Everything is new inside barry Season 4. As the series jumps back a few episodes, everyone looks a little different. But nobody looks different than Stephen Roots Fuches.
When he’s finally released from prison in episode 6, he looks almost nothing like the mild-mannered Jedermann he passed by before. Now his name is Raven, complete with prison tattoos, a white tank top, painted black nails, and crazy eyes (never leave the house without them). It’s a role Root was delighted to play – and one, he says, with which the finishing touches were worked out practically on the same day.
“I find [Barry star and co-creator Bill Hader] “I’ve had a physical description in my head all season,” says Root. “And we had to decide on the day how much of the transformation you would see – will you see his whole body? Will you only see a neck?”
Ultimately, they went for the full body, which shows us how much Fuches has changed. His arms and chest are covered in tattoos (floral, skeletal, and even a red cross on his bicep), all from a range of choices available to him and the makeup artist who designed them. Root’s favorite is the crosshairs on the raven’s neck, which he “didn’t even know you’d see.” (Don’t worry, you can.)
“It was typical of this character that he had a target right at his neck,” says Root. It all comes down to the fact that his perception of Fuches has been fundamentally altered by his time in prison, changing everything from the way he looks to the way he behaves. He played the same character but through completely different means. “My favorite characterization of the raven is: He carries out this little bag of clothes [of prison]. But he doesn’t carry it like a lunch bucket like any Schlub. I decided, I’ll touch it in front.
“He just grabbed it because it means nothing to him. And he gives it to someone who has no meaning. And that kind of familiarized me with the silence of this guy.”
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Like so many other people barryIt’s a stillness born of brokenness, an ache of Barry (Hader) betraying him, metastasizing within him and creating something darker. Of course, it also put him in a better position in prison – Root cites the scene in the canteen with everyone waiting for him to eat as the moment that catalyzed the poison in Fuches into something else and got him on his way to become the raven.
“He’s a powerful person in this area now, which he wasn’t before; he was insulted and mocked. Now that he has that power, I think he’s gotten more and more confident over the past few years. He got more and more tattoos; He got grounded and centered and agreed to be a killer,” says Root.
But even though everything is new in this future world where Barry’s father, Sally’s (Sarah Goldberg) mother and Cousineau’s (Henry Winkler) are in hiding, the raven is just as much of a fox as ever.
“I would describe Fuches as a lost lamb,” says Root. “And that’s just being a selfish person [like], If you don’t do what I want you to do – it’s almost like a baby.
“But it’s all about respect. When he finally gets respect, he changes.”
Barry’s fourth and final season now airs Sunday nights on HBO and Max. The series finale is May 28th.
