Here’s why the TV legend compared himself to “a block of Swiss cheese.”

Henry Winkler says he couldn’t have played this beloved character ‘without the therapy I went through’

Here's why the TV legend compared himself to "a block of Swiss cheese."

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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February 19, 2026 5:04 p.m. ET

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Henry Winkler in Los Angeles in 2026. Credit:

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- Henry Winkler says he wouldn't have been able to embody one of his signature characters without having been through therapy.

- The actor opened up about how personal growth and professional help have shaped his career in a new podcast interview.

- Winkler previously told EW that by playing the character in question, "I have become a better actor. I have. I'm getting closer to the actor I dreamt about being when I was doing the Fonz."

Forget the Actor's Studio — Henry Winkler is all about the therapist's couch.

The small-screen icon recently opened up about the personal growth and professional help that allowed him to deliver one of the finest roles in his repertoire. In fact, Winkler revealed on the *What Matters With Liz* podcast that without therapy, there would be no *Barry* as we know it.

"If I wasn't present in my life, I now know I could not have done Gene Cousineau on *Barry* without the therapy that I went through," he told host Liz Vaccariello. To emphasize the point, he offered this image: "I'm a block of Swiss cheese with a lot of holes. And I am working on becoming a block of cheddar. [Because] it has no holes. That is a lifelong journey. Believe me, I am not ched yet."

Henry Winkler on 'Barry'.

Isabella Vosmikova/HBO

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When asked what therapy and experience have helped him overcome, Winkler responded that at 80, he's concerned "a little less [with] what people think. I have fought to jump that hurdle. Because that is debilitating, and so hard to get over. When you think that they must be thinking about what you just did and it could be the furthest thing from their mind. Holy mackerel!"

Winkler got his start on stage in the early 1970s, after graduating with an MFA from Yale. He was cast in short order on *Happy Days*, where he played the indelible bad boy Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli.****

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Robert Pattinson says a therapist once asked him if he was on drugs because they 'couldn't understand' him

The throwback sitcom from Garry Marshall ran through 1984, solidifying Winkler's spot in the firmament of TV stardom. But he wasn't content just yet, appearing on subsequent series like *MacGyver*, *Arrested Development*, *Parks and Recreation*, and of course *Barry*.

The actor played Gene Cousineau on the dark crime comedy — the odd, unpredictable acting coach of Bill Hader's titular killer, Barry Berkman. Over the course of the show, the pair develop a dysfunctional, surprisingly critical father-son dynamic, despite Gene's compulsive desire for adoration and Barry's, well, need to kill.

Bill Hader and Henry Winkler on 'Barry'.

Isabella Vosmikova/HBO

As the show prepared to bid farewell to viewers in 2023, Winkler sat down with * *to discuss the profound impact the character has had on his life.

"I have become a better actor. I have. I'm getting closer to the actor I dreamt about being when I was doing the Fonz," he said. "Some of my idols in acting are Jack Nicholson and Anthony Hopkins, where there's no distance between their soul and their character. You can't even put a sheet of paper between the two. There is something so magnificent about that. And I have been working to try to get there.

Watch Winkler's full interview on *What Matters With Liz* above.

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