Why Actor Barry From The Barry Series Finale Looks So Familiar

In typical fashion, the "Barry" series finale (Season 4, Episode 8's "Wow," with spoilers below) finishes with a bang, precisely how Bill Hader planned it. Following four seasons of murder, prison, and acting classes, it was an appropriate way for the mercurial Barry (Hader) to fade out. 

But even after his final moments, as Mr. Cousineau (Henry Winkler) pulls the trigger, that isn't the end of Barry's story. The movie that Barry desperately tried not to get made comes to fruition, and in the final moments of the series finale, his son John (Jaeden Martell) watches it for the first time.

During an evening hanging out with his friend, John watches "The Mask Collector," the Hollywood version of the events that surrounded his father and mother. As with any fictionalized account, the film has a shiny veneer. The characters are brighter, and the events are twisted to give a Hollywood ending. 

Jim Cummings, who portrays the so-called "Movie Barry," has few physical similarities to Hader. He is a prototypical figure that comes to mind when one thinks of soldiers in films. Movie Barry is idealistic, innocent, and only funny with the ham-fistedness of his acting. In real life, Cummings is accustomed to portraying humorous characters — as well as writing them.

With the plethora of television series available on streaming, you have likely seen Cummings in an episode or two of many of your favorites. He is often featured in single episodes of well-known television shows, such as Amazon's "Casual" or FX's "Dave." 

His highest-profile television work thus far, however, might be "The Handmaid's Tale." In Margaret Atwood's world that is too close to reality for comfort, laws in Gilead are weaponized against women. A faction of religious extremists have turned back the clock so women can't own property or have access to their bank accounts. Their only value is to breed the next generation.

Cummings is part of the problem. In Season 1, Episode 3, the actor played Burke, one of Gilead's Eyes. Tasked with finding anyone standing against the new regime, Burke questions Offred (Elisabeth Moss) to know if she is just like Ofglen (Alexis Bledel) — what they call a "gender traitor." With some light torture, Burke becomes satisfied that she is not offending heteronormativity. Though only in one short scene, he encapsulates what is wrong with Gilead and what could go wrong with any modern society. Women are treated no better than livestock, quite literally burned with cattle prods. 

Cummings was thrilled to play his part in the show. "My episode of The Handmaid's Tale is now online," he posted on Twitter in 2017. "This whole show looks like a Rembrandt painting."

While Cummings has the familiar face of an actor who regularly shows up in episodic television shows, he is also known for his independent film work. As a writer and actor, he has made a mark with humorous, offbeat twists on genre conventions. 

2020's "The Wolf of Snow Hollow" followed Cummings' 2018 writer/director/star breakthrough "Thunder Road" by offering a unique take on werewolf films. In addition to writing, Cummings took the lead on "Snow Hollow" as a policeman, put to the test when bodies start piling up — victims of what appears to be a werewolf. His recovering alcoholic character is obsessed with proving that the perpetrator is human, despite evidence indicating otherwise.

"I grew up watching werewolf movies and Orion Pictures movies, but things like 'The Silence of the Lambs' and 'Zodiac' or even 'The 'Burbs' were all bigger inspirations than most werewolf movies," he said in a 2020 interview timed to the film's release. "When we were going into this one, I was like, 'We should make something that's kind of detective pornography.' There's also this fun, goofy, small-town stress, like a pressure cooker. That was the impetus to make it the way that we did." 

Cummings, who began filmmaking with shorts like 2009's "The Brothers" and 2012's "The Flamingo," has directed well over a dozen films in total — all small-budget, some shorts, others feature length. His "Wolf of Snow Hollow" marked "Jackie Brown" actor Robert Forster's final film before his 2019 death, and cast him alongside "Garfunkel and Oates" comedian Riki Lindhome.

Timing was right for 2021's "The Beta Test," which arrived on the heels of the #MeToo movement and examined rape culture in the entertainment industry and toxic practices like the mistreatment of assistants. An incisive, biting drama, it resonated with the moment. The film is fueled by satirical references to Harvey Weinstein and other scandals of the day.

"We were seeing it every day in The Hollywood Reporter. We were seeing it every day in Variety," Jim Cummings explained to A.V. Club in 2021. "So I said, 'F*** it, let's do something about this. It's on the tip of everybody's tongue, but everyone is too nervous to talk about it because of the power dynamics. Let's just do it.'" 

Unafraid of possible backlash, Cummings penned the script (with collaborator PJ McCabe) about a talent agent, caught up in a #MeToo scandal after making the foolish decision to follow up on an invitation to rendezvous in a hotel room for anonymous sex. What follows is a ripped-from-the-headlines, scandal-filled satire, co-directed by Cummings and McCabe.

The chant "Evil dies tonight!" plays like a soundtrack for "Halloween Kills," the second (and perhaps most ambitious) of the newest Halloween films, overseen by director David Gordon Green and Danny McBride.

In this iteration, Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis) isn't Michael's sister and has been waiting to cross paths with him again since that fateful night 40 years ago. The second film in the trilogy, filled with wild moments and a standout performance from Anthony Michael Hall, begins with a cameo from Cummings during a 1978-set prologue that was kept quiet during filming, as it would make headlines with a quasi-reanimated appearance by Donald Pleasence as Michael Myers-hunting Dr. Loomis. In the scene, Cummings plays an adult Pete McCabe, former childhood playmate to Myers.

"I purposely didn't tell anybody [I was in the movie], because I wanted it to be a surprise," Cummings said of his appearance in 2021. "My character running up is such a reveal, and I knew that people were going to dig it. So [it was] over a year that I had to keep quiet about it." 

After injecting a bit of much-needed levity into the sequel, he becomes one of the first big kills in the film. Decades later, Will Patton's Officer Hawkins would use the death of his fellow peace officer as a prime motivator to take down The Shape once and for all.