After 12 years of portraying Saul Goodman, the mouthy lawyer from Breaking Bad and its spin-off Better Call Saul, actor Bob Odenkirk has revealed that he’s finding it hard to accept it’s over.
Odenkirk revealed that, despite feeling wholly satisfied with the upcoming finale of Better Call Saul, he’s ready to slip back into the colourful suits and repaste the billboards. As it stands, only five episodes remain of the Breaking Bad prequel series. It marks the end of the 12-year journey for Odenkirk, who first began playing the role in the second season of Breaking Bad.
In a recent interview with Deadline, Odenkirk discussed how he hasn’t yet been able to shake the feeling that he’ll soon be back on set to return as Saul Goodman once more. He’s wondering if that reality will finally sink in once the series finale airs, but the actor admits that, even then, he may still long for a return to the role.
“I’m gonna feel that when I see the last episode in six weeks. In a weird way, the story and the character are still alive in me. We’ve had so many years of shooting this guy and I’ve been playing him for 12 years. Some part of my brain is thinking, ‘When do I go back?’ [laughs] I think when I see the finale and I know what happens, I’ll feel like he’s set and I won’t be him again. Until then I’m waiting to play him again. [laughs] It’s weird, but I can’t put him to rest until I see the ending and maybe not even then.”
As the saying goes, “all good things must come to an end.” Many a time in the past, we have seen franchises and TV series that continue long past their due course and burn out with the writers’ dignity lost a few series or films back. Deep down, Odenkirk is aware of this, but after playing a role for such a long time, as he illustrated, it can begin to consume your life and it’s hard to shake off.
For the first half of the show’s final season, Better Call Saul stars Bob Odenkirk and Rhea Seehorn have both been nominated for acting awards at the Emmys. Odenkirk commented on the nominations and says that they knew not to expect such flattering nominations. That said, Odenkirk maintains how well-deserved Seehorn’s nomination is. It’s her first Emmy nomination, and it took six solid years of developing Kim Wexler to get there.
“We don’t expect these things,” he asserted. “You’d be stupid to expect a nomination, but she deserved one so much for the work she’s done developing Kim Wexler. I’ve just loved being with her for six years and I’m just so glad she’s noticed and nominated. She deserves it.”
Better Call Saul fans are still waiting with bated breath to see how everything pans out for Saul and Kim at the close of the series. While we know that Jimmy lives on to experience everything that happens in Breaking Bad, his ultimate fate in the “Gene” timeline remains to be seen. On the other hand, Kim never appears in Breaking Bad, leading many fans to speculate that she might not make it out alive.
