Bill Hader offered his thoughts on voice acting and artificial intelligence while teasing his next projects at the Variety Entertainment & Technology Summit presented by EY, held Thursday in Los Angeles.
Speaking to executive editor Michael Schneider, Hader was asked about his concerns about AI as a filmmaker.
“A new technology comes along and everybody kind of flips out. Like, oh shit, a lot of people are going to be out of work,” Hader said. “I don’t want production designers to go out of work … those people are real artisans, and they’re amazing. If this stuff can help them, it’d be better.”
Something the “SNL” and “Trainwreck” star finds curious about the emerging technology is how different generations have responded to it.
“I have talked to younger people, and they seem to hate AI,” he said. “They’re not into it. I don’t know why, but that’s the vibe I get. When I got an iPhone, I was stoked on it, and I didn’t think about Steve Jobs, you know? But [young people] are very aware of the people making [AI]. They just know so much. They’re afraid that anything can be manipulated.”
Bringing the topic back to the world of entertainment, Hader was adamant that artificial intelligence cannot rival the human creativity behind shows like “Barry” or new Emmys darling “Widow’s Bay.” “If it can help things, you know … but I don’t think so,” Hader said about using AI in the filmmaking process. “I haven’t seen anything yet where I went, ‘Whoa, that’s better than Martin Scorsese.’”
Hader then mapped out his career post-“Barry,” the widely acclaimed HBO dark comedy in which he played a hitman who is bit by the acting bug. Hader also co-created the show with Alec Berg and directed the majority of episodes. Coming soon, Hader directed and wrote a psychological horror film called “They Know,” in which he stars opposite Linda Cardellini. And he voiced the Cat in the Hat in an animated adaptation due this November.
When Schneider asked Hader how he approached voicing the iconic Dr. Seuss character, he quipped, “The same way I approached Barry.”
The Warner Bros. animated reboot reunites Hader with co-director Erica Rivinoja, who worked on “South Park” with Hader almost two decades ago.
“She’s just so talented, so I kind of just took her lead on it,” Hader said. “It’s such an iconic character that you just want to stay out of the way and do the best job you can.”
Hader said one of the things that surprises people about voice acting is that it requires “a lot of energy.” “Everybody thinks you roll out of bed and you just do it. It is so hard, and you’re literally screaming for four hours, saying the same line over and over and over again,” he said. “‘Open the door! Open the door! Open the door!’ And they’ll go, ‘Could you give us another “Open the door”?’ and I just gave you eight versions of ‘Open the door!’”
Hader went on: “It’s kind of mind numbing. And then you see it and you forget all about how exhausted you are. Genuinely, I remember doing ‘Inside Out’ and driving back from a recording session, and I was like, ‘I need to pull over and like just drink some water’ because I was my brain was just fried.”
Speaking about his next move on the small screen, Hader brought up his Jim Jones series in the works at HBO. “We’re talking about doing Jonestown at HBO,” he said with laughter. “That’s not a joke. That is true.”
Variety broke the news of the project in April 2025, reporting that Hader was developing (and would potentially star in) a project about the infamous cult leader. Asked about the status of the show, Hader said, “I don’t know. Me and Daniel Zelman, we’re kind of still working through that. It’s a very rough subject.”
And for fans of the less rough subjects, Hader indicated he’d be open to doing more “Documentary Now!” with Fred Armisen, Seth Meyers, Rhys Thomas and John Mulaney. “That would be amazing,” he said about continuing the IFC mockumentary show. “I really enjoyed doing that show. That was a very funny show.”