As Monroe Fuches, the uncle and now former “manager” of the (initially reluctant) hitman played by Bill Hader on HBO’s “Barry,” Stephen Root said the show’s third season is now focused on “consequences and revenge. And that applies to all the characters, in terms of how bad Barry’s PTSD is getting.”
One of Fuches’ distinguishing characteristics early on was his matter-of-factness about being a hitman’s handler. “That’s an interesting story, because when we shot the pilot, and he was a very loud, screaming kind of guy,” said Root. “And the question was, where is this going to go if he’s already at 11? So we rethought it and reshot my part to play him as a very soft-spoken bad uncle: Hi, I’m going to help you — I’m going to make you do horrible things — but I’m going to help you. So it started as bad uncle, and now we’re back at 11.”
Root’s career is as varied as they come: Playing a besuited media executive on the sitcom “NewsRadio” on one end of the spectrum, and a nebbish colleague in the comedy “Office Space” on the other. His resume includes everything from “King of the Hill” to “The Man in the High Castle” to “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” and he is a frequent collaborator with the Coen brothers.
But he first got his start on stage. And when asked to share a worst moment from his career, it was a memorable run of theater performances that came to mind. “I can still smell it,” he said.
My worst moment …
“Before I got into TV and film, I was very much a New York theater actor and thrilled to be able to get work in and around New York, and any type of regional theater or tour. I got my Actors’ Equity card probably around ‘79 or ‘80, so I was doing lots and lots of theater, including a couple of Broadway shows. I had just done ‘All My Sons.’ And my next job, which I was thrilled to get, was the national tour of ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ with Julie Harris and Brock Peters. It’s a three-character play and I played Boolie, the son (of Harris’ character). So I was thrilled to work with five-time Tony winner Julie Harris, and Brock Peters had done so much amazing work, including the movie ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’
“So we did this tour from 1988 to 1990. The circumstances for Brock were hard at the time because his wife was dying of cancer; he was on tour and she insisted he finish the tour. So he was back and forth all the time with that. And my first child was born in ‘89, so I had left the tour for a couple of weeks. So at one point, Julie was doing the show with two understudies. So it was a difficult situation sometimes for us.
“But it was most difficult when all of us — from the stage manager to Julie to Brock to me — got the flu.
“Obviously the show has to go on. But I can distinctly remember the smell of this. We had two vomit pails on each side of the stage. And we would do a scene, and then go offstage, vomit, rinse with water and mouthwash, and then walk back on and do whatever we were supposed to do next. And this lasted for days. We had it all week.
“The stage manager was sick too, and they have to call the show — that means calling the light cues and the sound cues — when all they want to do is be in the bathroom in the back. The stage manager runs the show, especially when you’re on the road. They’re the top dog. And to be that sick and do that job? That’s tough.
“Brock and Julie were both in their 60s at the time. They were not young people who could schluff off a cold or a flu. But I mean, these are two of the finest theater actors. They’re old school. We did have understudies on the tour, but there was no chance in hell that we wouldn’t do a performance unless we literally couldn’t stumble onto the stage. The understudies are there only for an extreme emergency.
“It’s the old adage: The show must go on. And these were two people who would never, ever miss a performance if they were breathing and mobile. They felt a responsibility. And that taught me everything in terms of being an actor — that the audience is coming to see you. Sure, you don’t feel good, but that doesn’t matter. The audience’s experience is what matters. So if you can waddle up there, you’re gonna do it. I’ve had some of the worst flu-type things happen to me, but if I could get up, I would go. That kind of dedication will carry you through a career.
“But I do remember having kind of an out-of-body experience listening to myself saying the lines and going, wow, I do not feel good at all. Fortunately, we’d done the play a hundred times. So it’s like a golf swing, your body is responding to the repetition — the muscle memory and mental memory take over and you just go. It happens for athletes too. Something takes over when you’re in performance mode, you’re doing it for other people and you can’t think about how you feel. Plus, you’re playing another person entirely, and they’re not sick! But I did have very much of an out-of-body experience, like, this is weird.
“So we were literally puking between scenes. And we didn’t have separate buckets for each of us (laughs), we just had one on each side. It was the community bucket. It was awful. It smelled awful. It was — hello — one of my worst moments.”
Since the pandemic, does Root think differently about the push to work through illness?
“I do. You have to. In COVID, it’s about protecting the people around you. So you have to think about it differently when you’re trying to protect people other than yourself. It’s not just about showing up and doing your job. That’s why actors are in Zone A, crew are in Zone B. And when you’re not working — I mean, literally on camera — we walk over to different zones so we can be protected.”
The takeaway …
“I got to work with all these great actors when I was doing theater, and when you’re working with the pros, it teaches you dedication to the craft and showing up and not complaining. And that has stayed with me. That terrible week, we survived it, we thrived and had a beautiful tour.
“If you had told me as a teenager that I was going to be sick as a dog but still willing to go on stage and perform, I would have been like, what are you talking about? I’m going to go home and get in bed and watch really bad television for two days.
“But that’s why I almost prefer to work with actors who’ve had some theater experience, because it teaches you that sort of professionalism — you have to be there every night, ready to go, on time and know your lines. So I always love working with theater actors.”
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(Nina Metz is a Tribune critic.)
