The greatness of Bob Odenkirk

If viewers of Breaking Bad had taken bets during the show’s original run on which of the cast was likely to become a breakout action-film star a decade after the series finished airing, Bob Odenkirk would likely have been near the bottom of that list. The young actor Aaron Paul was perhaps the most obvious prediction, but Jesse Plemons, Dean Norris – even a grizzled and pumped Bryan Cranston – were all more predictable choices to do an alpha-male Liam Neeson-meets-Keanu Reeves act than the foppish comic relief Jimmy McGill, aka criminal lawyer (in both senses) Saul Goodman.

Still, it’s 2025, and Odenkirk has just released the sequel to 2021’s sleeper hit Nobody, which saw him take on the John Wick mantle as Hutch Mansell, a nebbish paterfamilias whose boring suburban life conceals an unexpected past as a deadly assassin. Nobody was hugely entertaining, not least because Odenkirk’s exceptional comic timing and likability meant that what could have been a grim exercise in box-ticking and head-banging instead became delightfully amusing, not least in the near-surreal casting of RZA as Mansell’s adoptive brother.

The sequel, Nobody 2, is more of the same, with Sharon Stone added as a camp villain and an amusingly dreary amusement park setting. And once again the now-62-year-old Odenkirk (looking his age, intentionally) is required to beat seven bells of ordure out of various miscreants who have wronged him and his family. It’s great, unpretentious fun, although it seems to be underperforming at the box office; at this rate, there will not be a Nobody 3. That’s a pity, because the film is a demonstration of the versatility of an actor who seems capable of doing virtually anything, and doing it exceptionally well. For a man who looks like a natural Sir Andrew Aguecheek from Twelfth Night, knock-kneed and lily-livered, he proves a great pleasure to watch kick ass and take names with the best of them.

Still, if Odenkirk is now a household name thanks to Breaking Bad and its successor Better Call Saul, in which he took center stage and added shadings of drama and existential despair to his hitherto-jovial fraudster, it has been a long, grueling journey to A-list status. Throughout the Nineties and Noughties, he did all the things that a comic actor was expected to – appearing on Saturday Night Live and writing for it; taking part in some of the great sitcoms of the era, from Seinfeld to Arrested Development; making cameos in big comedy pictures such as Wayne’s World 2 and The Cable Guy – but nothing seemed to stick. It was not until Saul Goodman came opportunistically knocking that Odenkirk’s career went into the stratosphere, and he must thank his lucky stars for Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan each and every day. Even a heart attack a few years ago on the Better Call Saul set could not dent his prowess, thankfully.

He recently made a well-received Broadway debut as the once-successful, now-flailing real estate salesman Shelly “The Machine” Levene (a role previously played by the likes of Jack Lemmon and Al Pacino), showing his ability to combine humor and pathos with extraordinary skill. He has plenty of film work coming up – indeed, his appearance as the oft-absent March family patriarch in Greta Gerwig’s Little Women suggests that he is just as adept at period drama as he is at contemporary comedy – but it would be a pleasure to see this fine and versatile actor return to the stage in anything from Shakespeare to contemporary plays. Odenkirk would make for a superb Willy Loman, a heartbreaking Malvolio or a hilarious Richard III. Yet in any case, whatever he does next will be worth watching. He may have known what it’s like to be a nobody for a prolonged period of time, but now, at last, the former Mr. Show has attained the prominence that he deserves.