The Big Picture
- Bob Odenkirk trained rigorously to perform his own stunts in Nobody, with cameras capturing his action journey in the short film “Wish Me Luck.”
- Daniel Bernhardt, known for his appearances in action films like John Wick, trained Odenkirk and prepared him for his role in Nobody.
- Odenkirk stars as a ticked-off dad seeking revenge after a home invasion in Nobody, and while preparing for the film, made the short Wish Me Luck to see if he could pull off what would be required in terms of the action.
For a long time, many of us knew actor and comedian Bob Odenkirk as the smooth-talking and morally-corrupt lawyer, Saul Goodman, in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. But, in 2021, Odenkirk upped the ante – both professionally and physically — and proved that he was oh so much more than the guy with the quippy one-liners and that he was, in fact, a mean, lean, fighting machine. Odenkirk’s badassery in Ilya Naishuller’s (Hardcore Henry) Nobody saw the Emmy Award-winner quite literally roll with the punches as he sought revenge after standing idly by when his family was under attack.
Fully immersing himself in the character, Odenkirk didn’t just want to act, he wanted to really deliver the stunts that he was performing. Through rigorous training with some of the best in the biz, Odenkirk got ready to take on his on-screen enemies. But what many don’t know is that before he shot Nobody, Odenkirk and a team of stunt veterans flew to Berlin and made an 8-minute short film, Wish Me Luck, and we’re excited to give our readers the first trailer for the project.
As the footage shows, Odenkirk was in very capable hands as his leading trainer on the project was none other than Daniel Bernhardt, who audiences will recognize from his appearances in such titles as The Matrix Reloaded, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, and John Wick. Cool and confident, Bernhardt was more than up to the task of whipping Odenkirk into shape and getting him ready to take and land some blows in Nobody.
The clip shows the two putting in the long, grueling hours at the gym, with the trainer and martial artist teaching his pupil the ins and outs of the art of the fight. Explaining his drive behind his fitness journey, Odenkirk reveals that he wanted to perform his own stunts for the production but was “a little concerned” about keeping up with the other professionals. With the help of Bernhardt and a few other pals, including director Can Aydin and stunt professionals Phong Giang, Cha-Lee Yoon, and others, Odenkirk got Wish Me Luck up and running during his rigorous training schedule in Berlin and is beyond excited to soon share the end product with viewers.
Never Underestimate A Ticked-Off Dad
In Nobody, Odenkirk stars as Hutch Mansell, a suburban, married father of two who becomes disappointed in himself after a home invasion leaves his family shaken. Catching crap from everyone around him, his neighbors and extended family want to know why Hutch didn’t stand up to the invaders. With rage building inside of him, Hutch finally snaps, and — surprisingly for others and maybe even himself — finds that past secrets he thought were long buried, have resurfaced and allowed him to be quite adept at the art of fighting. But, revenge comes with a hefty price as Hutch finds himself back in the nightmare scenario of needing to defend his family from a powerful adversary.
Along with Odenkirk, Nobody also featured performances from Connie Nielsen (Gladiator), Christopher Llyod (the Back to the Future trilogy), Aleksei Serebryakov (Leviathan), Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA, and Michael Ironside (The Dropout).
With the fate of Nobody 2 still up in the air, Odenkirk’s release of Wish Me Luck couldn’t have come at a better time. Check out the trailer below and stay tuned for the entire short film to drop here on Collider on January 31.
