BETWEEN TAKES
BETTER CALL SAUL’S CON MAN TALKS LLAMAS AND FREE MEALS.
What’s the first thing you do on set?
I have a little station just for me with a zero-gravity chair; they’re like camp chairs that are easy to transport. It’s awesome – they’re the best chairs in the world. I have a little camp table and I set up all my shit – my books, computer, script – and I have an iced tea. That’s how I get my caffeine. I focus and dig into my script, which I hopefully know pretty well by then.
Do you approach comedy sets differently from drama sets?
With drama, it tends to be a bit more rigorous to sticking to the script because there’s plotlines, subtexts and subplots that need to be followed through on. Often there are little clues in the words and you have to do them more exactly than with comedy. Comedy’s more about that comedic moment that you can have more fun with. With a comedy script, I’d be more apt to sit and think, ‘What more can we make of this?’ whereas with a drama script, you want to ID what absolutely needs to be said in the exact order so the story can be doled out properly. It should all be a little fun but comedy should have a looseness. I have to restrain myself with drama from trying to goof around too much.
Any on-set superstitions?
I like to think I’m not superstitious but I don’t say every 13th line they write for me. I hope you’ll print that. I count my lines and if there’s less than anyone else in the scene, I call my SAG representative. If they won’t change it, I pull out my Critics’ Choice Award for Best Actor and start waving it around.
Hot or cold lunch?
I tend to eat early but I’ll go to catering and eat a fucking huge lunch because everything’s so good. If there are three kinds of meat, I have three kinds of meat – and it’s not right. You shouldn’t eat too much, but what can you do when somebody made all this food and it’s so good? I’m from a family of seven. When I was a kid, if you didn’t eat right away, you missed out, so I still eat a lot.
Craziest thing you ever saw on set at
Saturday Night Live?
The craziest thing I saw during my time at SNL was Steven Seagal but I think you’re looking for an anecdote about kooky behaviour. I’m pretty sure we had a llama for a scene where the host walks around backstage during the monologue. I think Conan O’Brien wrote it and asked for a llama – and they got us one. All it did was stand backstage so we could walk through and see [it]. ‘Oh, this variety show is going to have dancers – and a llama!’ If I’m remembering a dream, it’s a good one.
What was the most emotional day on set?
Better Call Saul’s
There’s no question – it was the day I had a heart attack, but I wasn’t there for that. I heard people were very upset. My friend Tony Dalton and I were together recently and he was telling me how upset everyone was on that day, but of course, I was not a part of it in that I was gone and not present to see it or take in those responses. So the most emotional day for me was probably the day we said goodbye, the final day.
Ever stolen anything from set?
Yes, I just stole a book from Lucky Hank, my new TV show. I read it when it came out, and then saw it on Lucky Hank’s set and took it. It’s How Proust Can Change Your Life by Alain de Botton. I’m reading it for the second time.
Have you stolen many books from sets before?
Yes. A lot of times the books are fake and you can’t open them. They’re either glued shut or all the books are part of one chunk of books held together by a metal rod, but sometimes they’re all loose. On the set of Lucky Hank, there were so many books and I just read all day. It was the best – I loved it.
AN EVENING WITH BOB ODENKIRK IS TOURING THE UK AND IRELAND FROM 13-26 APRIL. TICKETS AVAILABLE NOW. LUCKY HANK IS AWAITING A UK RELEASE.
‘THE CRAZIEST THING I SAW DURING MY TIME AT SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE WAS STEVEN SEAGAL’