NEW DELHI: Looking back, Bob Odenkirk says he should have been more afraid to be the face of 'Better Call Saul', the critically-acclaimed show that followed up the phenomenon that was 'Breaking Bad'.
"Breaking Bad", he says, had both 'magic and luck' on its side and there were high chances that anything that comes from the same universe would be hated by the fans.
Instead, they loved Better Call Saul, which is more of a deconstruction of how Jimmy McGill, a flawed but good-hearted man, morphs into the confident but shady persona of Saul Goodman.
"I guess it was a little intimidating but it probably should have been more intimidating. I should have been more wary of it. There was a chance that I would have been hated around the world," Odenkirk told PTI in a telephonic interview from Los Angeles.
"I did not know what I was saying 'yes' to. I was just kind of throwing myself in head first and that's because I trusted Peter Gould and Vince Gilligan to do, at the very least, something interesting, he says.
The actor, 55, says in his career spanning 25 years, he has seen a lot of possibilities come and go so there was not much calculation when he accepted the role other than the thought that it would be a wonderful opportunity.
"I have taken my hits and I am not afraid to do that. This role was not written yet and I did not know what I was saying 'yes' to. It was a big deal but it became a bigger deal when the billboards went up for the first season. It finally hit me that everyone is going to at least sample the show and we could get judged very harshly,' he recalls.
"Better Call Saul", currently in its fourth season and airing in India on every Tuesday at 12pm on Colors Infinity, deftly avoided comparisons with the original show by going in a completely opposite direction yet retaining its complexity and the nostalgic appeal.
"It is very hard to succeed on a greater level than 'Breaking Bad'. There are aspects of the show that cannot be replicated by anyone, one of them being the arrival of streaming services. That technology married up with the best show that was built for streaming viewing.
"There is a certain kind of excitement and power to 'Breaking Bad' that we can't duplicate. It is a little bit of magic and luck. It is okay to be left out of that,' he says.
Odenkirk believes one of the things that helped the parent show stand out was that it remained great from beginning till the end.
"I appreciate that people who came from the show set out to make something that was as complex as 'Breaking Bad' and yet we had a different place and tone.
Our goal was to try to do something that was worthy of that legacy and I think we are doing that and we are not done yet.
'The umbilical cord to Breaking Bad remains attached as Better Call Saul continues to traverse through past, present and future in its exploration of Jimmy McGill's transformation into Saul Goodman.
And Odenkirk loves revisiting that universe, which happened in one of the most recent episodes of season four.
The flashback saw him in Goodman's law office just before fleeing to anonymity.
"It was wonderful to play a scene in that crazy, ridiculous lawyer's office with all those props and decoration that Saul Goodman has put up to give himself stature and character. It is fun to revisit that and I like Saul. He is not as complex a character as his fellow Jimmy McGill, who I play in 'Better Call Saul'.
"Saul is a simpler person to play because he has decided he is going to make his life all about being selfish. I like playing Saul when he is in trouble or when he is embarrassing himself." Odenkirk has worked as a writer for TV shows like "Saturday Night Live", "Late Night with Conan OBrien" and "The Dennis Miller Show" before "Breaking Bad" came his way.
He has also directed "Melvin Goes to Dinner", "Let's Go to Prison" and "The Brothers Solomon".