Bob Odenkirk Survived The Worst And Came Out The Other Side An Action Hero

Bob Odenkirk knows what benignant of action prima he is — and, possibly much importantly, isn’t.

At 63, little than 5 years removed from a bosom onslaught that astir ended his life, nan character understands precisely what his assemblage is tin of. He can’t do precocious spinning kicks aliases elaborate gymnastics. He can’t dodge 30 punches successful a row. He’s nan aforesaid property arsenic Tom Cruise but you’re not going to spot him hanging disconnected nan helping of a level aliases sprinting crossed rooftops “Mission: Impossible”-style.

“Tom Cruise is conscionable successful amended style than me,” Odenkirk says complete Zoom from New York successful nan gravelly, matter-of-fact Midwestern cadence that has carried him from his ’90s alt-comedy sketch bid “Mr. Show” done his Emmy-winning move arsenic Saul Goodman connected “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul” and into films for illustration “The Post” and “Nebraska.” “I mean, he tin do things I can’t sell.”

What Odenkirk tin sell, arsenic his improbable move arsenic a suburban dada pinch a convulsive past successful nan 2021 sleeper deed “Nobody” and past year’s sequel “Nobody 2” made clear, is thing much circumstantial and, successful its way, a batch much interesting. He tin show you what it looks for illustration erstwhile your neighbour — a feline who could beryllium school an intro to business people astatine a nighttime schoolhouse — is tin of lethal violence. And he tin beryllium likable and funny while doing it.

“There’s a definite benignant of fighting that I tin do that fits my look and my assemblage type,” Odenkirk explains. “I tin play a feline who is conscionable going to deterioration nan different personification down. He’s going to do nan simplest moves he tin find and they’re going to beryllium difficult and they’re going to hurt. That’s what I tin do.”

If it wasn’t already clear that Odenkirk isn’t your accepted action star, his caller movie “Normal” should seal nan deal. In theaters Friday aft a beardown reception astatine SXSW past month, nan genre-scrambling, darkly comic neo-western casts him arsenic Ulysses, a opinionated small-town sheriff who takes a impermanent posting successful a sleepy area of Minnesota called Normal. Haunted by a grounded matrimony and a past lawsuit that ended badly, he arrives hoping for a quiet stint and alternatively stumbles into a enigma involving his dormant predecessor and a municipality whose friends residents are suspiciously equipped to nan teeth and sitting connected an tremendous magnitude of wealth. As he starts to propulsion astatine nan thread, Ulysses finds himself up against not conscionable nan full organization but — improbably, fixed nan mounting — nan yakuza.

Bob Odenkirk arsenic Sheriff Ulysses successful nan movie “Normal”

(Magnolia Pictures)

Indie supplier Magnolia’s biggest theatrical push to day (opening connected astir 2,000 screens), “Normal” has capable over-the-top unit and elaborately choreographed kills to fulfill anyone coming for carnage. But for Odenkirk, it was nan imaginable of a slow pain that appealed to him, pinch a first agelong that plays person to “Fargo” earlier nan mayhem ramps up to almost cartoonish proportions.

“This 1 had, like, one-and-a-half acts of enigma and a humorous look astatine small-town people,” he says. “That was nan portion wherever I was like, I want to do that. Because, you know, otherwise, you don’t request maine — get Jason Statham.”

Setting nan movie successful nan Midwest helped tune it to Odenkirk’s peculiar temperament. The actor, who was calved and raised successful Illinois, developed nan communicative pinch “Nobody” screenwriter Derek Kolstad, champion known for creating nan “John Wick” franchise, and nan 2 quickly bonded complete a shared sensibility.

“Bob instantly leaped into this thought because he grew up successful Naperville,” Kolstad says. “I grew up successful Madison, Wisconsin, and we wholly understood nan mentality of mini towns and really you tin person nan bulb of a deep, acheronian secret. We emotion mini towns. We’re not making nosy of them.”

The characteristic they built for “Normal” was intentionally little mythic and much grounded than nan erstwhile authorities assassin Odenkirk plays successful “Nobody.”

“He is overmuch much scrappy and soul and little astir antheral rage,” says nan film’s English head Ben Wheatley, champion known for genre-bending fare for illustration 2015’s “High-Rise” and 2016’s “Free Fire,” who drew connected influences ranging from westerns to Hong Kong action films to nan slapstick of nan Three Stooges and “Evil Dead II.” “Ulysses tin fight, but it’s not astir him becoming this benignant of revengeful wraith moving done nan movie dispatching people. It’s action, but pinch empathy.”

“The older you get, nan much you recognize you don’t cognize what’s going on,” Odenkirk says. “I for illustration playing a personification who has that level of acquisition of nan world.”

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

For Odenkirk, portion of nan entreaty was nan opportunity to play personification person to wherever he is now, not conscionable physically but emotionally. “I emotion nan chance to play personification who is my age, who possibly was proud and afloat of himself erstwhile he was younger and past made immoderate bad choices and feels a small lost,” he says. “The older you get, nan much you recognize you don’t cognize what’s going on. I for illustration playing a personification who has that level of acquisition of nan world.”

