Bill Hader is the King of Random Voice Cameos
This article contains minor spoilers for Beau is Afraid.
Joaquin Phoenix’s new comedy/existential nightmare Beau is Afraid is currently entertaining/pissing off audiences everywhere. A pivotal role early in the film is that of the delivery worker who informs Beau over the phone that his mother has been killed by a chandelier. The voice clearly belongs to Barry star Bill Hader, even though the character of “UPS Guy” is never fully seen on camera. Which is weird, but not that weird for a movie that also features a giant penis monster.
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While Hader reportedly took on the role as a favor to his friend, director Ari Aster, It’s also not out of the ordinary for him to take on random, audio-only parts in film and television (despite being a famous performer whose face people generally don’t mind seeing). Like, he played Alpha 5 in the recent Power Rangers reboot, a movie that we’re pretty sure didn’t include a single penis monster.
His voice was also briefly heard in another Joaquin Phoenix movie: Her. Hader played a phone sex operator who we’ve chosen to believe is canonically Stefon. The moment is so fleeting even Hader’s own father didn’t notice his son’s voice until the credits rolled. He also provided the dulcet video game narration (listed in the credits as “The Voice”) in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.
Even more surreptitiously, Hader was the voice of the U.S.S. Vengeance’s computer in Star Trek Into Darkness, and as we’ve mentioned before, those seemingly indecipherable beeps and bloops made by BB-8 in Star Wars: The Force Awakens were based on audio recordings of Hader and Ben Schwartz.
And had it not been for IMDb, we might never have known that it was Hader who pitched his voice up into Chipmunks territory to play “Pipey,” the cursed, Clippy-esque mascot for Pied Piper on Silicon Valley.
Hopefully, even with all of his stardom and critical acclaim, Bill Hader will never be above pretending to be assorted robots and/or weirdos on the phone. And more hopefully, our references to penis monsters don't inadvertently spoil the Barry finale.
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