Ari Aster's new movie Beau Is Afraid has a stacked cast of top-notch thespians including Joaquin Phoenix, Patti LuPone, Parker Posey, Richard Kind, Amy Ryan, and Nathan Lane. But the writer-director also found the space for a mostly voice-only cameo by one of the most talented folks to graduate from Saturday Night Live in recent times: Bill Hader.
The man who brought us Stefon plays a UPS driver who telephonically delivers some news — which we won't spoil here — to Phoenix's Beau about his mother (LuPone) and is then briefly featured onscreen later in the movie.
![Joaquin Phoenix in 'Beau Is Afraid'](https://ew.com/thmb/CIbS-vXKiN_DwrJAbop1LprZ-z0=/1500x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/Beau-Is-Afraid-042123-ae01b3bd9343471d98673c177aa1225d.jpg)
"We're buddies," Aster tells EW, explaining Hader's presence in the movie. "I think he's just great. I was looking for a place to put him and [that] felt like the funniest, the most effective possible place. I love his performance in the film. It's a covert performance. A lot of people don't know that's him on the phone when they first see it. But it's a great performance."
Hader's recent "day job" has, of course, been directing and starring in the TV show Barry, whose fourth and final season has just premiered on HBO.
"Everyone asks me about the final season, and I'm like, 'It's weird, but I think it makes sense for the characters,'" Hader, who co-created the show with Alec Berg, recently told EW's Devan Coggan. "That was a thing we talked about: It's the last season, so let's make sure we don't play it safe. Let's still take big swings."
Beau Is Afraid is in theaters now. Watch the film's trailer above.
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