"That becomes Better Call Saul": Bob Odenkirk shares how his journey in show business led to his success in Nobody 

Bob Odenkirk has many years of experience in Hollywood. Broadway actor, legal anti-hero, comedy writer, cult sketch performer, and now an action star!

Odenkirk spoke of his journey from Saturday Night Live's writers' room to leading a violent franchise like Nobody on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

He credited it to risk, failure, and continuing to believe in himself no matter what. He said these were suggestions from his late mentor, Bernie Brillstein. The change may have seemed sudden because one day, Saul Goodman was in breach of the law, and the next, Hutch Mansell was injury-prone!

But as Bob Odenkirk explained, Nobody developed directly from years of improving comedic instincts and then playing a character like Saul, who, in his own words, "is kind of like an action hero, except he doesn't fight." Talking about how he stumbled across Breaking Bad and how Saul Goodman's story came to be, he said,

"I wrote for Tenacious D, Tim, and Eric… then I got this fluky opportunity in Breaking Bad. And that becomes Better Call Saul"

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Bob Odenkirk went from sketches to Broadway

Odenkirk reflected on his beginnings as a writer, reliving his time on Saturday Night Live and then Mr. Show. As Fallon supported him, he said how Saul Goodman was a role that established his acting skills while staying close to his well-developed sense of humor.

Yet, Odenkirk took the stage in Glengarry Glen Ross before the gunfire. Referring to the nerves that come from doing a classic play in front of veterans, he said,

"Every night, you know there's at least 15 people in the audience who've done that play."

He spoke to Michael McKean, Bill Burr, and Kieran Culkin. Thankfully, he got along with the Broadway community and even received a nomination for a Tony.

It was the kind of risk Brillstein had always urged him to go after!

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How did Bob Odenkirk become Hutch Mansell?

Shifting from Saul Goodman to Hutch Mansell took more than witty lines.

Before Nobody began filming, Odenkirk spent years training, after a script written by John Wick author Derek Kolstad. It was a risk for a man whose career relied on punchlines to trade them for real punches. He giggled and said,

"I could have embarrassed the hell out of myself. But that’s what we do in comedy, I’ve been embarrassing myself for 25 years."

The gamble paid off. Odenkirk's performance and the bone-crunching action made Nobody a sleeper hit in 2021. He's embracing Hutch's suburban dad angst and uncontrollable rage as Nobody 2 hits theaters. This time, the idea is almost comically domestic: Hutch takes his family on vacation to restore his work-life balance until his anger flares up again.

"He takes on ultimate evil," Odenkirk deadpanned.

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Bernie Brillstein inspired Bob Odenkirk

Bob Odenkirk's thoughts on the famous Hollywood manager who shaped his early years, Bernie Brillstein, were among the most moving aspects of his Fallon sit-down. Brillstein's advice?

"Count on yourself. Bet on yourself."

Odenkirk can still hear the words, "Take a risk."

Odenkirk wished for his ex-mentor to have seen him take those risks and succeed, saying,

"He would have loved Glengarry Glen Ross and Nobody."

The risk of comedy stages, the perils of live Broadway, Saul Goodman's fragility, and now Hutch Mansell's wounds are all common threads in his career.

As Bob Odenkirk said, that "fluky opportunity" in Breaking Bad turned into Better Call Saul. And that, in turn, made him a Nobody!

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Witness Bob Odenkirk in Nobody 2 in theaters now.

NEXT UP: Where was Bob Odenkirk's Nobody 2 shot?