Better Call Saul actor Bob Odenkirk revealed that his character Jimmy McGill’s resentful actions in series took a toll on actor in real life.
Better Call Saul, which is a spin-off series of hit drama Breaking Bad, revolves around Jimmy, who is caught up in a lot of emotional intensity.
Spoiler: In the final season, Jimmy and Kim (Rhea Seehorn) use their powers to tarnish Howard’s reputation and it ultimately leads to his shocking and tragic death.
In a recent appearance on Hot Ones, Odenkirk was asked if playing Jimmy took any kind of toll on him? the actor responded “very much so.”
He also revealed that he found it extremely draining to have to embody such a resentful man. “I don’t like it. Very upsetting, very unnerving to play a guy [who is resentful].”
In fact, the experience of playing Jimmy even impacted the way he looks at life as he said, “I remember reading about Bryan [Cranston] playing Walter White and I remember reading about [James] Gandolfini playing Tony Soprano and the frustrations that they felt with the challenge of just staying in that guy’s head.”
“And I would be like, well come on, it’s acting, I mean how hard could that be? And then I got to do ‘Saul’ and I was like, ‘Oh, this is expletive hard.'”
The actor went on to explaining that it’s so difficult because you stay in your character for about 12 hours a day, for months at a time.
“You know that they say don’t hold on to resentments … It’s true. I mean, don’t. expletive it. Compartmentalize, let go of that expletive because it’s just killing you … It’s gonna hurt you more than it hurts anyone you resent.”