Bob Odenkirk on Meaning, Satire, and Action Heroes

Oh, I don’t know. You need to talk to God about that. I don’t know why he made it so ridiculous, but it is. I’m not done asking questions and trying to figure things out, but I do think we’re going to end up where Douglas Adams did.

I sure wish it was, but no. I do think political satire is helpful, but it is not as important as we all wished it was. I’m afraid political satire pales in comparison to political hogwash, as we’re witnessing in my country.

Well, in Normal, Henry Winkler’s character is not cool. Henry himself is the sweetest guy alive. If he unleashed anything in me, he unleashed the desire to be as kind, generous and friendly as he finds his way to be in the world every day. And that’s not easy to do. It’s a choice to meet the world’s annoyances and frustrations with the patience and kindness that he does. He’s a special guy, so I’m glad I got him to play such a jerk who gets his comeuppance.

No. Liam Neeson still owns that space. I am the Bob Odenkirk of action movie stars.

That’s a good question. I’m 63 years old, and there aren’t a lot of romcoms written for my generation. I like action movies. I have a lot of rage inside me that I get to play out. It started as a joke, but through some massive cock-up, I’ve somehow pulled it off.

A lot of Saul’s suits and ties were made for Saul only. They offered me stuff, but I don’t wear suits, so I kept the ties.

Saul’s actually a very earnest guy. He’s aware that he has an ability to talk people into things, and talk his way out of things. The sad thing is that he can’t think of a better use for it than to become a conman, because he has a resentment inside him that drives him to use his talents in a destructive way.

Even though he’s been put through a lot, I think he would go right back to doing what he did, only he’d probably avoid dealing with drug dealers this time.

It’s coming along great. We’ve got seven songs recorded. They were written by Mark Nutter, who writes comic musicals, so they’re sort of comedy Broadway songs called things like Your Fake Breasts Haunt Me.

The Inca Trail was way harder. The West Highland Way was fairly placid compared with the Inca Trail, which goes to 13,800ft (4,200 metres) and you’re constantly climbing up or down. The stairs are all different heights, so you have to pay attention to each footfall or you could twist an ankle.

Well, I don’t think they should give Oscars for roles that small, but I appreciate the compliment. My favourite thing about that film was sitting with Bruce Dern in the diner attached to the hotel, listening to him tell stories about his life as an actor. Many of those stories are in his autobiography, so if you’re envious that I got to sit with that great man and hear his tales, you can pick up the book and hear them yourself.

I have read a lot about Shakespeare. I find him funny and fascinating. I have not read a lot of Shakespeare. I have not seen much Shakespeare. But I would like to have a go, just to make myself suffer.

Bob Newhart. Bob Elliott, from the 1950s American comedy duo Bob and Ray. And let’s go with Robert De Niro, although I don’t know him well enough to call him Bob.

Oh – because of the resemblance, facially? I used to get it a lot because I looked more like him when I was younger. I’ll say Field of Dreams.

That’s a very good question, because it kind of did. I did keep going and chose to work, but I’m not going to keep working at the same level. It made me think how fragile life is, and how hard it is to appreciate life when you’re over-scheduled. When you’ve got too many responsibilities and too much to do, you can’t appreciate each thing you do. You just have to move quickly to the next thing. I don’t like that.

If that heart attack gave me any gift, it was the realisation that I didn’t want to carry on that way, so now I am slowing down. The thing is, I had signed up to a lot of responsibilities before I had that heart attack. I had years of projects to follow through on. But now, I’m just going to go to Paris with my wife and do fuck all.