Better Call Saul: When co-creator Peter Gould opened up about Bob Odenkirk’s heart attack on set

Better Call Saul stood in the shadow of Breaking Bad. So, naturally, fans had a lot of expectations from it. But the show was a masterpiece when it came to storytelling. It created its own legacy and carved out a special place in our hearts.

Better Call Saul painted a raw picture of the man who would become the sleazy and oddly endearing lawyer Saul Goodman. The show didn't have to fascinate us with courtroom antics or shady deals. Its emotional veins ran so deep that it touched upon themes of identity and ambition. It showed just how people would go to extreme lengths to justify their choices.

Bob Odenkirk stepped into the role of Saul (or rather, Jimmy McGill) in Better Call Saul. His presence added brilliance to the character and the show in a way that's rare to see on screen. But something tragic happened in real life behind the scenes that shook everyone involved. Bob suffered a terrifying heart attack on set.

Let's know a bit more from co-creator Peter Gould. He shared his thoughts with Alan Sepinwall who included the interview in his book, Saul Goodman v. Jimmy McGill: The Complete Critical Companion to Better Call Saul.

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Better Call Saul: The many faces of Saul Goodman

Saul from Better Call Saul isn’t just one person. He’s a performance and a persona. He is a mask worn by a man who’s spent his life trying to outrun the parts of himself he doesn’t like. Saul is flashy and funny on the surface. He is always ready with a legal loophole or a snappy one liner.

But beneath all of that is a guy who’s been underestimated and dismissed. He is a guy who's been pushed aside. And all he is trying to prove is that he’s more than just Slippin’ Jimmy in Better Call Saul.

Saul is neither good nor bad. And that's what makes his character so relatable and real. He is neither a villain nor a hero. He is somewhere in between. He is a man who wants to do good but keeps making choices that pull him further from the light.

He’s charming and clever but he’s also quite insecure. Saul from Better Call Saul is always hustling to avoid failure and just to stay one step ahead. His transformation from Jimmy to Saul is about building a new identity to escape the pain of his past.

But no matter what he does, Jimmy’s still in there. He is wrestling with guilt and regret. And he carries a hope that maybe he can still be the good guy.

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“It's just a f*cking piece of entertainment”: The day everything stopped on set

The final season was halfway through filming in Albuquerque when Bob Odenkirk collapsed on set while shooting Episode 8. It was a heart attack. Everybody started panicking. The cast and crew were shaken.

Co-creator of Better Call Saul Peter Gould was in Los Angeles when it happened. He could do nothing but wait for updates on whether his leading man was going to make it.

In Saul Goodman v. Jimmy McGill: The Complete Critical Companion to Better Call Saul, Gould opened up to author Alan Sepinwall about those terrifying hours. He said:

"I was back in L.A. Vince [Gilligan] called me because he had been directing when it happened, and said, “Melissa [Bernstein] and I are in a car, we’re following an ambulance. Bob collapsed on the set, and it really doesn’t look good.” My first instinct was to run to Albuquerque — I didn’t, because there were plenty of people hovering around, worried. I helped out with coordinating getting Bob’s family to Albuquerque, and Sony was fantastic with this. After shutting down for a few days, we just had no idea what his status was going to be. I talked to his wife, Naomi. I spoke to Rhea Seehorn, and she was as upset as I’ve ever heard anybody. It was a great feeling of helplessness, of not knowing what was going to happen next."

And then suddenly, he was on the phone with Bob. That conversation put everything in perspective. The deadlines or the production schedules no longer mattered. Everything was in the background. It was the kind of moment that reminds you how trivial everything else is when someone you care about is fighting to stay alive. Gould shared:

"And then, pretty soon, amazingly enough, I don’t remember exactly the timeline, but I was on the phone with Bob himself, and I could hear he was himself, but he wasn’t remembering things quite right. He was in the room with Naomi and he said, “Peter, I have nothing to do here. Please send me a script so I can study up. I know you don’t like to send them too early.” And Naomi was off mic going, “No, no, you don’t send him anything!” Because literally, the doctors said he needs to sit in a room lit by candlelight and he needs time to recover. Honest to God, we didn’t know if we were going to have a show or if we were going to finish it. And it felt so completely irrelevant, because it’s when you realize it’s just a f*cking piece of entertainment."

Gould called Bob a “workaholic". He was someone who came to set knowing every line and beat. So when Bob finally walked back onto that set in Albuquerque, everyone who worked on Better Call Saul felt this intense moment of gratitude. Gould said:

"It was such a feeling to have him walk onto the stage, and the way he talked to the crew, and the emotional intelligence he had about what people were feeling. I think he was more worried about what everybody else was feeling than anything about himself. The first shot we did was the very first shot you see of him in the season, a little pickup from that scene in the hotel room where they wake up together. And it’s a miracle, but it was very emotional. It was very tough for everybody."

Sepinwall also asked the obvious but difficult question. He asked if they had a backup plan for Better Call Saul in case Bob hadn’t made it. Gould replied:

"I think we would’ve just dropped the show. I think Sony would’ve had to take a terrible financial loss, because it would be an utterly incomplete story. And they were shooting the scene that comes immediately after Lalo has shot Howard. There’s no rewriting to get around that. That’s about all I can say. We were ready to dump the whole thing. I mean, I wasn’t thinking about that. It’s too complicated. It was too big to really kind of think it through. But I’m sure somebody deep in the bowels of Sony had to start doing some calculations about what kind of loss they’d have to take, and thank God it didn’t happen."

This proves just how indispensable Bob Odenkirk was for Better Call Saul.

The brief and terrifying moment when everything hung in the balance was a reminder that sometimes it takes a crisis to remember just how fragile and precious life is.

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