In a virtual appearance today at Deadline’s Contenders TV, Better Call Saul‘s Bob Odenkirk reflected on the opportunity he had to work with screen legend Carol Burnett over the course of the Breaking Bad prequel’s final season.
“She’s just a great actress — completely connected, completely grounded, utterly with it. With somebody who’s a legend like that, someone who’s older, you worry if you’re going to have to work around them a little — and not at all,” the two-time Emmy winner shared. “She was utterly present, ready to rip it up. She knew her lines, she knew her part so well…It was a beautiful performance. She must get nominated now, come on.”
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Burnett’s character, Marion, is a native of Omaha, Nebraska, who meets the man we’ve known as both Slippin’ Jimmy McGill and Saul Goodman, while he’s living on the run and in disguise, using the alias Gene Takovic. While the pair at the start of Season 6 share a sweet moment or two, Marion eventually comes to suspect that something about Gene is not quite right.
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Odenkirk was joined for today’s conversation on the 46x Emmy-nominated series by his co-star Rhea Seehorn, who appeared virtually, as well as co-creator, showrunner and executive producer Peter Gould, who joined moderator Dominic Patten in person at the DGA Theater. The show produced for AMC by Sony Pictures Television has, while flashing forward to track the life of Takovic, flashed back to examine how fledgling ABQ attorney McGill became the amoral con man and criminal representative Saul Goodman of Breaking Bad fame. Its final season concludes the complicated journey and transformation of its compromised hero, tracking Jimmy, Saul and Gene, as well as Jimmy’s complex relationship with Kim (Seehorn), who is in the midst of her own existential crisis.
Over the course of the Contenders chat, Gould, Odenkirk and Seehorn also reflected on the interplay between their series and Breaking Bad, and how working on BCS may or may not have made them see the Bryan Cranston starrer in a new light. While Gould backed the notion that “without Saul Goodman, there would’ve been no Walter White,” Odenkirk had a different take. “I think that Walter White would’ve still been Walter White without Saul, he just wouldn’t have lived as long, obviously. He would’ve had a shorter run,” said the actor-producer. “[But] I think Breaking Bad is the mothership. That’s how I feel about it.”
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Back in the Emmys race this season with a number of Season 6 episodes that didn’t air within last year’s eligibility window, Better Call Saul is co-created by Vince Gilligan and Gould. The pair are joined as EPs on the crime drama, also starring Patrick Fabian, by Mark Johnson, Melissa Bernstein, Thomas Schnauz, Gordon Smith, Alison Tatlock, Diane Mercer and Michael Morris.
Check back Tuesday for the panel video.
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