Bob Odenkirk Was Bankrupt Before Breaking Bad: 'I Somehow Got in This Financial Hole'

During an appearance on Sirius XM's "The Howard Stern Show", the 59-year-old actor talked about being "bankrupt" before landing his role in the second season of AMC's "Breaking Bad" after a series of failed directorial ventures.

Odenkirk recalled how his agent had told him he "couldn't say no" to the offer.

"I get a phone call, 'They're gonna offer you a role on 'Breaking Bad,' the show 'Breaking Bad'' — not a popular show or a big show at the time — 'and don't say no,' my agent says," the "Nobody" actor recounted.

"And I was like dude, I haven't said 'no' in a year and a half, but maybe you didn't notice that," he added.

At the time, Bob had been pursuing directing and revealed that several of the feature films he had embarked on before the hit drama "weren't great" and didn't pay well. Odenkirk admitted he didn't have a strong vision for his future as a director and eventually found himself in a "financial hole."

Odenkirk directed the 2006 film "Let's Go to Prison" with Will Arnet and Dax Shepard as well as "The Brothers Solomon" the following year starring Kristen Wiig and Will Forte. The movies received a Rotten Tomatoes critics' score of 13% and 16% respectively.

Around 2008, Bob got the call to take on the role of Saul Goodman in "Breaking Bad" and joined the show in its second season and remained in the series throughout its run.

Although "Breaking Bad" is now a critically acclaimed show, the actor said it wasn't as popular when he first joined the cast.

"I still checked it out, I still wanted to know what the hell the show was," Odenkirk said. "I called a friend, somebody I'd been writing with, Reid Harrison, and he goes, 'Oh, that's the best show on TV. You gotta do that. That's the best thing there is.'"

Odenkirk also stars in the prequel spinoff "Better Call Saul" which is set to conclude after its sixth season in April 2022.