Better Call Saul‘s Kim Wexler is one of the best characters on TV (past or present, male or female), bar none (don’t @ me). Last season of the hit show saw Kim (played by the award-worthy Rhea Seehorn) unravelling from exhaustion and then taking stock of her life following a self-inflicted car accident. In the fourth season (premiering tonight on AMC), she faces her own guilt and grief following the death of a major character (*spoilers ahead*).
In a phone interview, the intelligent and down-to-Earth Rhea Seehorn spoke to us about Comic-Con (from which she had just returned), Kim’s work ethic, directing, and working with Michael McKean.
Brief Take: How was your first Comic-Con experience? I have to say that I loved your red power suit. I want one in every colour!
Rhea Seehorn: It was such a great suit! It’s by Smythe. Comic-Con was incredible! I’d never been to any of those kinds of events. The only thing that I would do differently next time is that I’m going to bring a disguise just so I could walk around on the floor because I really wanted to actually see everybody. And I wish that I could have had a section of time to sign fans’ things because the fans were incredible! Unfortunately we were scheduled minute to minute to minute so we couldn’t stop along the way at all. But being there with the Breaking Bad reunion was awesome too. Anna Gunn I hadn’t gotten to meet yet and she was even more beautiful in person. She was so smart and I think her performance as Skylar is just one of the best I’ve ever seen on TV. I just love the fans and I try to stay active on social media too and be as accessible as I can to them.
BT: I find that in my discussions with people about Kim, they really respond to her work ethic. As women in particular, we’re conditioned to work hard, keep our noses down, don’t make waves, and we’ll eventually be rewarded. And yet, as Kim learns, and as many of us learn, that’s not always the case.
RH: Right. I had a man recently talk to me about that feeling of, for whatever reason, no matter what I do, there’s always this gate. There’s always this gated, upper echelon office that I’m not being let into, for whatever reason. Sometimes that’s access to education. I didn’t go to an Ivy league school myself and I think that sometimes people feel like the wealthy will just protect the wealthy. I think that’s part of Kim’s frustration as well. She continually is this very pragmatic, hardworking person, but at the same time has that idealism that there’s nothing you can’t work hard enough to get yourself out of or into, that I do think people still feel in their hearts – we all keep hanging onto that. I think that plus I play so many scenes where Kim chooses not to show her cards and it’s quite silent, and not letting people in on what she’s thinking. She’s the audience’s portal into the story and people feel very protective of her in this really wonderful way. Protective, not like a damsel in distress, protective in that she is their eyes and often their access point into the storylines. They can understand her point of view, and when she does try to help Jimmy it’s usually to help him be what he says he wants to be. But she doesn’t let go of her own dreams either! What I love is that it turns out that when you write multi dimensional female characters, not just ancillary, ones that have their own motivations and obstacles, you actually make everybody more interesting. [laughs] Who knew?! [laughs]
RS: I wouldn’t say that she looked at him with love in the beginning. I know the first scene in the parking garage where he’s essentially asking her to help him when he was upstairs in Hamelin’s office storming the gates and she says, “you know I can’t” and just leaves. I do think she always has boundaries, which I appreciate. But she does love him for who he is. Every time she’s supposedly, quote unquote lured into some of his antics, they’ve always written and allowed me to play that there’s sort of a lack of shock to it. It’s almost as though it’s a part of her history or past that she understands on some level. She has her own levels of complexity. With Jimmy, and with Bob playing him, certainly more and more, there are things that she finds questionable, especially as we’re heading towards the Breaking Bad world. I think they did a smart thing, in this season as well, in showing Kim’s difficulty with her own duplicitousness of what she really wants and how she defines herself. This upset has caused Kim and Jimmy to have scenes this season that are more intimate and honest than any other season and a real relationship. It was funny to me that they felt very dangerous. In the show that we’re in, two people sitting down talking quietly and honestly felt extremely dangerous. [laughs] But there were other times when they were two characters on two different planets sending out light signals and the other one just can’t see them, which is tragic.
BT: Speaking of tragic, Chuck’s death comes as a shocking blow to Kim and Jimmy in the first episode of this season. What was it like working with the incredible Michael McKean?
RS: He’s so nice. He’s such a consummate professional and you learn so much from being in scenes with him. I absolutely love acting with Michael and love him as a person as well. I’d worked with him before and I’m excited to work with him again. He’s great! Chuck was such a great character. Those who were personally and artistically, meaning within the show, you feel the absence of him, it’s quite weighty. [laughs] This monumental character who’s now gone, who some of us didn’t know so well, I mean as characters, and for others there was no love lost, for Jimmy especially, he has a horrific history with him. But Kim couldn’t stand him by the time he died and yet she felt guilt and she felt conflicted. It was an interesting time, grieving someone who met such a horrific end. You start to mythologize them and your anger dissipates into confusion and guilt, and also there’s a convenience in linking your failures to a thing or person and then that thing or person is removed and you don’t have that obstacle. You’re then bouncing around in your own skull and asking yourself some hard questions.
BT: Speaking of phenomenal actors and fellow AMC family members, you were recently in the film I Hate Kids with Julie Ann Emery and now you’re set to appear in her directorial debut. How did that collaboration begin?
BT: Your short film that you co-directed and wrote, How Not To Buy A Couch, are there plans to bring it on the festival circuit?
RS: We are taking it around to film festivals! Anna Ramey, my co-director, and I are taking it around to film festivals right now. And I’m in post right now on my second short that I directed solo and I just started editing that. It’s very cool. I love it! I will try to get it posted somewhere soon so that the fans can take a look.
Better Call Saul returns for a fourth season tonight at 9pm ET on AMC