STACK #200 Jun 2021

FILM FEATURE

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and for 20 years, he hasn’t had a sip from that bottle and now he’s in the bar and the shots are lined up and everyone’s drinking. He needs an excuse to drink and then the excuse presents itself and here we go,” he offers as an analogy. The director believes the older- man-turned-hero trope exemplified by Taken is popular simply because it’s relatable. “As much as I love Breaking Bad , I love Better Call Saul more because Saul is not a genius in chemistry. Saul is a guy who constantly makes the wrong decision. “So when you see a guy in his 50s kicking ass, I relate to that more than when I see a guy who’s my age in much better shape, simply because the older man is the underdog. At first the bad guys don’t even take him seriously because he’s just an old dude, until he deconstructs them. Fully.” Odenkirk was in fighting shape: “Bob never asked for a stunt guy. Instead he went to the gym with some of the best trainers in the world including Daniel Bernhardt, who made him into a killing machine. He went to the same gun range as Keanu Reeves. So this is not me doing amazing stuff with the camera, Bob is the real deal.” Bob Odenkirk gets all the great fight scenes in Nobody , but don’t discount his lovely co-star, Connie Nielsen. “Believe me, if we get a sequel, I am definitely getting my revenge,” laughs the Danish star of Wonder Woman and Gladiator . Unlike co-stars Odenkirk, RZA, Christopher Lloyd and Michael Ironside, Nielsen is one of the few actors in the film that doesn’t get to pick up a gun. “I wasn’t on set on the days they did all those scenes, but had I been there, I probably would have looked at the producers and said, ‘Hold on a minute. What’s going on here?’” she says.

Better Call Saul star Bob Odenkirk is breaking bad in the relentless new action-thriller, Nobody . STACK gets the lowdown from director Ilya Naishuller. Words Gill Pringle A terrifying real-life home invasion led actor Bob Odenkirk to ponder how he might have better handled the experience had he been physically prepared. His quest for personal clarity on the traumatic robbery brought him to screenwriter Derek Kolstad and ultimately to Russian of Bob’s since Mr. Show in the ‘90s. “They wanted an action director who could bring something else, because anybody can direct action,” says Naishuller, who flew from his home in Moscow to talk with Odenkirk. “ Nobody is a story about a BETTER CALL MAUL

• Nobody is out on June 16

director Ilya Naishuller, who has transformed the usually mild-mannered middle-aged actor into a badass killer in the action-thriller Nobody . Echoing Liam Neeson’s desperate father in Taken , Odenkirk’s former contract killer Hutch Mansell – aka Nobody – will stop at nothing to protect his family. While Naishuller welcomes the comparison to Taken , he also references John Wick , given that Nobody is executive produced by Wick producer David Leitch, Odenkirk working with many of Keanu Reeves’s action advisors.

guy who’s a James Bond type of character, not the martini playboy guy, but the more recent versions. He’s traveling the world and killing bad guys with explosives and having a grand old time. By the time he hits his late- 30s, he’s ready to start a proper life, a human life – and he has no idea what’s that like. Mentally, that’s got to be very complicated to let go of his past,” explains Naishuller. “Nobody is a guy who is addicted to action

Odenkirk’s own home invasion had a huge impact. “It’s not my story to tell but I think I can say that Bob felt like less of a man because he did not resort to violence. It’s definitely Bob’s baby, which I was allowed to raise,” says Naishuller, who trained with Brit director Roland Joffe and legendary Russian producer/director Timur Bekmambetov before cutting his action chops directing cult film Hardcore Henry in 2015. “Bob told me he thought Hardcore Henry was very funny, which I took as a big compliment since I’ve been a fan

If movie lovers think they’ve already seen enough middle-aged guys kicking ass, Naishuller argues that Nobody will surprise them. “ Nobody has all the elements of the expected action-thriller, all the desserts and ice creams of explosives and gunfire and tough men beating the sh-t out of each other. But the special thing about this is how it presents the steak of the meal. There’s a real character; he’s not just there to kick and fight and shoot because he does that beautifully, but there’s a real conflict and story in him.”

Director Ilya Naishuller (centre) on the set

Photo Credit: Allen Fraser/Universal Pictures

16 JUNE 2021

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