Actor and comedian Bob Odenkirk has said that the near-fatal heart attack he suffered while filming the television series Better Call Saul in 2021 fundamentally altered his perspective on work, prompting him to reassess the pace and volume of his professional commitments.

Speaking in a question-and-answer interview covering his career, personal projects and health, Odenkirk said the medical emergency highlighted the fragility of life and reinforced the importance of slowing down after years of maintaining an intense work schedule.The actor, best known for portraying lawyer-turned-criminal fixer Jimmy McGill, also known as Saul Goodman, reflected on the enduring appeal of the character.

Asked what Jimmy McGill might do if released from prison, Odenkirk suggested the character’s fundamental tendencies would remain unchanged.According to Odenkirk, McGill possesses considerable intelligence and talent but is driven by a deep sense of resentment that often pushes him toward destructive choices.

He said that even after imprisonment, the character would likely return to questionable schemes, although he might avoid involvement with drug traffickers after the events depicted in the series.The comments offered insight into Odenkirk’s interpretation of a character whose transformation from struggling attorney to criminal facilitator became central to the narrative of Better Call Saul.

The actor suggested that McGill’s challenges stem not from a lack of ability but from an inability to channel his talents constructively.Beyond television, Odenkirk discussed several ongoing creative projects, including a musical album currently in production. He said seven songs had already been recorded.

The material was written by Mark Nutter, whom Odenkirk described as a creator of comic musicals. According to the actor, the songs follow a comedic Broadway style and feature intentionally humorous themes.

The interview also touched on Odenkirk’s experiences with long-distance hiking, including comparisons between two physically demanding treks undertaken years apart.

Asked whether completing Scotland’s West Highland Way with his daughter in 2015 was more difficult than hiking Peru’s Inca Trail alongside comedian and actor David Cross for the documentary Bob and David Climb Machu Picchu, Odenkirk said the Peruvian expedition was considerably more challenging.

He cited the trail’s altitude, which reaches approximately 13,800 feet (4,200 metres), as well as the constant ascents and descents along uneven stone stairways. The demanding terrain, he said, required sustained concentration to avoid injury during the multi-day journey.

Odenkirk also addressed audience appreciation for his supporting role in the 2013 film Nebraska. While dismissing the notion that he should have received an Academy Award for the relatively small part, he expressed gratitude for the compliment and highlighted his experience working alongside veteran actor Bruce Dern.

The actor recalled spending time with Dern in a diner attached to their hotel during filming, listening to stories from Dern’s decades-long career in Hollywood. Odenkirk noted that many of those experiences have since been documented in Dern’s autobiography.

Asked whether he would consider performing Shakespeare, Odenkirk acknowledged having read extensively about the playwright while admitting limited direct experience with Shakespearean productions.

Nevertheless, he expressed interest in attempting such a role, describing the challenge as both difficult and appealing.The interview also ventured into lighter territory when Odenkirk was asked to name his favorite individuals named Bob.

His selections included comedian and actor Bob Newhart, broadcaster Bob Elliott, and actor Robert De Niro, although Odenkirk joked that he did not know De Niro well enough to address him by the nickname.Another question focused on actor Kevin Costner and the long-standing comparisons between the two performers.

Odenkirk acknowledged that he was frequently told he resembled Costner earlier in his career. When asked which Costner role he would most like to play, he selected the lead role in the baseball fantasy drama Field of Dreams.The most personal portion of the interview concerned Odenkirk’s heart attack, which occurred on the set of Better Call Saul in July 2021.

The incident prompted questions about whether he had considered leaving acting altogether and pursuing a quieter life.Odenkirk said the experience did, in some respects, make him question the direction of his career.

Although he chose to continue working, he concluded that he no longer wanted to maintain the same level of professional activity that had characterized much of his adult life.Reflecting on the period before the heart attack, he said an overloaded schedule had made it difficult to appreciate individual experiences and responsibilities.

Constantly moving from one obligation to another left little opportunity for reflection or enjoyment, he said.The actor described the health scare as a turning point that forced him to recognize the limitations of an overcommitted lifestyle.

While he continues to honor professional obligations undertaken before the incident, he indicated that his long-term goal is to reduce the intensity of his workload and create more space for personal fulfillment.

His comments illustrate how a medical emergency can prompt broader reassessments of career priorities, particularly for performers balancing multiple film, television and creative projects simultaneously.

For Odenkirk, the lesson was not to stop working altogether, but to work differently and with a greater awareness of the finite nature of time.

