A member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (“Golden Globe”) Serhii Rakhlin interviewed Bob Odenkirk, the hero of the film “Nobody”.
– Despite your entire rich career, we have never seen you in such a role as in this film. Can you think of a little boy who had to play with such new toys as guns on the playground?
– A lot can be said about the preparation for this film, because I wanted to act in an action film myself. I’m a big fan of all Jackie Chan movies, especially his early movies. “Police story” is one of my favorite movie genres. I shared the plan with my kids and everyone else, so I wanted to do the fight scenes myself, which not everyone does in these kinds of movies. It was the most fun for me, so I knew I had a long way to go and trained for 2 and a half years. I liked. I mean it was awkward and everything because I knew it was going to be difficult, but it was fun, really fun. When shooting fight scenes, there are different professionals and experts involved, it’s an absolutely amazing group of people around you, you have to work together and you laugh a lot, and it’s just as fun as writing comedy, which is where I got my start in the business. And I loved being in the comedy writers’ rooms, and I had just as many laughs doing the fight scenes in the movie.
– Any film with a positive protagonist has antagonists. In this film, the “Russian mafia” acts as an antagonist. Is there a political rationale behind this given the current political climate in the world?
– I do not think so. I was working on the beginning of the story. Derek Kolstad wrote the screenplay. It is based on his imagination. One of the books I referred to when creating this character was the book “Dark Art”. A very interesting book written by Douglas Century and Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Edward Follis. It tells the story of a special agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration and his various missions around the world. There are bad guys in every country. Russia is now an unknown quantity of what they are up to. There is a general feeling that they are causing problems all over the world. You know, I’m also working on another project, I’ve been reading a lot about troll factories and the internet, it could be called terrorism, and Russia is a big part of all of that, so I think Russia was just an interesting choice. It felt like there was uncertainty in our Western world about what Russia really wanted and what they were doing. But the plot could be set in any country, each country has its own bad guys.
– You mentioned Derek Kolstad, who obviously helped the John Wick franchise. What do you think of the John Wick movies? You also noted your participation in the work on the script of the film “Nobody”.
– I like all the works of Derek Kolstad. I love the John Wick movies. Keanu Reeves creates a special persona on screen that is so different from me, and by putting me in that world, Derek creates something mythical. I thought it would be great to start with something very ordinary. Whereas with John Wick, from the moment we meet him, we see a special fictional world in which he seems to be a special, unique person. And I wanted to create the character of an ordinary guy who you can meet on the street, who lives in an easily recognizable world. And at some point it all explodes into a big world of world-class bad guys. But a large part of the film is related to ordinary life. As much as Derek likes it. Derek wanted to create something different from John Wick and at the same time find himself in a place where he could add bad guys, which he does in this film. We get there eventually, but for the first hour of the movie we live in a normal world. Buses and at home in the suburbs, mothers take their children to school in the morning, times when you have no money. Of course, it’s better to ask Derek, but I think he’s taken the approach of slowly approaching the world of bad guys. My pitch was that I wanted to be in an action movie and my manager, Mark Provisciero, who is the producer of the film, liked the idea. He understood my point of view, which was that the character I play in Better Call Saul is, in many ways, the building blocks, the main character except that he doesn’t fight. He is a serious guy. He wants what he wants. It comes from his heart. He never gives up. Regardless of the degree of damage inflicted on him, he resists. So I just thought that all you have to do is throw in some fight scenes with this guy and you’ve got a main character. You’re on his side, like you were with Saul or Jimmy McGill in Better Call Saul, and I thought there was a connection there, and there was something going on in my personal life as well. We have had 2 illegal home invasions while my family was in the house and I feel a certain amount of frustration and even anger because of what I did or did not do.
in those cases from real life. I thought if an incident like this happened to a man who could really fight back, a man who was trained to fight but who was giving up his talents and skills because he pretended to be a normal guy, and that was part of the portrayal of that look, in where he was, he would be as frustrated as I am, living with the consequences of these incidents, if not more so. So creating this character was my contribution. Starting with an incident that was sort of a random home invasion – not much, but it gave rise to a character that I could play. I thought it was really interesting and so did Derek Kolstad. Now, of course, he takes it to another level because it’s Derek, but it all started with that general idea that I shared with my manager, Mark Provisciero. He shared the idea, asked various screenwriters if they were interested in it, and Derek responded.
– You play an important role in the TV series “Hardcore”, you play the main role in “Better Call Saul”. There is a lot of violence in these series, but your characters in both series always try to avoid violence. Since you are already such a fan of the genre and action movies, it must be difficult for you to hold back. Did you ask Vince Galligan (producer) to hit anyone or anything like that?
