Better Call Saul Director Reveals How They Got Carol Burnett

Better Call Saul is nearing its series finale, and fans of Breaking Bad have been eager to see Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) show up before the final episode. While the latest episode, “Nippy,” didn’t feature any Breaking Bad cameos, there was a fun surprise. Legendary comedic actor Carol Burnett appeared in the episode as Marion, the mother of Jeff (Pat Healy) the cab driver who recognized Gene as Saul Goodman. “Nippy” director Michelle MacLaren (who also directed 11 episodes of Breaking Bad) spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about the episode and revealed how Burnett got involved with the Emmy-nominated series. 

“They said, ‘We’re going to have a very exciting guest star.’ They teased me and they said, ‘We’re not going to tell you who it is until we know for sure she’s doing it.’ I was like, ‘OK,’ not that I needed an exciting guest star to say yes,” MacLaren shared. “But when they did tell me it was Carol, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh!’ I mean – she is an icon, and I was so excited to work with her. And she’s absolutely everything you want Carol Burnett to be and more. She is just a beautiful soul. She is so brilliant, so talented, so kind, so collaborative. She’s super-generous with her stories, stories that are so groundbreaking and glass ceiling-breaking and all of those things and she’s so humble about it. And she’s funny! She’s Carol Burnett, right? She’s so funny.”

MacLaren continued, “We were shooting in the grocery store in the beginning, and we were doing this shot where we were following her and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, do I have the nerve? I’m gonna ask if she’ll do a take where she touches her ear.’ I thought, ‘I don’t know if it’ll make it in. We’ll make it super, super subtle.’ But just as a kid growing up and watching her, I was like, ‘I wanna ask her.’ And she was so lovely and so sweet. She’s like, ‘Absolutely!’ And I’m sure she’s probably been asked a million times to do that kind of thing, but she came on set one day and she did the Tarzan call, which was awesome! She’s super, super smart. She’s really a lovely soul and, as I was saying, so generous and kind. She was an absolute dream. I loved working with her and she’s so talented.”

What did you think of the “Nippy” episode of Better Call Saul? Were you surprised to see Carol Burnett? Tell us in the comments! 

The next episode of Better Call Saul airs on August 1st and is titled “Breaking Bad” which means the spinoff might be exploring the Breaking Bad era from another perspective. Saul showrunner Peter Gould has announced that Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul will reprise their roles as Walter White and Jesse Pinkman in the final season of Better Call Saul, which concludes with Episode 13 on August 15th.