Academy Award-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water) made a much-anticipated cameo this weekend on the hit HBO dark comedy Barry.
At the beginning of the third episode of the fourth season, del Toro is introduced as a character fittingly named “El Toro,” a crime boss brought in to kill Barry (Bill Hader) in prison after NoHo Hank (Anthony Carrigan) finds out Barry wants to make a deal with the FBI.
The scene begins with El Toro being spotted as a lone figure in the distance. Then he’s shown having a conversation with Hank (Anthony Carrigan) and Cristobal (Michael Irby). “Glad to help with your little problem,” El Toro says, adding that he’s planning on sending two of his best guys to kill Barry. The hitmen are also podcasters, but as El Toro puts it, the hit “won’t interfere with their schedule” since “they record on Thursdays.”
Del Toro brings a sleekness to his role as El Toro. He’s dressed the part – wearing a burgundy-colored suit jacket and vest, black shirt, and a black straw hat with a white band. He’s also holding a walking cane, which Hader said del Toro provided himself, according to IndieWire.
Another Latine made a surprise cameo later in the episode as one of El Toro’s assassins. The actor was none other than Fred Armisen, who worked with Hader on Saturday Night Live for eight years.
Armisen’s nervous character, however, doesn’t turn out to be the best hitman money can buy, and he ends up blowing off his own fingers when his makeshift weapon backfires.
The cameos were immediately dubbed as “cinema” by many online Barry fans.
Hader recently revealed that del Toro was such a big fan of Barry, he asked him if he could be part of the show. “He was just like, ‘Hey, I love your show and I’d love to be on it,’” Hader said. ‘I said, ‘Oh, okay.’ So, I wrote him a part.”
Bill Hader added that Guillermo del Toro “was just super game. Knew his lines. Had two different takes on the scene – did them both. He was great. Wonderful guy.”
