“Better Call Saul” star Bob Odenkirk went through the ringer filming the “Breaking Bad” prequel’s final season. Odenkirk was hospitalized in July 2021 after collapsing on the set of “Better Call Saul.” Ge had a heart attack that required the use of a defibrillator on set and operation to remove plaque buildup from his heart. According to the New York Times, Odenkirk doesn’t remember anything about the heart attack and his co-stars Rhea Seehorn and Patrick Fabian were the ones who immediately found him medical attention.
The series’ final six episodes begin airing on July 11 after the midseason finale cliffhanger that left Fabian’s Howard Hamlin dead, murdered in cold blood by Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton) in front of Saul and Kim (Seehorn). “I think I like it, but I was pretty wiped out when I read it in the middle of the night. I think it’s a challenging way to go, to finish the series. It’s not flashy. It’s substantial, and on some level it’s things I hoped for, for years, in this character’s brain,” Odenkirk told the New York Times about the “Better Call Saul” series finale.
Given how long Odenkirk has been playing Saul and working with Gilligan, Gould, and the skilled “Better Call Saul” production team, it’s no wonder the 59-year-old actor reportedly had an emotional reaction to finally finishing his part on the series.
Bob Odenkirk said he got pretty emotional filming the last Better Call Saul episodes
In a recent interview with The Guardian, Bob Odenkirk said he had a small emotional breakdown on the set of “Better Call Saul” as the series approached its final week of production. Odenkirk has been playing Saul since 2009 when the character first appeared in “Breaking Bad” Season 2. While Odenkirk’s career has taken him to all kinds of places — he wrote for “Saturday Night Live” and “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” and co-created HBO’s “Mr. Show” with comedian David Cross — Saul has now been with him for more than a decade.
“The other day, I kind of had a little breakdown on the set, where I got pretty emotional. I couldn’t do the scene,” Odenkirk told the Guardian. “I don’t know what to do about [the series ending]. My brain is like: ‘F*** it. What else we got? Think about something else.'”
For now, it’s unclear exactly what episode or scene Odenkirk may have been filming when the small emotional breakdown occurred. Series writer and director Thomas Schnauz recently wrote on Twitter that Odenkirk’s heart attack happened as the production filmed Season 6 Episode 8, which airs when the final season returns on July 11. With just six episodes to go, there’s certainly plenty to be emotional about ahead as Saul’s story finally wraps up. The Guardian also included an excerpt of Odenkirk’s memoir, in which he wrote that he originally expected Saul to be killed off at any moment while he worked on “Breaking Bad.” That Saul has survived for so long is a testament to the character — and actor’s — skill set. Saul is a survivor, and Odenkirk’s performance imbues it into every scene.
“Every time I was sent a script, I looked for Saul’s death scene. But it never came,” Odenkirk wrote (via The Guardian).
