Jonathan Banks only landed his role as Mike Ehrmantraut in Breaking Bad due to Bob Odenkirk being unavailable to film for the hit series, Rhea Seehorn ha claimed.
In an interview on The Rich Eisen Show, actress Seehorn (who plays Kim Wexler in Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul) revealed that the show writers “made up the Mike Ehrmantraut character” as Odenkirk had prior engagements the day of filming.
Seehorn broke down how the accident-driven decision became permanent in season two of Breaking Bad, by giving a play-by-play account of the episode.
She explained how lawyer Saul Goodman (played by Odenkirk) was supposed to help Jesse (played by Aaron Paul) tidy up his apartment to prepare him for when the police knocked on his door for a legal matter.
But things then took a turn as Jesse’s girlfriend Jane (played by Kristen Ritter) died from a drug overdose in his home. When this scene was filmed, Odenkirk was busy, so writers had to improvise by bringing in Saul’s problem solver, Jonathan Banks.
Since Banks’ introduction, Mike became a fan favourite, leading to the writers deciding to keep him in the show.
In the interview, Seehorn explained: “Bob was not available for Saul Goodman to clean up her body, and so Mike Ehrmantraut character was created. [Bob] was shooting something, and they wrote, when Krysten’s character dies, that he comes and cleans up the body in this very cold, unfeeling manner.”
She continued: “And that was going to be where his character started to go, and he was simply not available, so they made up the Mike Ehrmantraut character.”
Seeing how the show would have turned out differently, Seehorn added: “Thank goodness! Jonathan Banks played it, and now it’s like, you know, invaluable to the show, that character.
“And also, I’m so glad that that’s not how we saw Saul. That would’ve forever changed how we saw him as well.”
Last year, Bob Odenkirk recalled how he suffered from a heart attack while on set of Better Call Saul, and would have died if he didn’t receive immediate assistance.
“I mean, if nobody had been there, if they didn’t do that CPR, I’d have been dead in a few minutes,” he said.
In 2022, the Better Call Saul actor shared a farewell to the show’s fans in a heartfelt video.
Odenkirk took to Twitter to share his emotional message. “Everybody’s been asking me how I feel about saying goodbye to Saul Goodman and Better Call Saul, and I’m not good at answering the question because it’s frankly hard for me to look at that experience and even at that character too closely,” he began.
“It’s too many moving parts and they fit together too beautifully, and it’s a mystery to me how it even happened.”
Odenkirk went on to thank the show’s creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould, saying: “I did nothing to deserve this part, but I hope I earned it over six seasons.”
