Bill Hader has explained the origins of his cameo role in the Ari Aster film, Beau Is Afraid. Hader — who makes a brief cameo appearance as a UPS telephone operator in the horror-comedy — spoke of the shooting process in an interview with Deadline. The Barry actor said the role came about in a phone call with director Aster and star Joaquin Phoenix, during which Hader “tried a bunch of different stuff.”
After being connected to Aster through his assistant, Hader “pick[ed] up the phone… and it’s Ari Aster going, ‘Hey, Bill. All right, so you’ve got your script?’”. Once he was introduced over the phone to Phoenix, Hader “[sat] in my living room in L.A.,” and went through the script “for like two hours” with the duo. “[We] Just did a bunch of takes and tried a bunch of different stuff,” Hader recalled.
Hader said that while some takes were “were really wild, really big and intense,” Aster simply “thought [they] were hilarious.” He continued: “I just remember feeling really exhausted and Ari coming on and going, ‘Hey, man. It’s so funny, Bill,’ and I was like, ‘Funny? I can’t see straight. I’ve been crying,’ But they just thought it was hilarious.”
Hader — who has previously starred in horror films like It —went on to reveal that he attended an early viewing of Beau Is Afraid alongside friend and fellow comic Ali Wong. “We all went to a private screening of it and just were completely blown away,” he said. Alongside Hader, the cast of Beau Is Afraid includes Phoenix, Michael Gandolfini, Armen Nahapetian, and Amy Ryan, among others.
The plot — which marks Aster’s follow up to fellow A24 horror films Hereditary and Midsommar — follows an anxiety-ridden man as he embarks on a journey back home following his mother’s death. Beau Is Afraid releases later this month, with early reviews describing it as a “bonkers Freudian freak out.”
Published: Apr 17, 2023 01:42 am