– You know, I’ve never done it, but I understand what you mean. You are absolutely right. There’s a pent-up frustration in Jimmy McGill’s role that I use in Nobody to empower the character. There are moments in Better Call Saul when I wish the character was more determined and acted more. Often times I feel like he’s making choices that are bound to lead to explosive consequences, and yet he can’t do anything about himself, and by the same token – I wish the character understood that, he’s creating more problems for himself, but I never asked if he could fight back. I wish Jimmy’s character could take things less personally and understand more about what’s going on with him. He’s very annoyed by the plot developments that come his way, and this prompts him to become the character you see in Sole Goodman, who goes on a rampage using his talents as a lawyer and a sleuth. I feel sorry for the guy who makes this choice, but in this movie, of course, I have to fight back and it really felt deeply satisfying. It was very interesting.
– One more season of “Better Call Saul” is needed. Are you excited?
– I’m excited. Filming will begin soon. The schedule has not yet been drawn up, but everything will start soon. We waited because we want to be as careful as possible with all the coronavirus protocols and that’s why Sony has been great. Sony has been so careful and generous in listening to our concerns. You know, I am 58 years old. We are not the youngest cast in the world, so we are careful. But I really want to get back to filming and can’t wait to find out what happens with the character.
– You seriously practiced with the coach, right?
– I almost cried. To be honest, I laughed a lot during training. I laughed at myself. You know, we trained in a great gym. My film is produced by 87 North. We trained at David Leitch and Kelly McCormick’s gym. Actors were trained there for all the films “John Wick”, “Deadpool”. I trained with Daniel Bernhardt, who is possibly the best stuntman alive. And if you don’t know who Daniel Bernhardt is, you should find out. He’s the man who fought Charlize Theron in “Blonde Bomber” in that awesome apartment fight scene. He’s just a great actor and maybe a better stuntman, so I don’t know why he wanted to work with me because it took over 2 years. But he trained me at first twice a week, then 3 times a week and towards the end already every day. He showed me the basics of screen fighting, which is very interesting and very difficult. The classes got me in amazing shape and I learned how to train in a balanced way. The first reason I trained hard was because I wanted to be in fight scenes, and the second reason was because I didn’t want to get injured. I mean, you can get injured if you’re not in good shape. So it was just a real adventure and the hardest part. The gym had a wall of mirrors. I trained and imitated Daniel’s movements, and he is the best in the world. And every time I looked in the mirror, I saw how terrible I looked, and I started laughing and we stopped the class. And Bernhardt supported me, was very encouraging and optimistic. Meanwhile, all around me in this big gym were the best stuntmen in the world, looking back at me from time to time, trying to figure out what this clown was doing here. I mean, I was terrible, but then I improved my skills. It took a long time, but after about a year and a half, Daniel told me for the first time that I had done well and should slow down. And that was great to hear. You can make a very fast movement and the camera may not catch it. It won’t work
nice picture if you’re moving too fast so it was nice to know I finally got it right. I really like the action sequences in the movie. I enjoyed doing them. I enjoyed this work and it turned out as I hoped.
– What do you think about owning weapons?
– I don’t have a weapon. It is your right to have a firearm in your home, but then you must train. It is very difficult to use it correctly. The people who trained me said that they would not pick up a gun for anything, except in cases of extreme necessity. It is very dangerous to have a weapon close at hand. And I worked with weapons. I was taught by Mark Semos, a sniper of the Navy SEALs, and also a screenwriter in the TV series “Special Forces”. And we trained many times at the shooting range. I mean, I’ve gotten to know the gun better, I’ve gotten used to it, but it still scares me. If you have some kind of confrontation, it’s not bad to have it, but it’s better to stay away from it. It is best to lock up your house. In both cases of illegal entry into my home, the door was unlocked. So if my door was locked I wouldn’t have any problems. So before you buy a barrel, lock your house every night, it’s not that hard and should solve most problems.
– What can you say about the Russian director Ilya Naishuller, the director of the film “Nobody”, and the Russian actor Oleksiy Serebryakov, who plays the role of the boss of the “Russian mafia”?
