What makes Bob Odenkirk more than a Nobody in the action genre?

We’ve seen a lot of unexpected action stars over the years – you don’t look at Liam Neeson or Paul Rudd or Chris Pratt and think, Yeah, give this dude a franchise full of set pieces. This might especially be so with Bob Odenkirk, who we all love yet would have pinned as someone who would throw a punch. Come on, the most action we could see this guy doing is writing Chris Farley tossing himself through a coffee table. Yet, Odenkirk has some newfound respect thanks to Nobody, the sequel of which just came out this past week. So how does he pull it off?

When it comes to being an action star thanks to Nobody, Bob Odenkirk says it’s his everyman qualities that help him relate to the audience. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t have to put the work in to get fit enough to make it all believable on the screen, saying he wanted to turn a comedy writer’s body into that of an action star. “I put in the hours because I’m kind of nuts that way. I can be really determined and unflagging about these things. With the first film, I was challenging myself. When you get older and you turn 50, you think, what can I do that will make me a different person, because I’ve been this guy for long enough…I’m not cool, I’m not young, I’m not handsome. What do I have to offer in this genre? Even Jason Statham is a genuinely tough guy. I’m not. But I am relatable. I’m just like you.”

Bob Odenkirk had a similar sentiment that he shared with our own Chris Bumbray (embedded above) when promoting Nobody 2, saying, “I’m not young, I’m not handsome – don’t argue with me – but I could add vulnerability…A lot of the action characters from the last 20 years…they don’t really show any weakness. And they don’t degrade over the course of the story.” You can check out more of our interviews with Odenkirk and the cast of Nobody 2 here.

No doubt that is part of the charm that Bob Odenkirk brings to the movies’ hero, Hutch Mansell, a self-proclaimed “nobody” who has to come to terms with his past life as an assassin. And Odenkirk is ready to keep it going, as he has teased that he would be down for more movies in the series.

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