bob odenkirk carol burnett photo

‘Breaking Bad’s Bob Odenkirk Opens Up About Working With ‘Legend’ Carol Burnett

Bob Odenkirk of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul has nothing but high praise for working with the legendary Carol Burnett. She appeared in the Breaking Bad prequel’s final season.

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“She’s just a great actress — completely connected, completely grounded, utterly with it,” Odenkirk said during a virtual conversation as part of Deadline‘s Contenders TV. “With somebody who’s a legend like that, someone who’s older, you worry if you’re going to have to work around them a little — and not at all.” Odenkirk, a two-time Emmy winner, also said, “She was utterly present, ready to rip it up. She knew her lines, she knew her part so well…It was a beautiful performance. She must get nominated now, come on.”

Bob Odenkirk Character Lines Up With Carol Burnett’s Character, Marion

Burnett’s character, Marion, is a native of Omaha, Nebraska. She meets the man known as Slippin’ Jimmy McGill and Saul Goodman while he’s living on the run, using the alias Gene Takovic. Both of them share a tender moment or two at the start of Season 6. But Marion eventually comes to suspect that something about Gene is not quite right.

Bob Odenkirk gets joined for Sunday’s conversation on the 46-time Emmy-nominated series by his co-star Rhea Seehorn, who appeared virtually. Co-creator, showrunner, and executive producer Peter Gould joined moderator Dominic Patten in person at the DGA Theater.

Show Flashes Back To Look At How McGill Became Saul Goodman

The show, produced for AMC by Sony Pictures Television, has while flashing forward to track the life of Takovic, flashed back. It examines how fledgling attorney McGill became Saul Goodman of Breaking Bad fame. The final season concludes the complicated journey of its compromised hero, tracking Jimmy, Saul, and Gene, as well as Jimmy’s complex relationship with Kim (Seehorn). She is in the midst of her own existential crisis.

Over the course of the Contenders’ chat, Gould, Odenkirk and Seehorn reflected on the interplay between their series and Breaking Bad. They talk about how working on BCS may or may not have made them see the Bryan Cranston starrer in a new light.

Gould backed the notion that “without Saul Goodman, there would’ve been no Walter White.” But Bob Odenkirk had a different thought. “I think that Walter White would’ve still been Walter White without Saul, he just wouldn’t have lived as long, obviously. He would’ve had a shorter run,” said the actor-producer. “[But] I think Breaking Bad is the mothership. That’s how I feel about it.”

Better Call Saul is back in the Emmys race this season. It has Season 6 episodes that didn’t air within last year’s eligibility window.. It was co-created by Vince Gilligan and Gould.