'Saul' puts Odenkirk 'through the wringer'
ALBUQUERQUE — Court is back in session for New Mexico's sleaziest lawyer.
Bob Odenkirk, who played the smarmy Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad, is standing in a dusty clearing as crew members rumple his necktie and spray him with mist, adding to his sweaty appearance.
"You came on one hell of a day," he says in the scorching heat. "I feel like we're in Africa."
Odenkirk, a supporting player on AMC's hit about teacher-turned-meth dealer Walter White, is taking center stage in spinoff Better Call Saul (Feb. 8, 10 p.m. ET/PT, then Mondays at 10), though he's playing Goodman's alter ego Jimmy McGill in this prequel, set six years earlier.
On the set in mid-July, Odenkirk wipes his brow and trudges through dense woods, filming a scene in which the struggling McGill searches for some rogue potential clients. Before cameras roll, a snowy-bearded snake wrangler pops in and out of sight as he pokes through the underbrush with a stick. Director Terry McDonough eyes Odenkirk, instructing, "Dustier on the trousers. Triple the dust."
Far from his tacky, strip-mall practice in Bad, "Saul is a rag doll," Odenkirk says. Signing on for the role with creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould, "I said, 'I'm leaving my family for four-and-a-half months. I don't want to be sitting there opening legal books and doing a procedural. Let's put him through the wringer.' "
Getting battered around and dragged into the desert by drug lords is a change of pace for Bad's fast-talking comic relief, whose new role as leading man has intrigued fans since the series was announced in 2013. Absent the Mr. Chips-turned-Scarface transformation that made Walt a compelling antihero, Saul faces the weight of expectations from devoted viewers of the 16-time Emmy winning series anticipating a Breaking Bad 2.0 — a reality which isn't lost on its creators.
During Bad, "the thing we found that worked best for us is to be the first fans of that show and try to tune out what we thought other people would think about the story we were telling," Gilligan says. "The loudest voices on the Internet are not necessarily the most well-thought-out opinions, so if you listen closely to the instantaneous response, it can really steer you in some crazy directions."
Still, Odenkirk has already seen a welcoming embrace from fans.
"On the Internet, mostly there's nothing but snark and bitter critique," he says, eating a late-afternoon lunch in his trailer. "I've never seen anything (before) where the majority of comments are like, 'Sounds like it could be fun! I'd like to see that.' "
Bad's reverent following — with ratings that grew each season — left many fans hungry.
"Breaking Bad ended before people were done with it, so there's a residue around, like, 'Come on! We want more!' " Odenkirk says. "It's goodwill toward the show."