10 Quick Questions for Bob Odenkirk

Any revelations from your heart attack?

I had no magical experience of the afterlife at all. It was a complete blank. But what I did have was the sense there was for sure a harsh limit on time. When it ends it ends. So whatever you’re doing that you’re not enjoying — and sometimes [it’s] stuff that you used to enjoy — ask yourself how much longer you really want to be doing it. You become aware of how hard it is for people to change their fundamental way, which of course means yourself. So, if you want to be a different person, if you want to live the rest of this life a healthier person, or a more free person, or a person with less responsibilities, you have to make some choices to allow you to do that. And they’re going to be hard to make. They’re not easy. I don’t even think people really talk about retiring anymore, and that’s probably a good thing, because you don’t get to retire from being yourself, and that’s what you want to change very often — sort of your fundamental drives.

Any changes you want to make?

I want to put more space in my life and have less rushing around. I’ve done so many wonderful things in the last 15 years: the TV shows I’ve been allowed to do, and the movies I’ve been allowed to do, and my kids growing up and doing really good. But you can’t enjoy any of it if all you do is rush from one responsibility to the next.

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It hasn’t even been a year since we said goodbye to Saul Goodman, and yet here you are starring in another series.

It was at least six months before finishing Better Call Saul [and] my wife [Naomi Yomtov], who is my manager along with her business partner, sent me the script. They send me scripts all the time, mostly feature films, but some other things, too, if they think I’d be interested. I read this and liked it very much. I particularly like how different it was from Saul, in his relationship to the world, but also just the tone of it. It’s not a genre piece. It’s a comedy drama, kind of right down the middle. And the more you watch it, the more you’ll see what I mean. Just a unique tone. Something I associate with Alexander Payne films, which I really love, and something that is really hard to do. I’m up for doing something that’s really, really hard  — whether it’s me as an action star or anything that sounds like it’s probably not going to work — I’m up for trying it.

So you like a challenge?

It piqued my interest to be doing something just out of reach. I don’t understand anything that’s kind of right down the middle or feels like it’s well-tread territory. The thing I know best is sketch comedy, and l would love to do more of that, [but] even there I would have to do something that was a little out of the box for me to care about it for any length of time.

What show are you finding really funny right now?

I love the TV show The Bear. I love Severance. Severance is really funny. It makes me laugh all the time. … There’s a thing called On Cinema at the Cinema, which is a parody movie review show. But it’s really all these intriguing backstories of these idiotic characters. I find that very, very funny and smart.

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You’ve won Emmys for your comedy writing on Saturday Night Live and The Ben Stiller Show. But after playing him for 12 years, how do you feel about many viewers forever thinking of you as Saul?

Obviously, if you’re going to get typecast, being typecast with a character that has that much dynamic range of character is probably pretty great … so I'm good with getting pegged as the guy who played Jimmy McGill.