instincts.”
Pushed as to whether he loves all their movies, Hader continues, “It’s embarrassing, I had dinner with a director not too long ago and they said ‘Well, it’s clear you like the Coen brothers…’ and I was like ‘Yeah, yeah I do’. For the most part, they’re incredibly consistent, too. For me and a lot of my friends, it’s embarrassing, because those movies are so part of our DNA.”
The picture would move to completely shape Hader’s view on films, and even shape his love life somewhat: “The first date I ever went on was to see Barton Fink,” he reflected in one interview before elaborating on another, “She wanted to see Father of the bride with Steve Martin, and I said ‘No, I wanna see this’, and I took her to see Barton Fink. It was a disaster. She didn’t talk to me after that.”
His childhood and his early love life were both affected by the feature film, but it was also his later work. “I was really knocked out by that movie,” he confessed, “We talked about that on Barry a lot, composed, with natural light, knowing where the light source is coming from, just very standard things were very important to us”.
Not many of us can point to a single movie or moment in our lives that clearly shaped how the journey unfurled, but Bill Hader certainly does, and it is the Coen brothers’ filmography and their masterpiece, Barton Fink.
