Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/461818
BS: [Laughs] "Don't dream big." BO: [Laughs] My autobiography: Grounded Dreams. BS: [Laughs] "Don't shoot for the stars." BO: Absolutely! Shoot low. Aim low, and you might end up in the stars. BS: Seriously, though, did you ever imagine that your career would lead you to what you're doing now as a dramatic actor? BO: No. The only thing I would say is this, Ben: When I was onstage—and the same is true when I was doing Mr. Show with David Cross—at Second City [with] Chris Farley, and we did stuff with Andy Dick, these are people who are great sketch actors. They really are fun to watch. When you walk out onstage, you smile right away because there's just a funny physical presence, and I never had that. The only thing I thought was that if anybody ever gave me a chance to do drama, I might sit there better than I do in sketch comedy. I asked [Breaking Bad creator] Vince [Gilligan] why he let me have this opportunity—what did he see? I thought he'd say The Larry Sanders Show, and he said Mr. Show. BS: I find it all based in commitment, and your super-high level of commitment to whatever ridiculous character situations made it even funnier. BO: And I think that's why other comic actors often surprise people, and it seems like every year there are one or two great opportunities for a comic actor, and they surprise everyone. The weird thing is oftentimes when seri- ous actors try to do comedy—they think it means, "Act goofy all the time." Most of what we do in sketch comedy is about what you said: plain commit- ment, playing like you believe it. I had a great opportunity, and I'm loving these opportunities that I've gotten since Breaking Bad. I still don't think like an actor when I'm not acting; as soon as I walk off the set, I just start going, "What are the comedy bits I could write?" BS: Most actors walk off the set and go, "Where's my next job coming from?" The thing about sketch comedy writing is that nobody's ever going to offer you that—you have to create it. Do you feel the Second City environment had something to do specifically with a Chicago attitude? BO: Absolutely. I didn't go through the program at Second City, which at the time was not nearly as official as it is now, but the fact is the attitude of Second City and the ethos of it infuses everybody in Chicago who's doing sketch or even acting. They're very serious about improvisation, but more about some of these basic rules that Del Close put forth, like, "Play to your intelligence," and "Don't do TV parody," and "Don't try to be funny." They're trying to make you be an actor and play the reality of the scene and let it be funny because of the humanity of it. BS: Which was a highly revolutionary idea probably at that time, too. BO: I met Keith Johnstone, who wrote this book Impro, which is the first book I read about improv and was the book I was actually purchasing at Barbara's Bookstore in Chicago when I met Del Close, which is crazy— BS: Wow. BO: I was in Calgary shooting Fargo last year, and I found out Keith Johnstone lives there, and I met him and hung out with him twice. He wrote this first book really on improvisation, and he told me that [he] never meant for it to be a com- edy. The book was to give dramatic actors the tools to surprise themselves and disarm their brain from plotting and planning—to really just "be in the moment." BS: Which is a really valid thing in terms of acting technique. Let me just ask you about the pressure—going into Second City, the audience is expecting to laugh, so there is a knowledge in your head that you have to figure out the funny aspect of what you're doing. Have you felt the difference as you've become a guy who now works outside of com- edy—less pressure to have to be funny? BO: I think when I'm doing a drama, I don't have to be funny at all. BS: Do you go to work in the morning like, "OK, I don't have to make people laugh" ? BO: Even though I've done it a certain amount, you've got to realize it's still kind of new to me, Ben. I'm like, "What's going on?" BS: OK, because if I'm directing a comedy and then I put the movie in front of an audience, I know when it's working because the audience is laughing at the jokes, and when you do drama it's all open for inter- pretation. It's a different sort of criteria for what's working. BO: Yeah, and that's intimidating to me, and when I walk away from Better Call Saul, there's a lot of intense s*** going on. There's a lot of self-revealing and self-discovery and clashing of people's emotions and desires—I mean, these guys write really intense stuff, and it's the same writers from Breaking Bad, and I've wondered, I hope I didn't overplay it. BS: I have to say, I've just gotten so much enjoyment out of watching you do this and seeing this other side of what you do so well, and it's a natu- ral progression because we're talking about how you approach the work, but it's very unexpected in a great way. And I'm excited about seeing you as the lead of the show, because that's a new thing, isn't it? BO: Oh yeah. BS: Is that a different experience? BO: I try not to think about it. It's not like a movie—in a feature, you probably feel more weight on your shoulders. I feel like the lead of this show is Vince Gilligan, who did the writing, and I'm one of the supporting players—I really do. I may have the most lines by a lot, but maybe it's just me psyching myself out. BS: I do that too; I have to just go, It 's just us in the room here trying stuff, because otherwise it can be paralyzing. BO: Yeah, that's how I felt about it, and you maybe don't even notice this "I stIll don't thInk lIke an actor when I'm not actIng. as soon as I walk off the set, I just start goIng, 'what are the comedy bIts I could wrIte?'" —bob odenkirk opposite page: Wool sport coat, Brooks Brothers ($898). 713 N. Michigan Ave., 312-915-0060; brooksbrothers.com. Shirt ($495), tie ($245), and shoes ($925), Giorgio Armani. 800 N. Michigan Ave., 312-573-4220; armani.com. Trousers, Brioni ($2,600). 12 E. Walton St., 312-649-9100; brioni.com 102 michiganavemag.com