Bob Odenkirk breaks bad
The director behind new home-invasion shoot-’em-up Nobody explains how he turned the Better Call Saul star into an unlikely action hero
IN EARLY 2018, Russian filmmaker Ilya Naishuller entered a top LA stunt facility to be confronted by two very different types of action star. “In front of me was Keanu Reeves, getting ready for John Wick 3,” the director tells Empire. “Then I turned around, and there’s Bob Odenkirk sweating like crazy in the next room.” He chuckles as he recalls it. “This was right at the start of Bob’s training, though. Today, he can do more push-ups than I’ve done in my entire life.”
The reason for Odenkirk’s gruelling, twoyear Keanu-fication is Naishuller’s forthcoming thriller, Nobody, which sees the actor best known as Saul Goodman reborn as a bonafide action hero. “It’s Bob going severely against type,” says Naishuller. “He plays a guy [the superbly named Hutch Mansell] who left a dangerous profession and is now living a regular, mundane life.” When he fails to defend his family against a home invasion, however, Hutch goes “a little off the rails”, and Odenkirk’s intensive combat and weapons training promptly take centre stage.
So far, so Taken, you may be thinking. But according to Naishuller: “Any time you have a non-action star playing action, you get Taken comparisons. We’ve also got moments of levity [in Nobody] and a big mystery element, too. It’s an action thriller at heart — but an original one.” The idea for Nobody came from Odenkirk himself, who was keen to venture out of his dramatic-comic comfort zone. Having conceived the premise, he enlisted John Wick writer Derek Kolstad, and then Naishuller, whose experimental 2015 actioner Hardcore Henry (shot entirely in firstperson POV) divided critics with its video gameesque violence. However, if you’re expecting a similarly plot-lite gore-fest, fear not. “Hardcore Henry was for the 15-year-old me,” laughs Naishuller. “Some people love it, some think it’s the worst movie ever. With Nobody, I wanted to make a deeper action film with heart, emotion and more subdued performances.” Whether kids will one day argue over who’d win in a fight — John Wick or Hutch Mansell — remains to be seen. But one thing’s for sure: Hutch Mansell could easily kick Saul Goodman’s ass. TOM ELLEN