Sarah Goldberg on her Barry character - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

TMC · 05-17-2022, 05:06 AM

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/15/a...-goldberg.html

“I think she had a tough life and had a big dream," Goldberg tells The New York Times, reacting to Sunday's episode. "Her tunnel vision is so extreme that she’s not absorbing anything around her. “And if you get into that space, well, what are you bringing to your work?” Goldberg adds of Sally Reed's shaking up Barry on Sunday's episode: "We’ve seen her bullied, and now she has a small piece of power. I’m so endlessly curious about what people do with power.” Barry creators Bill Hader and Alec Berg credit Goldberg with turning Sally, who was originally conceived as a more straightforward love interest, into a person of such complexity. "When we wrote it, it was a thing you’ve seen a hundred times," Hader says of his co-star. “When Sarah read, it changed our view of the character in a very positive way, like, yes, this should be more of a complicated person.”

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Sarah Goldberg was excited to go darker with Sally: " I was excited that we were pushing her into territory where she has a little bit of success and a little bit of power after being in quite powerless positions for season 1 and 2," she says. "I was curious: What does someone in her position do with that power? Do you become a better version of yourself, or do you lean into the worst parts of yourself? With Sally, unfortunately, I think it's the latter, and I was interested in how she behaves."
Goldberg credits Barry writers for not taking the easy route with Sally: "What I found interesting about what we’ve done with the Barry-Sally storyline is that when he begins to behave aggressively toward her, she has a trauma response and is quite detached from the reality of what’s happening," she says. "And she goes into a historical, rehearsed behavioral pattern, which I found really interesting and moving and an accurate way to tell the story—where we see her in episode two apologizing to him after he’s been verbally abusive to her, and that she’s not waking up to the reality of what’s happening right in front of her. She sort of shuts down. We didn’t take the easy route where suddenly she’s defiant in the moment, and she has all the right words, and she fights back."
Stephen Root says Barry and Fuches are like two bombs ready to go off: "I think he’s going deeper and deeper into revenge mode, and it’s only going to get him deeper into debt, as it were," says Root. "But yeah, this is going to end somewhere where either one or both of them are going to go, and it’s like two bombs ticking right now." Root adds: "I mean, as he gets more ill because of the PTSD, I don’t think there’s a good way out for Barry. It’s odd that here’s a comedy where you’ve been rooting for the character, you want to find empathy with the main character, and now you’re getting into a season where you can’t find empathy for him. You can’t find empathy for this guy who’s screaming at his girlfriend in an office, you know, and that’s unusual in a series to go there."

05-17-2022, 05:06 AM	#1
TMC Member Forum Idol Join Date: Jan 09, 2001 Posts: 125,847	Sarah Goldberg on her Barry character https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/15/a...-goldberg.html “I think she had a tough life and had a big dream," Goldberg tells The New York Times, reacting to Sunday's episode. "Her tunnel vision is so extreme that she’s not absorbing anything around her. “And if you get into that space, well, what are you bringing to your work?” Goldberg adds of Sally Reed's shaking up Barry on Sunday's episode: "We’ve seen her bullied, and now she has a small piece of power. I’m so endlessly curious about what people do with power.” Barry creators Bill Hader and Alec Berg credit Goldberg with turning Sally, who was originally conceived as a more straightforward love interest, into a person of such complexity. "When we wrote it, it was a thing you’ve seen a hundred times," Hader says of his co-star. “When Sarah read, it changed our view of the character in a very positive way, like, yes, this should be more of a complicated person.” ALSO: Sarah Goldberg was excited to go darker with Sally: " I was excited that we were pushing her into territory where she has a little bit of success and a little bit of power after being in quite powerless positions for season 1 and 2," she says. "I was curious: What does someone in her position do with that power? Do you become a better version of yourself, or do you lean into the worst parts of yourself? With Sally, unfortunately, I think it's the latter, and I was interested in how she behaves." Goldberg credits Barry writers for not taking the easy route with Sally: "What I found interesting about what we’ve done with the Barry-Sally storyline is that when he begins to behave aggressively toward her, she has a trauma response and is quite detached from the reality of what’s happening," she says. "And she goes into a historical, rehearsed behavioral pattern, which I found really interesting and moving and an accurate way to tell the story—where we see her in episode two apologizing to him after he’s been verbally abusive to her, and that she’s not waking up to the reality of what’s happening right in front of her. She sort of shuts down. We didn’t take the easy route where suddenly she’s defiant in the moment, and she has all the right words, and she fights back." Stephen Root says Barry and Fuches are like two bombs ready to go off: "I think he’s going deeper and deeper into revenge mode, and it’s only going to get him deeper into debt, as it were," says Root. "But yeah, this is going to end somewhere where either one or both of them are going to go, and it’s like two bombs ticking right now." Root adds: "I mean, as he gets more ill because of the PTSD, I don’t think there’s a good way out for Barry. It’s odd that here’s a comedy where you’ve been rooting for the character, you want to find empathy with the main character, and now you’re getting into a season where you can’t find empathy for him. You can’t find empathy for this guy who’s screaming at his girlfriend in an office, you know, and that’s unusual in a series to go there."