In the interview, Hader says that, out of the blue, “Guillermo sent me a funny message [asking]’Could he be in ‘Barry’?” Hader goes on to reveal that it’s possible Del Toro didn’t fully expect the cameo to happen. “I think he didn’t think it would. [ask him]”explains the co-creator of “Barry,” “People say [they want to be in the show] sometimes, and it never happens.”
Hader had an idea. “But then I thought, ‘Actually, there’s a role he’d be really good at,'” says Hader, “I called him up and said, ‘Yeah, I’ve got a character for you. His name is Toro.’ ‘Oh man. Really?'”
Hader took advantage of the character’s name to further lure the king of creatures into committing himself. “I said, ‘Well, the character is called Toro, as if to say, ‘Well, now you have to do it,'” Hader explains. The couple found a date that fit with del Toro’s schedule.
It was all a bit of a gamble. “I didn’t know if she could act or not,” Hader details. Also, it was hard for the author to leave the directorial instincts at home. As Hader explains, “I’d give a crap about how he was blocking [ … ] he said, ‘The eye lines won’t match because you’re in too wide a lens.'”
Hader took it in stride. “I was like, ‘Guillermo, it’s not really your call, man. […] ‘Cate Blanchett didn’t tell you this shit in your last movie,'” he recounts humorously, reiterating, “But no, it was very sweet.” The scene is as short as it is excellent, but a surprisingly powerful scene sets the rest of the story in motion. season 4.