Fuches looks different on Barry now. That’s what Stephen Root wanted
Everything is new in Barry season 4. Since the show’s time skip a few episodes back, everyone looks a little different. But nobody looks more different than Stephen Root’s Fuches.
When he’s finally released from prison in episode 6, he looks almost nothing like the mild-mannered everyman he passed as before. Now he goes by the Raven, complete with prison tattoos, a white tank top, painted black nails, and crazy eyes (never leave home without them). It’s a persona Root relished getting to play — and one, he says, where the finishing touches were ultimately hammered out practically day-of.
“I think [Barry star and co-creator Bill Hader] had a physical description in his head all throughout the season,” Root tells Polygon. “And we had to decide on the day how much of the transformation you were going to see — are you going to see his whole body? Are you just going to see a neck?”
Ultimately they decided on the whole body, which allows us to see how much Fuches has changed. His arms and chest are covered in tattoos (floral, skeletal, and even a red cross on his bicep), all pulled from an array of options he and the makeup artist who designed them had available. Root’s favorite is the crosshairs on the back of the Raven’s neck, something he “didn’t even know if you’d see.” (Don’t worry, you can.)
“It was endemic of this character that he would have a target right there on his neck,” Root says. It all went to his conception of Fuches as fundamentally changed by his time in prison, altering everything from his appearance to the way he carries himself. He was playing the same character, but with a completely different toolset. “My favorite characterization of the Raven is: He carries that little bag of clothes out [of prison].
Read more on polygon.com
