Los Angeles (AFP)

Bill Hader may be a comic born, blackness is never very far in the American actor, who burst the screen in "That: Chapter 2", the sequel of the famous horror film based on a novel by Stephen King.

In this role, as in the "Barry" hitman, which is expected to win new Emmy Awards next month, Bill Hader blithely goes from laughter to terrifying brutality, a big gap that he can perform several times in the same scene.

"I've always had a weird interest in violence ... the inherent violence in people, which actually is the subject of + Barry +," says Bill Hader, who created and co-wrote the series, in addition to have made several episodes and to embody the main role.

"It's about this guy who says, + yes, I can stop that + and who realizes that actually + no, it's in me, and maybe it's also part of most people +", he told AFP during an interview in Los Angeles.

In this award-winning series, Bill Hader is a former elite soldier turned into a hitman who pursues his target even in a Hollywood drama class that fascinates him and quickly registers him.

His second season, in competition for 17 Emmys, sees Barry trying to drop criminal contracts for castings, efforts that are constantly stricken with his inner turmoil and the shenanigans of a gang of mobsters.

- Large gap -

"There has to be a little bit of lightness, because after all life is like that," says Hader. "Without humor, it does not seem realistic, because life is very funny, you know, life is rather absurd".

This lesson, Bill Hader learned when he was a teenager in Oklahoma, in a car accident that ended in a laugh with his sister on the way to the hospital.

"I was sixteen, we broke down a fence, hit a tree, and spun ... I hurt my foot and neck," he recalls.

"That's when a drunk guy, walking home, started doing traffic around the accident, it was really super surreal!" He was screaming at people, and when the cops arrived he has run away, "the artist amuses himself.

This big gap between laughter and tears sums up Bill Hader's career. For eight years, he was part of the Saturday Night Live (SNL) team, one of the biggest comedy shows on American television. And while the audience folded in two, he suffered intense anxiety attacks when he was live ...

- Mask -

Since leaving SNL in 2013, Bill Hader has continued to dig the comic strip, lending his voice to many cartoon characters.

In "That: Chapter 2", Bill Hader exploits the full spectrum of his acting possibilities, alternating black humor and dramatic performances.

His character Richie Tozier seeks to hide a secret - presumably linked to his repressed homosexuality - behind his jokes and his swear words.

"I enjoyed talking to Andy (Muschietti, the director, editor's note) about giving the character something to play on ... it's a kind of mask," he says. he.

In the future, Bill Hader also says he wants to focus more on the realization and writing, with the scenario of season 3 of "Barry" in particular.

The series will continue "for as long as we have fun", assures its creator, recognizing however not to be sure of the direction where he wants to take it: "I do not know, but we will find".

© 2019 AFP