Better Call Saul star Bob Odenkirk reveals whether he misses iconic role – and talks pivoting to being an action hero in his 60s

This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.

You’re never too old to get fit. Just ask Bob Odenkirk, the American star famed for his wonderfully sleazy lawyer character Saul Goodman in hit dramas Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.

After showing off his action chops in 2019 movie Nobody, the 63-year-old is back on the big screen in Normal, from director Ben Wheatley, playing Ulysses Richardson, an interim sheriff who is policing the crooked inhabitants of a small town. S’all good, as they say...

In Normal, you play a sheriff overseeing a Midwest town that’s caught up with gangsters. Were these towns familiar from your own upbringing?

I grew up in a place called Naperville, which is now a big town. The population’s around 150,000, I think, but at the time we moved in, it was 20,000 and there were farms everywhere. So, yeah, I know those towns. I also went to college in Carbondale, which is way south in Illinois, 350 miles south of Chicago. You’re just passing through small towns and farm towns.

How does it feel making this late career transition to action hero?

It’s very funny to me. It’s a prank that I’m playing on the universe, for anybody who bothers to notice. The thing people knew me most from was Better Call Saul. And while that isn’t an action series, the character is very much an action character, except he doesn’t fight. His heart is on the line, he’s very clever, he’s always being shut down, and he’s always pushing back. He really is everything you want in an action character – just without the fighting!

How hard has it been to get in shape for such action-heavy cinema?

I’m in really great shape. I mean, I could still pull my back – I’m 63 years old, andI have to be careful because at the age I’m at, your body sinks very quickly into stasis, like a rigid, tight, unbending place, and you need that limberness and flexibility to do [action scenes] and not get hurt. So I gotta work out every day – but I can get a lot done in 25 minutes.

Did you get any injuries during the making of Normal?

I’ve only got hurt in things that weren’t action-based. I ripped up my knee doing Better Call Saul. There’s a scene where I got chased by these three teenagers in the middle of the night, I hadn’t warmed up, and I tore the s**t out of my knee. It turned black and blue and blew up real big, but I’ve never gotten hurt doing an action movie in a meaningful way, and that’s because you train for it. You’ve got a team around you who are, like, “Come on, let’s warm up.”

How much do you miss playing Saul Goodman?

I don’t miss him at all. Not at all. Which doesn’t mean I don’t like him. I like him a lot. I just played him for a long time!

Looking back, are you amazed at the success of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul? What was the key?

The writing is the star in those shows. Breaking Bad taught the audience that there can be a slow reward that’s very much worth it. Of course, the other good thing that Breaking Bad did for Better Call Saul was it ended before people were exhausted by it. If they had gone two more seasons on Breaking Bad, I don’t think we would have got the leeway we got. There was still so much hunger for that voice, for that storytelling, that when Better Call Saul popped up, people had energy for it. They had a desire for it.

What do you look for in a script?

I’m always looking for some humanity in these stories, some human tension, something I can play that the audience can also feel something for.

You started in comedy on things like The Ben Stiller Show and Saturday Night Live. Did you always want to make people laugh?

It was the biggest part of my life. Sketch comedy was everything to me as a kid. I first saw Monty Python when I was 11 and watched it religiously. But the biggest thing for me was Mr Show, which I did with my friend David Cross for four years on HBO. It had everything that I had learnt about making sketches and was everything that I wanted to do.

Do you have a favourite sketch?

Here’s one you should watch. It’s called ‘The Fad 3’ [find it on YouTube]. It was a Beatles sketch that my brother Bill wrote... the group don’t play any instruments. They just get their picture taken!

Did you always think of yourself as funny?

Even when I did sketch comedy, I thought, “I should do drama. I would fit better in a drama than this.” I’ve performed with a lot of famous and well-liked comic actors – David Cross, Chris Farley – and so many times, doing sketches, I thought, even as a younger guy, “That person is so funny, and I’m not funny like that. I’m more complicated and my presence is a little more mystifying.”

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Normal is released in UK cinemas on Friday 15 May.

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