When Bill Hader left SNL, he was advised to "just do a Stefon movie—stay in your lane, and you’ll become a movie star"

The New Yorker

The New Yorker this week profiles Hader, who says that Hollywood viewed him not as an actor but as a performer when he left Saturday Night Live in 2013. After producers and agents advised him to do a Stefon movie, Hader opted to do Documentary Now! with fellow SNL alums Fred Armisen and Seth Meyers. Hader's ultimate goal has always been to write and direct films. Instead, he cast himself on HBO's Barry, which The New Yorker's Tad Friend describes as an "interim step" in his career. "Hader wouldn’t have to dazzle as an actor—he’d be the dense nucleus at the center of the show’s fizzy electrons," says Friend. "Then he won an Emmy for his acting."