This story on Bob Odenkirk first appeared in the Down to the Wire issue of TheWrap’s Emmy magazine.
For its first two seasons, the “Breaking Bad” prequel “Better Call Saul” found Bob Odenkirk starring not as sleazy lawyer Saul Goodman, but as the more honest and earnest Jimmy McGill. But in Season 3, Jimmy began to adopt the Saul Goodman persona as the show moved closer to the time depicted in the earlier series.
“It’s nothing but exciting to me to be getting closer to the ‘Breaking Bad’ time frame,” said the actor, who landed his second straight Emmy nod for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series.
“I’m a fan, like everybody else. When I read these scripts and see Saul coming back, Gus [Fring] coming back, it just makes me so happy. I guess there’s the fear that the power of the ‘Breaking Bad’ universe and the intensity of people’s love for it could overshadow our story. But I love the ‘Breaking Bad’ universe, I have no problem with being art of it, and that’s a risk we should take.”
Setting up Jimmy will have its payoff, Odenkirk promised. “As he goes into the persona of Saul, we know there’s a real human being behind it, and a person who is striking back at the world he thinks he’s been wronged by. We’ll see Saul Goodman in a different light, because we know there’s a part of him that has a conscience, and he’s going to feel bad.”
As to where he’ll go from here … “I’d like to see Jimmy become a lawyer again and do charity work — the complete opposite of what he’s doing now, but with street smarts. It’s going to make my mom so happy to hear that I want that. But I do.”
See TheWrap’s video interview with Bob Odenkirk above.
Interview by Stuart Brazell.
Read more from the Down to the Wire issue of TheWrap’s Emmy magazine.
