Bob Odenkirk initially snubbed Breaking Bad spin off Better Call Saul - and it's to a surprising source to whom his fans owe thanks for him taking part. The actor opens up...07:26, 27 May 2026Updated 07:26, 27 May 2026Bob Odenkirk achieved worldwide fame as the fast-talking lawyer from Breaking Bad but he initially turned down the chance to star in his own spin-off. The actor, 63, snubbed Better Call Saul because it would take him away from his family – but his kids talked him into accepting his biggest role. He says: “I wasn’t going to do it. I wasn’t that intimidated. I should have been because it was a bigger acting role than I’d ever prepared for. It was simply that I had kids at home and so I just said no.”‌READ MORE: Grey's Anatomy star Sandra Oh admits feeling 'terrible' at new career move and says she's 'afraid'But his children Nathan, then 13, and Erin, then 11, had other ideas. Bob says: “They heard me on the phone saying ‘no.’ I hung up the phone and my son said, ‘Dad, you’re not going to do that show?’ And I said, ‘No, I can’t do it.’ He goes, ‘Well, you’re going to disappoint a lot of people.’ And I said, ‘I’m going to disappoint a lot of strangers. So I don’t really care about them.’ Then he said, ‘Well, some are my friends.’ Anyway, we talked. He said he’d be willing to help out at home.”‌‌Daughter Erin was the one who changed his mind, saying she too would support their producer mum Naomi Yomtov, who is also Bob’s talent manager. Bob says: “My daughter was 11. And she then talked to me about it too, and said, ‘We’ll help out. We’ll help Mom.’ Of course, Sony thought I was trying to get more money out of them. And they called back the next day and said, ‘OK, we’ll give you this.’ And I was like, ‘What?’ And that’s not why I did that.”The show was a critical and ­audience success and Bob was nominated for six Emmys. It was another ­unorthodox move in a career in which Bob hit the heights of the comedy scene. Now he is showing off his prowess as an action star in the new movie Normal. It’s a far cry from his roots growing up in suburban Chicago. Bob credits UK comedy with helping him to the top, saying Monty Python became his “religion” and he also loved The Goodies and The Two Ronnies. He says: “Look, all I ever wanted to do was be in Monty Python. That was my dream.”He grew up with six siblings, and his father Walter worked in a printing business and struggled with alcoholism, which influenced Bob to largely avoid booze. In his memoir Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama he wrote: “My dad was rough and too intense, and those were his good qualities.”‌School gave him little direction and he said: “I figured I’d work in forestry. In high school I filled out some kind of career-planning assessment and it said: ‘Go into the forest and don’t come back.’” At Southern Illinois University he studied radio and television, working as a DJ at the campus radio station.He also met lifelong friend Robert Smigel, who was hired by legendary US TV comedy show Saturday Night Live. Two years later Bob followed, aged just 25. After SNL he co-created Mr Show with Smigel, which ran from 1995 to 1998, and in 1999 he scored a guest role in hit US sitcom Seinfeld and as a police chief in Fargo in 2014.‌Bob’s role in Breaking Bad, as corrupt lawyer Saul Goodman, came about because creator Vince Gilligan and writer Peter Gould were fans of Mr Show. It was towards the end of season two when Bob watched his first episode on a flight to New Mexico and “got it”. What was intended as a guest spot became an ongoing role until the show concluded in 2013.The spin-off Better Call Saul began in 2015. After that Bob reinvented himself as an action star in Nobody, which opened at No 1 in 2021. A sequel followed in 2025. And now he is starring in Normal, directed by Brit Ben Wheatley. He says: “The notion of action was just because I was curious if I could make a feature film on a bigger scale. I enjoy trying something that’s 180 degrees from whatever I just did. Keep yourself awake. Try something really out of the box.”*Adapted from The Arts Hour, available now on BBC Sounds.Article continues belowREAD MORE: Freddie Mercury's world brought to life as fans can smell his cologne and eat his sweets