I love Bill Hader’s work. I’d probably adore him as a person too, I just don’t know enough about him to say that definitively. I also adore Henry Winkler, both professionally and personally (in case you didn’t get my blatant bragging there, I’ve met him – neener neener) However, I don’t watch their award-winning show Barry. I tried it but quit it after the first episode – should I give it a second chance? I want to like it, especially because it is so critically acclaimed. Unfortunately, that praise won’t make up for the personal toll the show has taken on Hader. In his interview with Variety, Hader broke down while admitting that he spent so much time working, he only got to see his three daughters, aged nine, six and four, a total of five days last summer.

Hader and filmmaker Maggie Carey have three children. The couple divorced last year. Their relationship, he says, remains positive: “I’m friends with my ex-wife.”

As his career has leveled up, his schedule has again become demanding. Last year, Hader finished the first season of “Barry,” then shot a role in the feature “It: Chapter Two,” then went into the writers’ room on “Barry,” Season 2. He felt the strain at home.

“I think I saw my kids a total of five days all summer,” he says. “It was terrible. So I’m going, ‘Next summer I’m taking off. And I’m going to spend every day with them.’ It’s this weird thing where when you’re in this industry, you don’t have time to be with them, and it’s really, really difficult. I’m getting emotional right now talking about it.” Later in the conversation, he laughs. “Congrats, it’s the first interview I’ve ever cried in.”

He’s serious about time off. After Season 2 wraps, Hader plans to spend the summer writing a screenplay for a film that he would direct. Writing will keep him home and with his kids. “They can see me all day if they want,” he says. “They can really get sick of me.”

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[From Variety]

Hader filed for divorce in December of 2017. Married friends I know in the film business say they see their kids every night, but I’ve witnessed it, it is literally “seeing” them as they walk in from work and the kids are going to bed. I think once your children don’t live with you, the amount you don’t see them becomes truly apparent. I’m glad Hader took that to heart and realized it wasn’t going to get better on its own. However, I can also say from personal experience that writing a screenplay at home does not equate to quality time with the kids. Being physically there and available while there are worlds apart. I’m not trying to bag on Hader, he seems aware of how much his kids’ childhood is slipping away and sounds committed to changing that – good for him.

Hader also discussed his mental state while appearing on SNL. Although he has nice things to say about Lorne Michaels and his fellow SNLers, he said he was ”a bit of a basket case” and ”consumed with work and anxiety.” which led to ”panic attacks and migraines”. The more I hear about working on SNL, the more I wonder about how it’s stayed on the air for 43 years. Fortunately, Hader is in a better place now, working for himself and getting his priorities straight when it comes to watching his kids grow up. I really do think Hader is one of the good guys. Please, please let him prove me right.

Photo credit: WENN Photos