Nobody makes an absolute action star out of Bob Odenkirk (“a bonafide action superstar,” if you ask ComicBook.com’s official review of the movie). Odenkirk is echoing the gritty, highlyy choreographed moves which are reminiscent only of iconic action films which have emerged lately in the form of the Keanu Reeves starring John Wick films and the Charlize Theron lead Atomic Blonde. For Odenkirk, the latter was more of an inspiration for how to bring his Hutch character to action-packed life for Nobody.
Videos by ComicBook.com
“My character is a little deranged, even though he’s the hero of the movie,” Odenkirk tells ComicBook.com in an exclusive interview. “He’s a little office rocker, I would say, he takes it too far. But I guess you know, he’s got a lot of pent up rage.”
When that rage comes out, Hutch finds himself unleashing his almost super-heroic fighting skills on gangsters to protect a woman on bus or, simply, to get his daughter’s misplaced “kitty cat bracelet” back. The difference between Odenkirk’s Hutch and Reeves’ Wick is this character is not nearly as invincible-seeming. Hutch feels the pain and he wears it. With David Leitch and Kelly McCormick producing, it should come as no surprise there are parallels to their work on Wick and Atomic.
“I thought a lot about Atomic Blonde actually and Charlize was so amazing in that movie,” Odenkirk explains. “Our movie has a specific kind of character DNA. I think with that film in that, you know, she played an action hero who was amazingly skilled but also felt the pain when she got hurt. That great sequence in the middle where she’s fighting the guy in the apartment. And by the way, the person she fights is Daniel Bernhardt, maybe the best stunt actor in the world and he’s the person who trained me for Nobody. But you can see the pain in their eyes. They’re getting hurt as they fight and they’re getting fatigued and that’s sort of something that’s been missing from action films for a decade or two, which is that the hero really suffers. And I wanted to present that in our movie, Nobody.”
Getting punched, stabbed, or shot will leave a mark on Hutch which he is not about to simply shake off. His determination might be enough to get him through to the end of the movie, you’ll have to watch it to find out, but he certainly appears to be a bit more realistic and understandable from our real world.
“I wanted to play a guy who accrues that damage and who really is struggling through the pain that he’s feeling as it grows through the movie,” Odenkirk explains. “The thing that’s different is, I hope I play an action hero who was very uncertain. The great moment that Ilya Naishuller orchestrated in the bus where I say, ‘I’m gonna f-ck you up.’ If I played it right, I played a look in my eyes that is not so sure that he’s gonna succeed. But he’s sort of declaring it as a intention.”
Watch our full interview with Odenkirk in the video above. Are you excited for Nobody? Share your thoughts in the comment section or send them my way on Instagram!
Nobody hits theaters on March 26.
Related Posts
-
Image Courtesy of HBO
