Pride Month has taken quite a few hits this year. For starters, Joker announced a sequel. On top of that, what the hell is with all the weird food-related advertisements? The hits keep coming.
This might be a weird place to start an interview about the Barry Season 3 finale, but hold tight: An explanation is coming.
All jokes aside, as Pride Month nears its halfway point, the LGBTQ+ community has faced a harrowing number of atrocities in this year’s news cycle. If the Don’t Say Gay bill, a law that restricts children from speaking about their identity in schools, doesn’t pop up in headlines, there’s another atrocity: Kids might be banned from drag shows entirely in Texas. The Daily Wire’s resident imbecile Matt Walsh says it should be “illegal” for trans people to receive hormone therapy. A preacher calls for LGBTQ+ people to be lined up and shot in the head.
Which is why in Barry’s big Season 3 finale, it’s quite relieving to watch fan-favorite NoHo Hank (Anthony Carrigan) annihilate a woman executing conversion therapy on his lover, Cristobal (Michael Irby). Blam! What a kicker.
“There is a real catharsis with this horrifically toxic act that is happening,” Carrigan tells me. “This woman is trying to get the love of her life back, but she’s doing so in the most evil and corrupt way possible. There is something to Hank saving the day. But it certainly comes at a cost. The trauma of the experience that Hank just went through is not something that you can shake off lightly.”
This kill might not happen in the real world, but thank the lord (aka Bill Hader) it can happen in Barry. More things to be thankful for: the heartwarming, real romance that sprung between Cristobal and Hank this season, a joke that actually spiraled into true love. Because, after all, isn’t love something worth laughing about?
“Barry is a show that takes the audience to the brink of how messed up it can be, but then the next scene that will be something that will break it, keep you laughing,” a wistful Carrigan says, ready to start on Season 4 as soon as someone irons his next batch of neon polo shirts. “I hope we continue to do so.”
For once in Barry history, we’re given a (somewhat) happy ending with these two lovers. Or are we? Anthony Carrigan, the hilarious mastermind behind everyone’s favorite pop-culture sponge of a Chechnyan mobster, sat down with The Daily Beast to DTR with Cristobal. Like, legit spoilers ahead.
What was it like to read that finale script for the first time?
I kind of had to stare at a wall for a little bit. [Laughs] I was speechless when I read it. But I thought it was so cool and deep, how I could see everything unfold. How it was just such a shift, tonally, from Hank getting blow-darted in the alleys of Bolivia. That comedic scene, then going to this really intense scene that you really don’t know if he’s going to get out of it.
How did you film such grave reactions to your impending death in that dungeon?
I was kind of on my own in having essentially mark through each of these moments, and choreograph it in such a way that it’s all unfolding for Hank. He’s witnessing it, but he also doesn’t really know exactly what’s happening. He’s listening and piecing it together. But also, along with the audience, his imagination is filling in the blanks, which is one of my favorite parts about the scene in general.
Your character is made up of a lot of pop cultural quips and dialogue bits. This final episode, though, you barely get a word in. How did you handle the shift in acting styles required?
It was really rewarding to be able to see Hank, as opposed to being his sweet, lovable, upbeat self, to really being in a bind. A literal bind. It really throws the audience and brings this harsh reality into the situation. Another thing that I really love about it is that there’s nothing cool about this action sequence. There’s nothing heroic. It’s messy and it’s clumsy and he doesn’t know what he’s doing. He’s terrified. That was all very intentional—we never wanted it to be this action movie sequence. We actually just wanted it to be this guy who doesn’t know what he’s doing. He’s just trying to survive and save the love of his life.
You’re going to get a lot of panicked reaction online from the Barry fanbase when he’s in that prison.
It’s definitely tense! Our poor little Hank really goes through the wringer.
Once you get out of the prison, I mean, it kind of gets better. You’re free. But wow, that scene out of the prison, it’s incredible. What’s happening is not incredible, obviously.
