Why Isn’t Bill Hader on Social Media?

Although actor/comedian Bill Hader is in the public eye, it doesn’t mean he’s interested in being on social media.

Hader, who rose to fame through his character roles on Saturday Night Live, seamlessly made the transition from late night live performances to meatier comedic and dramatic roles. His work on both the big and small screen has received wide acclaim. This includes winning an Emmy for his role in the HBO series, Barry.

But for as lively as Hader is on screen, he’s just as private behind the scenes. Unlike many celebrities who leverage social media to engage with fans, Hader has stayed away from Twitter and Instagram.

He deals with considerable anxiety

SNL creator Lorne Michaels told The New Yorker that while most cast members deal with some level of anxiety, Hader’s was especially intense. “Most people who are good play scared, but Bill was particularly timorous,” he said. “You’d just see in his eyes, ‘I’m about to be hit.’” 

In fact, many of his infamous impressions were driven by anxiety. “I think Bill started by doing impressions of people who were scary to him, as a defense,” Michaels added. “He did me, of course—nearly everyone on S.N.L. does a Michaels impression—because he was convinced, despite all evidence to the contrary, that I was going to fire him every time he passed me in the hall.”

One way Hader coped was to blow his lines on purpose. “That would relax me, realizing, after my brain panicked, that no one even noticed,” he said. “It was embarrassing how unhappy I was. I’d wake up Saturday morning crying, be hitting my head in the shower—I don’t want to go, I don’t want to go. The irony was that I was being rewarded for it, so I had to keep doing it.”

One mistake could dog you forever on social media

In this overly picky society, Hader knows if he made an error, people could attack him endlessly on social media. “Once you’re on the air, you have a great time,” he told Celebretainment. “Always. But I’m not going to lie, once a show has finished, I’m filled with relief. I would start hugging people, whispering ‘thank God’ under my breath.”

He notes how social media has changed the dynamic of live television. “The thing is, the nature of live TV has changed with social media. You get one chance to nail it, and if you don’t, that could be the clip that goes viral that week,” he says.

“Even if it doesn’t and you break character on stage, it’s immortalised online,” he added. “It used to be that you f***ed up and you could move on. Now all your mess-ups are documented.”

He was asked to open a Twitter account for ‘Trainwreck’

Hader played a sports physician in the film Trainwreck, starring alongside Amy Schumer. His publicist suggested he open a Twitter account before the film opened, he told Time. “I’m semifamous and on talk shows, so I don’t know what social media would be good for, and I like a certain degree of privacy,” he said.

“Right before I was about to go on Twitter [for Trainwreck], my publicist said, “I kind of don’t like you on Twitter. Do you want to be doing this?” I said no, and he said don’t do it.”

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