Bill Hader has always wanted to direct a feature film. It’s just taken him a while to get to it.
“That was the dream forever. I just took the most circuitous way to get there,” Hader said. Then he cracked, “I think Kurosawa did that? Didn’t he go to a sketch comedy show for eight years? Wasn’t he in ‘Trainwreck’?”
After a long tenure on “Saturday Night Live,” starring roles in several films and co-creating his own Emmy-winning HBO series “Barry,” Hader finally got around to directing his own movie, “They Know.” In a one-on-one conversation called “What No One Tells You About Directing Your First Feature,” Hader unpacked exactly that for the audience at IndieWire‘s Future of Filmmaking 2026 Summit presented by AT&T in Los Angeles on Saturday.
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With “They Know,” Hader is the latest major comedic talent to make the jump to the horror genre. As he did on “Barry,” Hader writes, directs and acts in the feature. He stars as a divorced father who begins to suspect that his ex-wife’s secret new partner is having an unorthodox effect on his children. The MRC-produced film, which also stars Linda Cardellini, wrapped photography in May and is currently in the sound-mixing stage and prepping to show to distributors.
Hader shared that the premise for the film came about from personal conversations he had with his longtime collaborator and writing partner, Duffy Boudreau.
“We’re both divorced. We were talking about how lucky we were that we were on, like, we had really good terms with our ex-wives, and we have kids with them,” Hader told Chris O’Falt, IndieWire’s VP of features strategy and host of the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “We started talking about the worst case scenarios of, ‘Oh, my god, this person is going through this and this person is going through that.’ And then this idea came up.”
While keeping the plot details vague, Hader admitted that he “kind of gave up on” the film for a while, as the ending of each draft felt “like every other horror movie.” But a curious new release in 2025, about the unsavory world of online scalpers, finally tipped him back towards the project.
“I went to the Nuart [Theater] by myself and I saw the movie ‘Cloud,’ by Kiyoshi Kurosawa,” he said. “And, [my movie] is nothing like that movie. But, for some reason, I saw that movie and I walked out and I was like, ‘I think I know how to do it.’ You would never see this movie and think ‘Cloud,’ but that’s where it’s at.”
A feature project has been long in the works for Hader, one of the most conspicuous cinephiles to emerge from the cast of “SNL.” (Check his second visit to the Criterion Closet, in which he pulls a whopping 15 titles — including Robert Bresson’s “A Man Escaped,” “Salvatore Giuliano” and an Allan King box set.) After helming many episodes of “Barry” — and earning a Directors Guild of America award in 2019 for the series — a push into feature filmmaking has seemed inevitable for several years.
Nonetheless, Hader maintains that he was carrying some self-doubt heading into the project, something he’s had since his sketch comedy days.
“‘SNL’ helped with that. You would just get shot down constantly. It was horrible,” Hader said with a smile. “But, in doing that, you are working on instinct.”
That healthy amount of fear helped Hader foster collaborative conversations throughout the filmmaking process, whether it was testing the looks of different lenses on location scouts or talking through his shot lists with his editor in pre-production.
“The doubt is always there. And that’s good though. If you’re not scared, then you’re fucked,” Hader said. “I met someone who worked with [Martin] Scorsese. He said the best thing about it was that he would start a day and go, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know what this is.’ And that’s just freeing. … We’re all scared. The worst is when people come in like, ‘I know what’s going on.’ And within five minutes you’re like, ‘The director doesn’t know what they’re doing.'”
Hader returned to the sentiment in the home-stretch of the conversation, underlining the takeaway to the crowd.
“Don’t be afraid to be wrong. That’s the thing that screwed me up. I was so terrified of looking like an idiot,” he said. “Be wrong as fast as you can be. Like, this is all wrong, but it doesn’t matter. We’re just going to. We’re going to be OK. Just keep moving.”
Along with Hader’s “What No One Tells You About Directing Your First Feature” presentation, IndieWire’s Future of Filmmaking Summit also included a keynote by directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, diving into the production of their sci-fi blockbuster “Project Hail Mary,” and an appearance by “Obsession” writer/director Curry Barker, who was presented with IndieWire’s inaugural Future of Filmmaking award.
IndieWire Future of Filmmaking 2026 Summit is presented by AT&T Untold Stories, an impactful multi-year collaboration between AT&T and Tribeca Festival that awards $1.2 million dollars, mentorship, and comprehensive support to the next generation of filmmakers looking to bring their films to the big screen. For more information, visit here.