One thing that I likened it to is a horror funhouse. When we see Hank emerge from the dungeon, it doesn’t make sense what he’s seeing. He has no idea where he is. Then, when he surfaces into this palatial setting, he doesn’t know what is going on. There’s something dreamlike about it when he looks down the hallway to see this male dancer in a speedo, gyrating his hips. The whole audience is there along for the ride with him, wondering, “What is going on?”
I thought it was a painting at first. Like a Matisse painting or something.
It’s extremely cinematic. Very jarring. But I love it, I love how messed up it is. [Laughs]
How did the idea of conversion therapy come about?
I had inquired to Bill about what made him think of it. He just goes, “Oh, dude. This shit really happens. It’s really messed up.” We know we wanted to make light of it, but in fact, show that this is a thing that people have done. It’s horrific. It’s awful. In this instance, Hank manages to come through and save his love.
But now, Hank has to work through seeing that, and Cristobal has to work through… everything.
That’s the thing about trauma. Just because the story ends with the love of your life being back in your arms and you’ve saved the day, the experience of getting there leaves a mark. It isn’t as cut-and-dry as the fairy tales make it out to be.
And then you give that killer final series of facial expressions.
I certainly want audiences to take what they will from that moment. From my own viewpoint, I was curious about how much of Hank was left in the basement.
Switching gears into more Cristobal-related content, maybe a little more lighthearted: What was it like to bring that little joke into a real relationship, a full-blown storyline in Season 3?
It seems like [the fans] are having a pretty solid reaction to Cristobal and Hank having hit it off trying to start this life together. Granted, it’s a life of a lot of question marks. Gosh, they’re certainly going to be taken for a ride, when it comes to this final episode. I hope that the catharsis is worth it; that the stress that they’re put through in this final sequence is going to have a good enough pay off for them to feel like it was worth it. And their blood pressures can go back to normal!
Maybe. I don’t know if mine has! But maybe that’s a good thing.
I don’t know if mine has either.
This all comes from a chance encounter within the Chechen and Bolivian mobs. What does that say about love?
The really wonderful thing that I got in working with Michael this season was this really beautiful and easy, not just dynamic that they have, but where they are in the relationship together. It’s special to see a new couple that’s in the honeymoon phase, where their guards are down and they’re vulnerable with each other. The scene where they’re eating popcorn together on the bed, watching random stuff was one of my favorite things. It just speaks to what a couple really is. I was so happy with how Barry was able to find Cristobal and Hank, and see these breadcrumbs that led up to it in previous seasons. And then, essentially, find the next logical step with that, which was this sweet dynamic.
I like that it’s a queer romance, but no one in the show treats it like it’s some big deal that they’re gay.
There’s no commenting on it. It’s just love.
What do you hope Barry fans take away from your character’s arc in Season 3, especially with Cristobal now in the picture?
My only hope was that they would really empathize with Hank in terms of just how deeply he feels for Cristobal, and how, when you’re in love, you feel like nothing can stop you. That being said, the lengths you will go to protect your love or to save your love, are great. You’ve seen the last episode. It’s certainly put to the test. I hope they can be a little bit buoyed by this more hopeful storyline, as opposed to the darker, messed up stories that are embedded in Barry. Although Hank and Cristobal are star-crossed, they represent hope.
I know we all wish Barry could run forever, but one day, surely, it will reach its end. Where do you hope Hank is by that time?
Because it was so wonderful to see Hank in this new life, I’m hoping to go even further into fleshing out this character. That’s the first part. The second part of it is I hope the costumes can just keep bringing the A game. The costumes are a personal favorite to me.
Have you worked the polos into your own personal wardrobe?
Listen: most of Hank stays at the lot where we shoot. But perhaps a pair of volleyball short-shorts may have ended up in my wardrobe. It’s entirely possible.
We’ve gone the whole interview without talking about Barry all that much. What is next for your relationship with the titular character?
There are a lot of question marks that I don’t even have the answers to. Hank will always hold a candle for Barry. I don’t know exactly what’s going to transpire in the next season, I’ve heard bits and pieces. What I’ve heard; I’m thrilled. But Hank still sees Barry as his BFF—take that for what you will.
