Bob Odenkirk’s favourite ‘Breaking Bad’ scene: “I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing”
You know you’ve given a good supporting performance when you earn yourself a spin-off series, which was the case for Bob Odenkirk, whose role as Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad captivated fans so much that Better Call Saul was spun to allow the crooked lawyer to take centre stage.
Odenkirk’s natural comedic abilities were exactly what was needed to bring Saul to life, a master manipulator who is incredibly smart despite the rather unprofessional persona he harnesses. He’s witty and immoral, a sleazebag with a surprising amount of charm, and the contradictions that he exists within make him such a compelling character.
While Odenkirk had long established himself in Hollywood with early jobs, including writing and starring in Saturday Night Live during the late 1980s, Breaking Bad allowed him to show another side of himself as an actor’s actor. Sure, the role required the comedic chops he was known for, but this was a character who possessed a cunning darkness, and Odenkirk hadn’t played anyone quite like this before.
He once admitted to being naturally unsure of what he was doing when he began playing the character, although he soon came to feel right at home in Saul’s shoes. Talking to Entertainment Weekly, Odenkirk selected his favourite scene from Breaking Bad as the moment in which he first meets Walter White, willingly revealing his crooked business endeavours to an equally crooked future kingpin.
“It was so goddamn well-written. I loved that first scene where he introduces himself. It was so different in tone from anything I had done… My God, there’s a lot to do in there. I couldn’t believe how much Saul there was,” he said.
Odenkirk experienced some imposter syndrome while playing the character, explaining, “I’m aghast, alarmed, at my own confidence in playing the character. I mean, I didn’t know what the fuck I was doing. I was just taking a run at it, and more than half expecting to be told, ‘You can go home now. We’re going to get a real actor’.”
Eventually, he realised he was doing something right, really right, so much so that he started to impress himself. “I was amazed at how completely I embraced the character and dug in. The monologue is really fun, where he’s telling Walter White that he’s a fraud and that it’s a front. And he’s just enjoying himself. That was really fun to play, and I fully understood how much fun it was at the time.”
The actor has earned various awards for his portrayal of Goodman, which has proved to be a career-defining role for him, and who can forget the iconic scene from the season three episode ‘Better Call Saul’? Not only would it give us the name of the show’s equally revered prequel series, but it would introduce us to one of television’s most unforgettable supporting characters in recent years, immediately rendered a true TV icon.
There are so many layers to Odenkirk’s portrayal of Saul, and here he lays the blueprint to his unique charisma out on the table. You can never tell how trustworthy he really is nor be quite sure who the real man behind the underhand means is, but you can’t help but love him regardless.
