How does Bob Odenkirk pull off “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul” lawyer Saul
Goodman so well? What real-life details fuel his acting? How does his relationship with
his father or his recent near-death experience influence his role? Keep watching to find
out!
Bob Odenkirk didn't have a happy relationship with his father, Wally Odenkirk. Bob was one
of seven children and his father, an active alcoholic, didn't provide a stable situation
for them. Relaying a memory when he was 9 years old, Bob told The New York Times,
"My dad wakes me up at 2 a.m. to tell me he's leaving and he'll send me money to pay the
bills, and I'm thinking, 'I don't know cursive enough to write the check, so how am I going
to pay the bills?'"
In his memoir "Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama," Bob wrote,
"[My father] was rough and too intense, and those were his good qualities."
The "Breaking Bad" star wrote about his father's irascible temper and his consistent absence
from home, which meant that Bob got the chance to bond with his siblings, but felt the absence
of a father figure.
Thankfully, the author and actor knows how to spin straw into gold. While he admits that
he didn't get what he needed, he also has learned to use the pain in his acting. He
told The New York Times,
"Let me just make myself that kid again, because I'll take that feeling of loss and fear and
play it tomorrow! [...] If there was one thing that let me do this, it was some access I
have to the emotional, even traumatic spaces inside me that maybe isn't the most healthy
person to be."
"There’s this thing I gotta do."
"Then you best go do it."
No doubt exacerbated by the lack of harmony in his childhood home, Bob Odenkirk said that
he didn't care for his hometown, Naperville, a suburb outside of Chicago, Illinois. In
a very candid interview with Time Out in 2010, Odenkirk explained why he said he hated Naperville
as a child, saying,
"Because it wasn't exciting enough. It felt like a dead end, like Nowheresville. I couldn't
wait to move into a city and be around people who were doing exciting things."
That feeling evolved as Odenkirk grew up — and moved away — from that small town. He told
Time Out that as an adult, he had fonder feelings for his hometown. He said,
"At 15 years old, I couldn't wait to get out, but at 47, I have great appreciation for it.
There's lots more people and maybe therefore more interesting people as well. Also, I think
you can get the Internet there."
When Odenkirk finally moved to Chicago proper, he told the Chicago Tribune that he arrived
in rage. He said of his early years as an adult,
"I was intense, definitely an angry guy. That can be a good thing. It can mean your commitment
is through the roof, which can be fun to watch from the audience's perspective. Because it's
always fun to watch someone get frustrated or want something desperately and not be able
to get it. But I had to modulate that."
Once again, Odenkirk used real-life feelings to feed his characters.
Bob Odenkirk's father died of cancer when the father and son were almost completely
estranged. In his memoir, Odenkirk shared about the event with a casualness that reflects
how strained their relationship really was. Odenkirk wrote,
"I would only see my dad a few scant times until I got a call, when I was 22, telling
me that he was dying. His life was nothing but tragedy, and fairly small-potatoes tragedy,
a life barely lived. Saying goodbye to him was a shrugging affair."
Odenkirk's reaction to his father's death might seem callous to some, but he explained
to The New York Times how he processed the experience. He said,
"I've often felt like I must be hiding something, or not acknowledging something, or can't see
something. There's no question I wish I had a father figure in life, especially as a kid,
especially a good one. Wouldn't that have been nice? There are definitely things I've
had to deal with there, because I had nothing, an emptiness."
But one good thing did come from this contentious relationship. Odenkirk said that he and his
siblings have remained extremely close. Another result from his father's tragic life is that
Odenkirk rarely drinks anything. He told Time Out that he's a "teetotaler" because of what
he saw. He noted,
"I do drink once in a while. I just don't like it that much. I would drink more if I
didn't have responsibilities and kids."
Odenkirk clearly took a different route.
"It’s all good, man."
Bob Odenkirk suffered a near-death experience while filming "Better Call Saul" during the
series' sixth season in July 2021. Odenkirk clarified what happened while speaking with
Willie Geist on Sunday Today, saying that, according to a cardiologist, he had a, quote,
"heart incident" rather than a heart attack. He joked,
"I would love a doctor to explain to me what the difference is."
But he did offer some more clarity.
"My widow-maker artery was completely blocked. And that's why it's called the widow-maker,
because you die when that happens."
Odenkirk collapsed on set and co-stars Rhea Seehorn and Patrick Fabian screamed for help
and the fact that he wasn't alone was a miracle. Odenkirk told The New York Times,
"We were shooting a scene, we'd been shooting all day, and luckily I didn't go back to my
trailer."
