everything is new in Barry season 4, Since the show skips a few episodes back in time, everyone looks a little different. But none looks more different than Stephen Root’s Fuchs.
When he is finally released from prison in Episode 6, he looks almost nothing like the mild-mannered everyman he was before. Now he goes by Raven, complete with prison tattoos, a white tank top, painted black nails and crazy eyes (never leave the house without them). It’s a personality Root loved to play – and one, he says, where the finale was practically touchy-feely.
“I think [Barry star and co-creator Bill Hader] He had a physical description in his head throughout the season,” Root tells WebMD. “And we had to decide that day how much change are you going to see — are you going to see his whole body? Are you going to see just one neck?
Ultimately they decided on a full body, which allows us to see how much Fuches has changed. His arms and chest are covered in tattoos (flowers, skeletons, and even a red cross on his bicep), all drawn from a range of choices and the makeup artist who designed him. Root’s favorite is the crosshairs on the back of the raven’s neck, something he “didn’t know you’d see.” (Don’t worry, you can.)
“It was endemic of this character that he would have a target right there on his neck,” says Root. All of this went along with their concept of Fuches, as having radically changed from his time in prison, changing everything from his appearance to the way he carried himself. He was playing the same character, but with a completely different toolset. “My favorite characterization of Raven is: He takes out that little bag of clothes [of prison], But he doesn’t carry it like a lunch pail like a scholar. I decided, I’m going to grab in front of it.
“He just grabbed it because it doesn’t matter to him. And he gives it to someone who doesn’t matter. And that kind of made me at peace with this guy.
like so many others BarryIt’s a silence born of brokenness, a hurt Barry (Haider) betraying what metastasized within him to create something deeper. Of course, it also left him in a better position in prison – Root cites the lunchroom scene where everyone waits to eat as the moment that catalysed the poison within Fuchs to something else, and set him on the path to becoming a Raven.
“He is now a powerful figure within that space, which he was not before; He was being insulted and made fun of. So now that he has that power, I think the middle years have brought him more and more confidence. He got more and more tattoos; He became grounded and focused and okay with being a killer,” says Root.
But although everything is new in this futuristic world where Barry is a father, Sally (Sarah Goldberg) is a mother, and Cousineau (Henry Winkler) is in hiding, Raven is as fuches as he’s ever been.
“I would describe Fuches as a lost lamb,” says Root. “And just a selfish person [like], if you don’t do what i want — It’s almost like a child.
“But it’s all about respect. When he finally gets respect, that’s when he changes.
Barry’fourth and final season Now airing Sunday nights on HBO and Max. The finale of the series is on 28 May.
