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Why Nobody 2’s Bob Odenkirk doesn’t want to be another Jason Statham or Liam Neeson

Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul star Bob Odenkirk talks about being a ‘regular guy’ action man and a possible Disco Demolition Night film

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Bob Odenkirk (front) in a still from Nobody 2. The Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul star says he wants to be a different sort of action man than Jason Statham and Liam Neeson, who are “utterly, 100 per cent sure that they’re gonna win this fight”. Photo: AP
Tribune News Service

As with his iconic comedy sketches for Saturday Night Live or Mr Show, just give actor Bob Odenkirk a moment with an idea and he will come up with a premise unique and funny enough to steal attention.

Being able to draw out the funny side in characters such as the scheming Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul helped him find the balance between dark humour and extreme violence in the original Nobody (2021).

“I’m not a handsome guy or a young guy,” says Odenkirk, 62. “I think I work well on the screen as a regular guy who has a certain amount of pressure.”

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In the second instalment of the franchise, Odenkirk returns as Hutch Mansell, the mild-mannered suburban husband and dad with a dark past who stumbles into trouble while taking his family on holiday. On cue, he releases his pent-up rage on irredeemable bad guys in a satisfying comic wave of cathartic violence that often leaves him just as battered and injured as his victims.
Veteran actor Christopher Lloyd, Connie Nielsen and rapper RZA return from the first film, while Colin Hanks and Sharon Stone join the new film as villains.
Bob Odenkirk says he thinks he works well on screen “as a regular guy who has a certain amount of pressure”. Photo: TNS
Bob Odenkirk says he thinks he works well on screen “as a regular guy who has a certain amount of pressure”. Photo: TNS

While the fights in the films are highly choreographed, when Mansell takes a punch to the face, is stabbed or shot, you can see him writhing in agony in a way most film heroes never would. It is something that Odenkirk specifically saw in the early stages of his character.

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