– Oleksiy Serebryakov is just a treasure, he is a Russian De Niro, he is a really first-class actor. It was an honor for me to shoot together with Oleksiy. And his talent, his strength, his presence are so palpable, you feel it around him. I hope he does movies for western audiences because he’s just a treasure in the acting world right now. We’re both acting, we’re both pretending to be these guys, it was fun to do the fight scene in the nightclub … I got to do a scene with Bryan Cranston, Michael McKeon in a scene where these two really bad guys (laughs) or two really strong guys are facing each other – face to face with everything that boils inside them. And he was a pleasure to work with, he was great. I had the feeling that the Russians are much more in tune with us and our world here in America, know more about us, about the culture, than we do about them. They know their culture, they know our culture, and I don’t think it’s just about Elijah. They understand what we do and we don’t understand them, and we really need to pay a little more attention to what Russia and its people are doing. As I said before, one of the reasons it’s good to have Russian gangsters is that Russia is a bit of a mystery to us right now. We really don’t know what they need, what the country wants, what the people want. I think it’s time for us to get to know Russian people better. Ilya is a man of the world. He is Russian, but knows his way in this world. Like Derek Kolstad … Illya and Derek just love the action genre, they know it inside out, so they start talking about Korean movies that I’ve never heard of that just came out on videotape … It was awesome to be around people who are masters in this genre. Including producer David Leitch.
– You took part in the comedy group “Second City”, in the comedy show “Saturday Night Live”, Larry Sanders’ show. Of course, your background of sarcastic humor runs through your entire creative path. How important is it to keep this humorous view of reality, work and everyday life?
– Oh, this is extremely important. It’s interesting that you asked this question in connection with the film Nobody, because very often people make action films and give an ironic touch to the character. And there is no irony in our film. I didn’t have a safety valve like ironic comedy. My character is fully engaged and completely serious about his anger, his frustration, his desire for revenge, his pain. There are funny things because sometimes he says things to make you laugh. But he doesn’t have that safe comic distance that comedy gives you in life. Comedy takes you a little bit away from the strong emotions or the situation you’re in and you can laugh at it, you’re a little bit removed from the intensity of the event. And I love comedy in my life. It was kind of a revelation for me when you play a character without irony who pours his heart out on the screen. For me as an actor, not having that safety and distance like in comedy, where you laugh, when you almost feel that the character is laughing at himself, when you remove all that and leave only his feelings, brings a deep inner satisfaction. I don’t know how clearly I expressed myself. This is a difficult answer.
– When you started filming, how did this idea come to you? Star in such films, comedies?
– I wouldn’t have started acting if I hadn’t been offered a role in the series “In all seriousness”. I love comedy, it’s what I write, the projects I develop. The opportunity that Vince Gilligan gave me in the TV series “Hardcore” allowed me to know
to have And I liked it. I get a kick out of it. And so I just wouldn’t have thought about it if I hadn’t been given the role. And I don’t know why they gave me the role, because other than Larry Sanders, where Stevie Grant looks a little like Saul, it’s really hard to see anything in my previous career that connects me to the possibility of playing Saul Goodman.
– I would like to ask about working with Connie Nilsson. A hint as if she is hiding something. Do you wish there were more scenes with her in the movie? She also participated in the battle scenes in the movie “Wonder Woman”…
– Yes, absolutely. She can act in fight scenes. She trained for filming in the movie “Wonder Woman”. Like me, she went through all the training. I wish we had done more scenes with her. We don’t count on a sequel, it would be foolish in Hollywood to feel any confidence in such things, but Derek Kolstad really does build big worlds. He starts from scratch and always thinks about something bigger than the world, something bigger than action, and about the future of the plot. So yeah, I wish Connie had done a lot more, and I love the scenes we did together, and I loved how she did them. My character hides his insides, he pretends to be a simple guy, but she knows him better. And how much she knows him, we don’t know, but her reaction when my character comes home after that first big fight and he’s all beat up, she just asks him how he’s doing, she’s concerned, she’s worried. And then there’s that cute scene that I loved doing with her at the kitchen sink where she’s healing my wounded body (laughs) and you just feel like she’s done it before, she’s been through it. And the way she played it, the intelligence she brought to it, the confidence she brought to the scene, it’s clear that she’s playing a woman who may have done the same thing before. But in those moments, with what she had, she invested in that character, and if we’re lucky, we get to see it all. One of the things I like is that the film takes us to the conceptual mythic level of the bad guy, which Derek likes so much. But I think every mom and dad looks at their kids and thinks, you don’t know what I’m capable of … not violently … but you don’t know who I used to be, I was cool, I was mighty strong a person, and now we see I had a past. And we see that Connie’s character also had a past, she was … I don’t want to try to guess who she was.
– What gives you courage? Let’s say how about the character “Nobody”?
– I will be frank with you. I made a lot of eggs this morning and got through a lot of plates. My children are now in their 20s. Maybe boxing (laughs). Probably, this will not be the most secret answer, but yes, when I hit something. It’s true.