He said that their shouting brought out the health officers on set. Noting that they used
a defibrillator and it took three tries, which is abnormal, he explained,
"They came out and did CPR properly, right away, broke my ribs, like you're supposed
to."
Geist mentioned that one normally only needs to use a defibrillator once or twice. Odenkirk
clarified,
"I was not present for any of it. But I'm told it was a pretty shocking day on set and
traumatizing for all my co-stars and crew members and people I love very much."
The moral, as Odenkirk stressed, was to keep up on CPR procedures because that saved his
life.
"I’m still getting that perspective from this occurrence. Just appreciation for the
life I get to live."
Bob Odenkirk's son, Nathan Odenkirk, suffered an intense illness after being diagnosed with
COVID-19 in April 2020. Speaking about what his son experienced, Odenkirk caught up with
James Corden on "The Late Late Show" and spoke about it. Odenkirk explained that Nathan got
sick early on during the pandemic, and the information floating around said that young
people didn't get hit that hard. But this wasn't the case for his son, who has also
suffered from asthma for most of his life. Odenkirk said,
"In the end, it was pretty bad and it was worse than the flu."
According to Nate, the pain in his throat was the worst of it, as well as the fatigue,
and it lasted a lot longer than the flu. Odenkirk added,
"It got scarier the longer it went and the further we got from it, I became aware that
we got very lucky."
Adorably, Odenkirk admitted that he loved having his children home from college during
the pandemic. True to the fatherly love, he and son Nathan announced later that they had
collaborated together on the murder comedy podcast "Summer in Argyle." In a sit down
with Variety, Nathan shared how much he admires his dad.
"He's my idol. He's like the funniest guy I've ever met, easily."
That Odenkirk love runs strong.
Bob Odenkirk had a harrowing experience while in Chicago. He sat down with Dax Sheperd on
"Armchair Expert" and recalled the early days of his career, when he was leaving a comedy
club with his then-girlfriend. It was one in the morning when someone approached them
with a gun. Odenkirk said,
"It looked like a s***ty zip gun. You know what a zip gun is? It's kind of a made-up
gun. You build it but it's not made of plastic. It looks like a f***ed up gun, but it's a
gun-gun [...] And this guy holds it up and I park the car and get out. He goes, 'Give
me the money.'"
Odenkirk went on, saying he was so exhausted that he couldn't really compute what was happening.
He added,
"I'm like numb and I'm looking at the guy and I'm taking too long. He's scared and holding
this gun up to me."
Odenkirk explained that he had $300 on him and gave it to the man. He explained,
"I said, 'Look how much money you got, get the f*** out of here. You should go!' [...] And
he stands there right by the window of the car not sure what to do and I go, 'Run! Go!'
And he does. He leaves, and we call the police."
Fortunately, both Odenkirk and his girlfriend were fine, and since then, Odenkirk's amassed
a fortune of $16 million dollars, per Celebrity Net Worth. Still, that doesn't mean an armed
robbery wasn't scary.
Bob Odenkirk got candid with Howard Stern about his tough financial situation prior
to landing the life-changing role of lawyer Saul Goodman, saying that he was literally
bankrupt before getting the show. Odenkirk explained that he was in a period of his career
where he was directing films but the projects weren't successful.
"I didn’t have a vision for these things and this journey."
To be fair, he said that he really liked making them, but money was tight and he got into
a, quote, “financial hole." Then he said his then-business manager's assistant called
him, claiming that he needed to sign a loan for $900,000 to keep afloat. Odenkirk said
that the call was very strange.
As a result, the "Better Call Saul" star got a different business manager, whom he still
works with today, and started taking any job he could get. Odenkirk began taking acting
and directing jobs. He worked in commercials. He took anything. Then, the fateful day came
when he got offered the iconic role on "Breaking Bad," noting that the show wasn't widely known
at the time. His agent told him on the phone, "Don't say 'no.'" Odenkirk joked that he hadn't
said no to anything in a long time.
"And I was like, 'Dude, I haven’t said "no" in a year and half, but maybe you didn’t
notice that.'"
Odenkirk still wasn't convinced and ran the gig by a writer friend who said,
"Oh, that's the best show on TV. You've gotta do that."
"I had this energy going through me! It was like improv or jazz, and then boom!"
Obviously, it was the right move and the rest is a happy history in career home runs.
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