Inside Farmshop, an overcrowded, overloud Santa Monica, California, artisanal-type-food joint, the 20-year-old Bill Hader is giving the 39-year-old Bill Hader a pretty strong dressing down. “Fucking loser,” the younger spits at one point.
But does grown-up Bill take umbrage? Does he rail at his interior monologue, trying to scare it back into the depths of his psyche? He does not. Sitting there – regular jeans, dark blue sweater, very California casual, fork in hand, knife bearing down on steak – he just laughs, shakes his head, arches his grand Hader eyebrows, bulges his big Hader eyeballs, gives a snort of disbelief and carries on.
In fact, all around town and beyond, Hader is known as one of the nicest guys ever. “I have not seen another side of him,” says Henry Winkler, who costars with Hader in his new serio-comic HBO series, Barry, about a hit man (a really good one) who decides to take an acting class and become an actor (and boy, is he bad). “I have yet to see the other shoe drop.”
Sure, he’s got his peccadilloes and failings, drinks way too much coffee, loves sugar too much, has a fondness for Amstel Light and typically falls asleep at night with a laptop on his belly, Forensic Files playing – a big vice, that one. “Never seen Friends but I’ve seen every episode of Forensic Files,” he says. “I kinda just drift off to, ‘They found the DNA on the body …’ and then I’m [snoring].
“And then there’s this show Snapped,” he adds, “about women who kill. It’s always about love triangles gone wrong. There’s always a part in the show where they go, ‘And that’s when she snapped!'” He bobs his noggin, mirthfully. “I love true-crime shows.”
Even so, he probably isn’t the guy you want covering your back during a knock-down, drag-out, since he’s never hit anyone and himself only recalls being hit once. As he remembers it, he was 14, wearing a pair of cool pump-’em-up sneakers. This older kid appeared out of nowhere, punched Hader in the face, knocked out two of his bottom teeth, leaving him staring up at the sky, shoeless, saying, “‘Man, you could have just asked for them. You didn’t have to knock my teeth out. I would have given them to you.'”
See? Nice to a fault. And while that might suggest perpetual pathetic loser, such has never been the case. After the obligatory six or so years spent wandering in the Hollywood wilderness, his ride up to Barry has gone by with almost nary a hitch: eight seasons on Saturday Night Live, 2005 to 2013, a utility player best known for his impersonations (Al Pacino, John Malkovich, Clint Eastwood, almost everybody except for Christopher Walken, who he says he was never was able to master) and the dopily delightful, raunchy club kid, Stefon; comedic supporting roles in Judd Apatow-world movies from 2007’s Superbad to 2015’s Trainwreck; nasally memorable voiceover work in animated movies like 2009’s Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and 2016’s Finding Dory; South Parkproducer and creative consultant from 2009 on; occasional comic book writer; one of the masterminds behind the IFC parody series Documentary Now!; and since 2013, Robert Downey Jr’s successor as the voice of Mr. Peanut, despite having a serious peanut allergy. So, no, not a loser, at least not in the career sense.
(Excerpt) Read More at: RollingStone.com