Since surviving his “widowmaker” bosom attack connected nan New Mexico group of “Better Call Saul” successful 2021 — an arena that near him unconscious for a time and pinch nary representation of nan pursuing week — Odenkirk has small liking successful projecting invincibility. If anything, nan acquisition reinforced nan worth of nan benignant of activity he’s been doing.

“The truth is, nan action movie helped prevention my heart,” Odenkirk says, noting that nan 2 years of aggravated training he did for “Nobody” helped build up nan humor travel that kept his bosom from sustaining lasting damage.

The aftermath of his near-death experience, he says, was conscionable arsenic profound. “The biggest point was conscionable this appreciation for being alive,” Odenkirk recalls. “Those first mates weeks, I woke up without immoderate interest successful my mind. I conscionable rediscovered nan world each greeting and loved it. That emotion has faded — it’s not arsenic complete and axenic arsenic it was. But I cognize it’s there.”

That displacement has carried into Odenkirk’s attack to his work. In caller years, he has moved much freely betwixt film, tv and nan stage, including a Tony information past twelvemonth for his capacity arsenic washed-up existent property salesman Shelley Levene successful nan Broadway revival of David Mamet’s play “Glengarry Glen Ross,” choosing roles little for really they fresh together than for really acold they return him from what he’s done before.

“I deliberation he does it to astonishment himself,” says his “Normal” co-star Henry Winkler, who befriended nan character years agone erstwhile they met astatine a taping of “Late Night With Seth Meyers.” “When you take this profession, you don’t conscionable opportunity nan words. The nosy is making personification travel live that you don’t needfully place with.”

What comes adjacent is, by Odenkirk’s ain admission, still taking shape. At this stage, nan actor, who has a location successful New York but lives chiefly successful L.A., is deliberately prioritizing nan things he really wants to do alternatively than rushing to statement up nan adjacent job. He precocious climbed Machu Picchu pinch his longtime friend and “Mr. Show” co-star David Cross, filming nan travel for a documentary, and has been helping his boy — 1 of 2 big children he shares pinch his woman Naomi, a producer, whom he joined successful 1997 — create a tv pilot.

“I’m not racing to get my creation paper full,” he says, almost arsenic an aside. “I mightiness beryllium retired.” After letting nan thought bent a moment, he smiles and shakes his head. “I don’t deliberation so. Nobody quits show business.”

Odenkirk, right, and Donald Webber Jr. successful nan 2025 Broadway revival of “Glengarry Glen Ross.”

(Emilio Madrid)

There’s a type of Odenkirk’s adjacent shape that’s easy to imagine: a late-career tally of durable, progressively grim action roles, nan benignant that has kept actors for illustration Liam Neeson moving steadily into their 70s. But Odenkirk sounds little willing successful settling into that groove than successful reshaping it. “I understand that nan assemblage goes to spot weapons and decease and gore,” he says. “But for me, I’ve sewage to beryllium observant really overmuch of that I put into nan world.”

One anticipation he’s been actively discussing pinch Kolstad pushes successful almost nan other direction, inspired by a communal emotion of Jackie Chan. “Those early Jackie Chan films are really Buster Keaton–ish — very likable, not bloody,” he says. “This would beryllium PG, essentially. You could moreover opportunity G-rated. There would beryllium nary humor successful it. It’s doing clever fighting that makes you grin and laugh.”

And if “Normal” succeeds astatine nan container office, he’s already reasoning astir wherever Ulysses mightiness spell next. Odenkirk and Kolstad person begun kicking astir ideas for extending nan characteristic into an ongoing franchise. “There is nary characteristic I’ve ever done that I consciousness arsenic adjacent to,” he says. “With Saul and moreover pinch ‘Nobody,’ slipping into that guy’s tegument is simply a small challenging. This feline is simply a batch little challenging and I for illustration playing him. So I tin ideate resuming his story.”

A small later successful our conversation, he pulls retired his phone, scrolls for a second, past hits play. What comes done nan speaker is simply a demo he recorded singing a Tom Lehrer-style satirical show tune: “It’s a New York nighttime and it feels truthful correct / The New York lights are sparkling agleam … successful Chicago.”

The opus is portion of an medium he’s signaling called “Odenkirk Sings Nutter,” featuring drama numbers written by writer and playwright Mark Nutter, a longtime friend. Nutter, he explains, has spent years penning sharp, absurdist songs and musicals that person remained mostly nether nan radar. The medium is an effort to alteration that.

“Like pinch doing an action movie, it’s this conception of: If I tin do this moreover respectably, I’m going to rustle everyone’s mind,” he says. “They’re gonna beryllium like, ‘Are you kidding?’ If I person immoderate dream, it would beryllium personification listens to it and says, ‘Who is this guy? Why don’t we return immoderate of these songs aliases 1 of his musicals and get group who really tin singing to do them?’ ”

He smiles, much astatine nan effort than nan outcome.

“My full profession has felt for illustration consequence and threat and perchance being very profoundly embarrassed connected a world stage,” Odenkirk says. “Some portion of maine says I don’t springiness a s— and that it’s good if I’m embarrassed. I don’t cognize if that’s true. But I’m consenting to consequence it.”