Barry
Sarah Goldberg’s raw breakdown on Barry is acting’s future
Sarah Goldberg’s rough, visually jarring screaming on HBO’s Barry this week is the future of acting. The craft is trending away from Hollywood norms into intentionally unpolished territory. And it looks twice as real. Unfiltered and uncensored.
This Barry Season 3 Episode 7 recap contains spoilers.
Sally Reed laying into former friend Natalie Greer like a doomsday atomic device was passionate and raw. Just look at Sarah Goldberg’s unconscious head shaking. The slamming of her hand on the wall to the right of cast mate D’Arcy Carden’s head.
You can feel the absolute immersion of rage over a stolen idea. A person’s very lifeline being stolen out of their wallet, their very future pickpocketed. The key word: Believability.
For too many years, television has been saturated with overly long dialogue ‘talkies’ that look professionally cut but evoke nothing inside you. Like consuming a meal and forgetting what it even was ten minutes later. We’re happy to report Sally Reed’s elevator detonation outburst is not one of those times.
Even though episode 7’s writers (Alec Berg, Elizabeth Sarnoff, and Bill Hader) were setting it all up as a TMZ segment punch line… Humor is built from a real place. Many times a painful place. Barry truly is the very epitome of a dark comedy.
Barry star Sarah Goldberg as Sally Reed on episode “710N”. Photograph by Merrick Morton/ HBO
Later on when Sally Reed’s agent plans to drop her over an apology… Sarah Goldberg again delivers the acting goods as Reed backtracks into darkness. Her eyes shaky, borderline psychotic. Showing vulnerability as she tells her agent she ‘doesn’t want to work with liars anyway’.
But you can see in her pupils that Sally is devastated and worried about the future of her career. If there’s even any remnants of it left.
Sarah Goldberg as Sally Reed. Photograph by Merrick Morton/HBO
Bill Hader first made use of this raw, true to life screaming technique as Barry Berkman in episode 2 when he lost control in Sally Reed’s office. Screaming publicly in front of an audience of peers… Or some might say, witnesses.
In Sally Reed’s case, her witnesses are the entire internet. As we all know, a mistake on the internet is an unremovable stain on the permanent record of life.
No acting class can ever undo it. One things for certain, Barry and Sally appear more alike with every passing moment. Kudos to Bill Hader for directing this well made episode with layer upon layer of detail.
Henry Winkler teaches an acting class as Gene Cousineau on Episode 7 of Barry Season 3. Photograph by Merrick Morton/ HBO
More Barry Season 3 Recaps
Be sure to read:
Sarah Goldberg as Sally Reed on episode “ben mendelsohn”. Photograph by Merrick Morton/ HBO
– Monroe Fuches’ epic fake out on Barry HBO Season 3 Episode 6
– Barry Season 3 Episode 3 recap: Confession on “ben mendelsohn”
– Catch up on last season with Barry Season 2 Finale recap: ‘berkman > block’ is darkest episode yet
Go to the Barry News section for the latest and the TV Shows section for the industry’s trending reports.
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