[Editor’s note: The following contains some spoilers for Season 4 of Barry.]

From co-creators and executive producers Bill Hader and Alec Berg, the HBO dark comedy series Barry is in its final season, with hitman turned acting student turned really emotionally and morally confused man Barry Berkman (Hader, who also directed every episode of the fourth season) locked up in jail and facing all of his past deeds. Every action has consequences, which not only goes for Barry, but for all the characters in his world orbit, including his love Sally (Sarah Goldberg), acting teacher Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler), mobster NoHo Hank (Anthony Carrigan), and family friend Monroe Fuches (Stephen Root), and it’s quite clear that they’re not all headed for the happy ending they might have envisioned for themselves, by the story’s conclusion.
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During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Goldberg talked about how fans have stuck with them on the wild ride that is Barry, how much Sally is dealing with in the final season, her improvised panic attack, getting to step into the role of acting teacher, the brilliant series finale script, what she’ll miss about her character, and her favorite moments in Season 4.

Collider: We know that this is the last season, which obviously is sad, but at the same time, it’s also really cool that you got to know that, going in. What are you most excited about fans getting to see with this last portion of the journey with these characters?

SARAH GOLDBERG: I feel like those who stuck with us on the wild ride that’s already been for three seasons are gonna be into where it goes. With this show, the tone is so out there and it’s so elastic. It holds so much. And what’s impressive about this, as a final season, is that it’s a total pivot again. There are so many surprises and things that happen that you just wouldn’t see coming, so I’m excited. I think that people are gonna enjoy it and hopefully go with the crazy old path that we take.

Image via HBO

What can you say about where things are at for Sally this season? Where is she at mentally, with everything that she’s dealing with?

GOLDBERG: She’s dealing with a lot. We left her, last season, having just murdered a guy, which was a first for her and a first for me, as an actor. That was a wild experience, obviously, and she’s reeling from the shock and the trauma of that. And then, that gets compounded by going home and trying to find some kind of peace and solace, and immediately getting information that Barry killed Janice Moss. All the dots are connecting for her about who this person is that she’s been with and the situation that she thought she was in control of, and it turns out he’s such a monster. She’s in shock from that. And then, she goes to her parents, who reveal themselves to be not the loveliest of people. Her father has just got his head in the sand, and her mother, played by the amazing Romy Rosemont, who is my dear friend that I love so much and is so nice in real life, is so cold and harsh. Through her, we understand maybe why Sally is the way she is and how she became the person that she is, which is somebody who needs to scream to be heard. That, on top of all the other trauma she’s had, of an abusive marriage, endless humiliation in Hollywood, and her dreams coming true and then being ripped from her, she’s definitely run the gamut. She’s a cautionary tale. Don’t move to L A.

When she finds out about Barry being arrested for murder, she has a bit of what’s not so much a panic attack, but more of a fuck attack in the car, repeatedly saying the word. What was that like to shoot?

GOLDBERG: That wasn’t scripted. Bill just wrote, “Sally has a panic attack.” I was like, “What do you want this to be?” We had a brief chat about it, and then we tried different things. We did four takes, some with more fucks, some with less. I think one with more fucks made it in. We just thought, “Okay, she’s caught between having a panic attack and not being able to breathe, and trying to make sense of what’s just happened with rage from having been lied to.” And then, of course, her mother doesn’t even flinch and thinks she’s crying wolf. She’s not in a safe space to have that mental health breakdown. Bill also decided that we shoot it in one, and not do coverage, but just let it play out. So, there was no choice, but to just go for it. In the morning, I woke up like anyone, where you go to work, you have your coffee, and then you sit in the makeup chair and go do the thing. Without much thought, we just went for it.

Image via HBO

What was it like to have Sally step into the Gene Cousineau role of being an acting teacher that verbally abuses the students? Is that just too ingrained to keep from repeating it, at this point?

GOLDBERG: There are a few things going on. When Gene gives her the green light to become a teacher, it’s like she’s knighted into this role. She’s excited that perhaps she’s found a path and found a way out of this miserable set of circumstances she’s found herself in. Like all things Sally does, she seizes it with both hands. She’s like, “I’m gonna do this thing,” but she always just takes it too far. Her intentions are right, but the execution is all wrong. So, going into that class, there’s a feeling of, “This is what worked for me, and this is how I can help you that’s genuine.” It’s just such a deep misfire, and it’s so mean. But I think that her intention was like, “This is how I can help you get there because it worked for me.” I’m fascinated by that scene because it’s only a few years later, but the world has changed so much, from when we shot Season 1. Generationally, you can see what the younger students coming up, this younger crop of talent in L.A., are willing to stand for, bullying wise, versus what our class was willing to stand for. That jump has happened in a short space of time. Also, gender wise, what we accept from a male teacher is different from what we’ll accept from a female teacher. With Sally, I don’t think there was a calculated cruelty there. I think, in some twisted way, she thought she was helping.

Was the series finale satisfying for you? Even if you have an idea of where it’s all going, that last script makes it real, so what was it like to get that and read how everything would play out?

GOLDBERG: It was weird, reading the last script. I read it and thought, “Wow, they’ve done it again. It’s a brilliant script.” But it was strange to think it was the end and we were not gonna follow these people on. It was a mixed bag of emotions. I was excited with where they went with all the characters. I was surprised by various things. And then, there were certain things on the page where you were like, “Huh?,” but when you got to shooting it, and you understood the shots and how something was actually gonna play out, it made a lot more sense. I’m really impressed with what they did. It’s a real orchestra piece.

Image via HBO

Is there anything that you’ll miss most about playing Sally? Did you become more attached to her than you have to other characters you’ve played?

GOLDBERG: Honestly, I’m gonna miss her. I’m ready. It’s time to hang Sally up. I wanna play someone really composed next, who speaks in low, quiet tones, and maybe says some legal jargon. I wanna pivot. I’ve been doing a lot of screaming and crying, over the years. But I know that I’ll miss her because it’s so rare in a career to get a role like that, where she really runs the gamut. Also, because she’s an actress, there’s the performance within the performance. There’s very little that I didn’t get to do in this role, from action to semi-horror to Shakespeare. It’s every actor’s dream to get to play all those different shades. So, I will miss her. I will miss the wild ride that she was on.

Do you have a favorite moment that you got to shoot this season?

GOLDBERG: There were a few things that I loved. Sally takes a real turn this season, with a really different tone and where Sally is a different kind of person. It was a thrill to get to do that, towards the end of a final season of a long-running series. It was brave of the writers to be like, “Let’s go all the way over here.” I was very excited by that. I also did love the acting class scenes. And then, when I went to set on Mega Girls, the actress who played Kristen, Ellyn Jameson, was incredible and there was a fun, full circle thing with Sally, with all of that. I loved having a few pieces of the satire in there, setting up the business. I really enjoyed those scenes.

Barry airs on Sunday nights on HBO and is available to stream at Max.