Bob Odenkirk: "Cinema is a lifesaver"

"I wanted to distract myself from the nightmare around me."

Actor, comedian, screenwriter and film producer Bob Odenkirk adjusts his baseball cap and keeps talking.

"It was April 2020 and we were in full lockdown,

, terrible news was coming from the world... My children were locked in their rooms teaching remotely. Making a film was a way to get back in touch with what I do in life: acting. Film is a lifesaver, both for those who make it and for those who see it."

The guy who became a global star thanks to his role as an underworld lawyer in the series

and its prequel,

, now stars in the film

, directed by Cecilia Miniucchi and with Danny Huston and Radha Mitchell. in the cast.

The plot:

in their homes during the pandemic.

A situation that will force them to examine their relationships and themselves.

The actor has traveled to the Venice Film Festival to present the film, but we spoke with the person who gives life to Jimmy McGill (Berwyn, Illinois, United States, 59 years old) via Zoom a few hours after the broadcast in his country of the last installment of the

(no

: a memorable ending).

Actor Bob Odenkirk in 'Better Call Saul'.

"Do you know that in the last shot of

I did not experience a feeling as strong as the one I have now, the feeling that

and another began? The truth is that I am sad because it has already been finished, but I am also proud and happy to have had this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that changed everything for me. Today Better Call Saul is behind and Venice is ahead."

Odenkirk now plays an art gallery owner with a distracted ethic, another one of those characters he manages to endow with a painful humanity.

"What an ugly person, right? I always try to give dignity to these roles, but in this case... Cecilia's script, written right

, I really liked. We made some changes and started shooting each one by his side, hoping that with the end of the confinement, a year and a half later, when we were all vaccinated, we would be able to shoot the opening and closing scenes normally".

"One of the producers had made two devices in which two small iPhone and iPad tripods were inserted. In the morning he left this disinfected material at the door of each actor's house and that's how we started shooting. Everything was remote, even

. And yet I'm still very proud of the film. Normally you have colleagues on the set, in the crew, you work in a group... There was none of that here, all there was was loneliness. But then claustrophobia ends and everything flows again.

Odenkirk confesses that the film's atmosphere reminds him of

's films .

"I'm a big fan of his movies and his stories. When I started in comedy, he was my reference," he admits.

"In

, a character as unlikable as mine ends up finding his dignity because the viewer understands that his gallery is really his reason for being. You manage to get into his life."

A year ago, on the set of

, Odenkirk suffered a heart attack.

He is alive today only because an actress had just taken a course in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and, that same day, he had a

of her car to return to a nurse friend.

After that event, many of his fans expressed their love for him.

"Nobody was more surprised than me. I still can't explain it. But that great love I felt during my convalescence has stayed with me, it accompanies me every day," he confesses.

It's hard to believe that Odenkirk has been awarded a star on the sidewalk of Hollywood Boulevard with other giants of the entertainment world, that he has acted for

(

) and that he has also achieved the fame of an action hero.

The actor started out as a comedian and the rest of his career is one of unlikely success.

"Everything we do in this business is risky, a leap in the dark. As actors we have to trust the script, the director, our feelings. It's like jumping off a cliff hoping that underneath there is someone who has placed a net It is a matter of trust in those around you, "he concludes.

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