Since it started in 2018, HBO’s Barry has delighted in putting Sarah Goldberg through the wringer. Her character, Sally, regularly bore the brunt of the show’s emotional extremes. She was abused, screamed at, humiliated, publicly shamed, kidnapped and plunged into addiction, plus she murdered a guy. Goldberg has been rightly recognised for her performance – she was nominated for an Emmy in 2019 – but Sally operated at such a full-blast, red-raw frequency that I was wary in case time spent with Sarah would involve similar levels of intensity.
I needn’t have worried. I meet Goldberg in a sunlit, slightly ramshackle south London cafe full of mums and babies. She drifts in by herself, unrecognised and greets me with a goofy wave. It’s the day after her 38th birthday, and the Barry finale aired 72 hours ago to near-universal acclaim. All said, it has been a big week for the Canadian.
