‘Better Call Saul’ ‘Nippy’ Director Told Pat Healy to ‘Walk Like You Have Hemorrhoids’
Pat Healy guest starred on the Better Call Saul Season 6 episode “Nippy.” The episode featured a grueling department store heist planned by Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk) as Gene Takovic. The episode was colorful down to the aftermath of the heist, in which Michelle MacLaron directed Healey to act like he had hemorrhoids.
[Warning: This article contains spoilers for the Better Call Saul Season 6 episode “Nippy.”]
MacLaren and Healy were guests on the Better Call Saul Insider podcast on July 26 the day after “Nippy” aired. MacLaren revealed her hemorrhoid comment. Three more episodes of Better Call Saul Season 6 air Mondays at 9 p.m. on AMC.
Michelle MacLaren needed Pat Healy to walk this way on ‘Better Call Saul’
The plan was to ship Jeff (Healey) into the department store in a box. Overnight, while Gene distracts the security guards with free Cinnabons, Jeff robs the department store. Then he waits until morning and walks out.
“Pat, I gave you, I don’t know if you remember, but I gave you a note I think it was your first day, that I’ve never given an actor in my life and I may never give it again,” MacLaren said on Better Call Saul Insider. “Pat, was running, running, running. He’s doing the heist and everything and then we were doing a shot where storywise it’s the next morning. He’s been hiding in the bathroom all night and waiting ‘til the store opens again and he’s got to come out the next morning and he’s exhausted and tired and terrified that he’s going to get caught, wondering if they got away with it.”
MacLaren knew Jeff’s final walk needed to show the ordeal he’d been through.
“He comes out of the bathroom and he’s walking through the store and he thinks everybody is looking at him. I went up to Pat, we had just met, do you remember what I said?” MacLaren recalled.
Hemorrhoids simulated Jeff’s exhaustion
The next morning, Healy certainly conveys Jeff’s exhaustion. He walks around disheveled. Turns out he did exactly what MacLaren asked.
“It was the first thing we ever shot, and I said, ‘Pat, walk like you’ve got hemorrhoids,’” MacLaren said. “And he was genius. He was like, ‘Ok, I got it.’”
Pat Healey’s experience in ‘Better Call Saul’ Season 6
Healey described the whirlwind of joining Better Call Saul Season 6. He was not the original actor to play Jeff but filled in when Don Havey wasn’t available. Healey got to meet Carol Burnett, who played Jeff’s mother, and also performed the heist on his first days in Albuquerque.
“I came and we just got right into it and we basically started shooting stuff in the Mall with me mostly running,” Healey said. “And I don’t remember what day it was. It was probably the second or third day I was there, I was still adjusting to the altitude a bit and I had been running about 10 hours one day. And I basically collapsed. I needed oxygen. I was dehydrated and I had to be driven home.”
