‘Better Call Saul’ Showrunners Reveal How Casting Rhea Seehorn Changed the Show
Actor Rhea Seehorn’s performance as Kim Wexler in the Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul will be remembered for years to come.
Her performance as Kim Wexler made such an impression on the show’s creators that it changed the series.
Rhea Seehorn called the final episodes of ‘Better Call Saul’ the hardest of her career
What looks like what might be the final chapter of Vince Gilligan’s Breaking Bad universe is soon coming to a close. With that, there have been many speculations on how the series will wrap up the stories of its central characters. Seehorn, who plays Kim Wexler, shared a glimpse of her own feelings towards Saul’s last run.
“It’s a bit like playing the game ‘Taboo.’ It’s like if there were 30 words on the card and you’re trying to make a sentence. I’ve never seen something so complex, dense and very thoughtful but also very exciting,” Seehorn once told New York Post.
Personally, Seehorn also found the last couple of episodes difficult to get through in a good way.
“The next six episodes, this whole season, was probably the most challenging work I’ve done in my career — but blissfully so,” she confided to the New York Times. “My last day, I left the set and I just thought, I’m going to be thinking about that ending for a very, very long time.”
‘Better Call Saul’ would’ve looked much different without Rhea Seehorn
The Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul writers are known for expanding characters that were originally supposed to play minor roles. As many know, Aaron Paul’s Jesse Pinkman was only supposed to appear for one season. Then the writer’s strike and Paul’s own acting abilities motivated the writers to give Jesse a much more substantial role.
Something similar happened with Better Call Saul’s Rhea Seehorn. Seehorn wasn’t even planning on auditioning for Better Call Saul at the time. But she got on the radar of the show’s casting directors after auditioning for the comedy Sneaky Pete. Although she didn’t get a role in the series, her audition stayed with Better Call Saul casting director Sharon Bialy.
“A lot of people pigeonholed her in the industry as a comedy actress,” Bialy said. “But I had an instinct that she was so much more than that.”
Baily then called Seehorn to offer her the opportunity to be in Better Call Saul. After a screen test with the lead actor Bob Odenkirk, the showrunners found their Kim Wexler.
But Seehorn’s influence on Kim grew, which later informed the direction of the show. Better Call Saul showrunner Peter Gould commented on Seehorn’s impact on the series as a whole.
“If we had not cast Rhea Seehorn in this role, we would be talking about a very different show right now,” Gould said.
How Rhea Seehorn felt about being nominated for an Emmy
Seehorn has very recently been announced as one of this year’s Emmy nominees. She’s been picked as one of only a handful of female actors eligible for the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series award. And it was a nomination that she couldn’t have been prouder of.
“The reception by critics and fans of the show, and then of my character and my performance—I don’t really think I can express my gratitude for that,” Seehorn told Vanity Fair.
She celebrated the win with her fiance producer Graham Larson and Saul costume designer Jennifer Bryan.
“The three of us had just ordered drinks when [Graham] leaned over and said, ‘Babe, you got it,’” Seehorn recalled. “And he’d held my hand on all the other mornings when I had not got it.”