After more than six decades in theatre, film and television, Ian McKellen says the most significant change in British acting has been the collapse of the repertory theatre system that once trained generations of performers and sustained regional theatre culture across the United Kingdom.

Speaking in a wide-ranging interview covering acting, politics, religion and his best-known roles, McKellen reflected on a career that began in 1961 at the Belgrade Theatre, one of Britain’s first publicly funded civic theatres built after the Second World War.McKellen said repertory companies once provided young actors with continuous work and practical training alongside experienced performers.

At the time, he earned £8 a week, enough to pay rent and living costs while working steadily in theatre.“Every city of similar size had a repertory company,” he said, describing the system as an apprenticeship structure where actors learned technique, discipline and stagecraft through constant production schedules. He added that no comparable nationwide structure now exists in Britain.

Despite those institutional changes, McKellen said audience enthusiasm for live performance remains strong. Theatre-going, he said, continues to be “one of the principal amusements in the UK”.The actor also discussed his longstanding pre-show routines, including stretching and vocal warm-ups with fellow cast members.

While dismissing suggestions he still rehearses in a jockstrap as he once reportedly did during performances of Dance of Death at the Lyric Theatre, McKellen said the communal aspect of theatre remains central to his work.“We stretch muscles, clear vocal cords and gossip,” he said.

“Putting on plays is, at best, a communal business.”Asked whether he would participate in a television series travelling through Europe with fellow actor Patrick Stewart to review local theatre productions, McKellen responded positively but suggested “five-star hotels” would need to replace any camper van arrangements before discussions could proceed.

McKellen also reflected on William Shakespeare and the long-running debate over the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays. If given the opportunity to meet the playwright, McKellen said he would ask him directly whether he wrote the works attributed to him and request details about the original design of the Globe Theatre.

The actor revisited his 2025 appearance at the Glastonbury Festival alongside Scissor Sisters, describing the experience as “heady” despite never aspiring to be a singer. He said the crowd response felt like “one long curtain call”.McKellen’s most widely recognised role remains Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings.

Asked who would win in a hypothetical battle between Gandalf and Albus Dumbledore, McKellen responded that Gandalf would prevail because he was “the original wizard”.He also addressed speculation that David Bowie had once been considered for the role. McKellen said director Peter Jackson had never confirmed which actors turned down the role, though he acknowledged Bowie’s interest in acting.

McKellen suggested Bowie’s striking appearance may have emphasised Gandalf’s supernatural qualities rather than the humanity he sought to portray.“For all Gandalf’s acquaintance with magic and the supernatural, I was most attracted to the old boy’s humanity,” he said.McKellen also discussed his views on religion and humanism.

Raised in a Christian household with a grandfather who preached as a nonconformist minister in Manchester, McKellen said he stopped worshipping as a teenager but retained admiration for the Religious Society of Friends, particularly for its opposition to violence and early support for gay rights in Britain.The actor linked his patriotism less to politics than to British cultural traditions, particularly Shakespeare and pantomime.

McKellen described pantomime as a uniquely British theatrical form combining slapstick, music, audience participation and cross-dressing into performances designed for family audiences.“It is a matchless introduction to all that is possible in a theatre,” he said.McKellen also reflected on owning The Grapes pub in Limehouse, east London, joking that Gandalf’s staff displayed behind the bar helps deter disruptive customers.

One of the interview’s more personal moments concerned advice given to him by Alec Guinness after McKellen’s performance in Bent, the landmark play about the persecution of gay men under Nazi rule.McKellen recalled that Guinness later invited him to lunch and urged him to withdraw from involvement in Stonewall, the advocacy group formed to campaign for equal treatment of gay and lesbian people under British law.

Guinness, McKellen said, believed actors should avoid public political engagement. McKellen declined to follow the advice, remaining active in LGBTQ rights advocacy throughout subsequent decades.The actor also reflected on moments of disappointment during his career, recalling frustration while playing a minor role opposite Celia Johnson in a BBC adaptation of Noël Coward’s Hay Fever.

McKellen said he had accepted the role partly because of his admiration for Johnson’s performance in Brief Encounter, but found her distant during rehearsals.Revisiting Hamlet, a role he first played in his twenties and later returned to in recent years, McKellen said his understanding of the character evolved with age.

Earlier in life, he interpreted Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy as a call to live ambitiously. More recently, he said the play’s final message resonated more strongly.“When he confides to his best friend: ‘Let be.’ And so say I.”