Saul's Kim Wexler gives us the lowdown on being a part of the 'Breaking Bad' universe.
Rhea Seehorn made waves on stage well before she moved to Hollywood. After years of watching Breaking Bad and gaining small roles including appearances on Burn Notice and The Closer, Seehorn scored a game-changing role as Bob Odenkirk's more serious counterpart Kim Wexler on AMC's Better Call Saul. Myspace caught up with Seehorn about her new role and learned what she could and could not tell us.
What questions do people ask you that you hate being asked?
I hate when people ask questions with the intention of misquoting you. Or basically, I don't like being purposely misquoted. Someone claimed I said Walter White was going to be in season one, and not only did I not say that, I never answered that person's question at all. I don't think people realize we sign non-disclosure agreements! I'd be in trouble even if you tried to say I said that, you know what I mean? My fiancée doesn't know what's going to happen.
What was it like to go from watching Breaking Bad to starring in Better Call Saul?
There was a little break. I think if I got hired the second after the series finale, that would have been weirder. The most daunting part was just meeting them. I auditioned with casting directors Sharon Bialy, Sherry Thomas and Russell Scott—they'd seen me for years for other things, and I felt really good about creating a character and work-shopping it with Sharon before anyone else ever saw me.
These people are at the top of their game. It doesn't mean what I do isn't great, but I definitely need to bring my A game. Once we started, it was clear we were going to do our own thing. It's clearly a prequel with its own origin stories, and there's some homage to that show, but it's its own vehicle. It feels like playing in a new sandbox. We got picked for the team: now play.
I feel like you're the break out star of the show.
Thank you! I feel like that's Bob Odenkirk, personally. People didn't realize his acting range before. He was known as a comic, but I don't think anyone expected him to be so three dimensional and strange and different but perfectly matching. He's created a real deep portrait of his character.
How much of Kim's character is your doing versus the writers?
I'm thrilled and it's been grateful to work this season; you're seeing a lot more Kim this season and her development, but that's the writers. I was as surprised as anybody. I knew she wasn't going to be a tertiary character—the writing staff doesn't do any characters like that—but I feel like our writers have brought back a lot of pride to the terms "supporting character" and "supporting actress."
There's a lot that goes unsaid and playing subtext. So, it's hard to accept that they've developed it with the actors in mind, but they've said they've been inspired us. But we don’t change a comma, we don't change an apostrophe. Kim doesn't use nearly as much contractions as I do in real life. [laughs] And that's all for a reason!
In Season 1, you don't know Kim as a character yet, but you can somehow tell Jimmy likes Kim. It doesn't happen till the end of the season, but you still know through subtext.
There's a scene in Season 1, there's a sentence that's my favorite, and it's said over two people. We're in the parking lot, splitting a cigarette after he's gone to Hamlin and kicked a trash can. He takes a cigarette out of my mouth and puts it back in: right there, clearly something deep when the person doesn't fight you on putting something back in their mouth. And then he says "Couldn't you just—" and I say "—you know, I can't." And in order for that to work, it needs to have been something said before. And I pick up the trash can without even looking at it. It's just a perfectly layered history. It's perfect subtext.
What do people never ask you that you wish they asked?
You have to preface this, if you don't I'm going to look like an asshole. [laughs] It's not that I wish I was asked about this, but I wish this was talked about more: there's a lot of talk about women on camera, and diversity, and there should be. I would like to turn to the women behind the camera; we need that talk just as much, if not more. I'm surrounded with some of the most powerful women I've ever worked with on this show, and it's great.
It's an origin story about male characters, but the women are never tertiary. Off-camera, there are incredible head writers, executive producers, Melissa Bernstein and Nina Jack and Gennifer Hutchison. We have electrical grips, and positions that you may not think are always men, until you see a woman walk by carrying two tons of camera equipment and go, "that's awesome!" I won't name everybody, but it's great, and the best part is, nothing feels like "…and here comes the woman, ‘cause we had to give her a chance!" It's not token at all.
If you look at which episodes Gen Hutchison wrote, that will dispel any notion that women can't do dark stuff, or that they're there just to write girls' dialogue. And I'm proud of that. The storytelling feels super three dimensional, and I think having the extra and equal perspective is a major part of that.