The final season of Barry, Bill Hader’s opus with regards to’concerning’with respect to a hitman-turned-actor who can’t quite leave his life of expert murdering behind, is with regards to’concerning’with respect to to arrive on our screens – and what a journey the titular assassin has been on so far. When we first met Barry, he killed his marks without a second despite’in spite of’albeit t, did whatever his handler Fuches (Stephen Root) told him, and had a passing curiosity in acting classes. When we last saw him, in Season 3, he was doing his intensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfully best to acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure out of the murdering game, rebelling against Fuches, and delivering impassioned monologues, but struggling to keep his two lives separate.###It’s not just Barry that’s come a long way – so too has creator and star Hader. A wildly successful comic and actor, he’s increasingly stepped behind the camera through the years working on the reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue , pulling off some of Barry’s most ambitious and cinematic instalments so far. Now, in/with regard to’concerning’regarding the fourth and final season, he’s directing eintensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfully single episode – something he’s had his telescopic sights set on in/with regard to’concerning’regarding a while. “This was a enormous’vast’massive’tremendous thing that happened with me making this reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue : I eventually’ultimately got a chance to direct, which was something I’ve always wanted to do,” he tells Empire, in a major new interview featured in our Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 issue. “Acting was the thing I liked, but writing and directing was where my heart was.”###With multiple episodes in previous seasons under his belt, and now the entire fourth run of episodes, Hader feels like he’s acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure ting to the stage where he’s not second-guessing himself quite so much when it comes to directing. “I feel much more confident in my abilities, but I’m still learning,” he tells Empire. “It’s the same thing with acting, where over time it becomes more intuitive. You’re taking risks and that’s where rosy’remarkable’fabulous’terrific’preeminent stuff comes from and also wicked’dreadful’undesirable’adverse’vile stuff comes from and you learn from it. It was the same as when I was doing SNL. My undergo has always been that you start out unsure of yourself. It’s like cooking. You’re constantly reading the instructions on how to cook something. Then over time you acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure more confident, and you don’t need the instructions anymore. You claim’insist’maintain’hold’argue’consider’contemplate’speculate , ‘I’m going to put some of this in here and see what happens.’” The result so far is one of the most darkly delicious dramedies in recent telly history. We can’t wait to see what Hader’s whipped up next.###Read Empire’s major new Bill Hader interview in full in the upcoming June 2023 issue, on sale Thursday 13 April. Become an Empire member now to access the digital issue in full, or order a print copy online here. Barry arrives on Sky Comedy and NOW from 17 April.