Bob Odenkirk played Sol Goodman in “Breaking Bad” and is currently continuing his role in the spin-off series “Better Call Saul”, which ends this year.Kevin Mazur / Getty Images; AMC

Bob Odenkirk told Howard Stern that he went bankrupt before his role in “Breaking Bad.”

Odenkirk joined the acclaimed show during his second season as Saul Goodman.

Odenkirk said his agent told him not to say no when offered the role.

Bob Odenkirk recalled that after he went bankrupt, his agent told him he “couldn’t say no” when he was offered a role in “Breaking Bad,” AMC’s hit show starring Brian Cranston as Walter White.

“I’m getting a phone call, ‘You’re going to be offered a role in Breaking Bad,’ Breaking Bad ‘- not a popular show or a big show at the time – and’ don’t say no, ‘says my agent,” said Odenkirk, who played a lawyer. Saul Goodman, in front of Howard Stern in the episode of Stern’s Sirius XM radio show on Monday.

“I was like a dude too, I haven’t said ‘no’ in a year and a half, but you may not have noticed,” he added.

Odenkirk, who turned to directing at the time, revealed that he was bankrupt before taking on the role after making several feature films that were “not great” and didn’t pay well. Odenkirk told Stern that he was invisible as a director and found himself in a “financial hole” that led to a call from his business manager to sign a $ 900,000 loan to “stay afloat”.

Odenkirk then said he went to another business manager who simply told him to “bring some money.” Odenkirk told GQ in 2015 that he spent the years 2003 to 2007 “trying different things”, from directing commercials to acting to writing for TV pilots.

The Better Call Saul star directed the 2006 film Let’s Go to Jail, starring Will Arnett and Dax Shepard, and the 2007 film The Brothers Solomon, starring Kristen Wiig and Will Forte. which currently have a 13% and 16% rating by critics of Rotten Tomatoes, respectively.

The story continues

Finally, around 2008, he received a call from Breaking Bad showrunner Vince Gilligan about the role of Sol Goodman, Odenkirk told GQ.

Odenkirk joined the show in his second season, staying with “Breaking Bad” for the rest of his five-season cycle. He also starred in a prequel to Better Call Saul, which is set to end in 2022 with the premiere of the sixth season in April.

Despite the hit that would eventually happen, “Breaking Bad” was not as popular in its first season, Odenkirk told Stern.

“I still checked it out, I still wanted to know what the hell the show was,” Odenkirk said of the time after he was offered the role. “I called a friend, someone I was writing to, Reed Harrison, and he said, ‘Oh, this is the best show on TV.’ You have to do it. That’s the best there is. “

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