Directors Cut Radio Show

A quiet little town,

a substitute
sheriff, and a bank robbery

that turns into something way
bigger than anybody expected.

You know,
that's the setup for normal.

The new neo western
thriller starring Bob Odenkirk.

He joins us to talk

about playing Sheriff Ulysses,
working with brick with director

Ben Wheatley,
and why this story keeps taking

turns you don't see coming.
Welcome to the show, Bob.

How are you, my friend?

I'm good, I'm good.
Good to see you.

All right.

What grabbed
you first about normal?

Was it the character,
the mystery, or just.

Yeah, it was.

It was exactly that.
It was the mystery.

You know, a lot of action films,
they start with the action

as quick as possible,

and then they just
stay in action

as much as possible
with very little character

development or story.

But this story that Derek

Kolstad told me about
a small town in the Midwest,

and they have money and there's
no obvious reason why.

And then it all explodes
and we learn their secret.

I love this story.

I love the mystery sequence,
which is the first 35 minutes.

And then, of course, it's pure
action for the rest of the film.

I just like the story,
the character development,

the way in which it's kind of
like 3 or 4 films in one.

And so I said,
let's do that one.

Let's try to make that happen.

We were very lucky to get Ben

Wheatley, a great director
who's made many films.

Free Fire, High Rise, Kill
List, a lot of action films.

But he always has character
in all of his films.

A lot of people
that you can relate to.

And so he was the perfect man
for the job.

And Sheriff Ulysses,

it feels like somebody
just trying to keep it together

while everybody around him
is kind of unraveling.

What did you enjoy most
about playing that character?

Well, I like playing a guy
who's my age now.

That doesn't

sound like much to you,
but I was Saul Goodman for,

you know, essentially
8 or 9 years.

And Saul was younger than me
by a lot.

He was ten, 15 years
younger than me.

And I liked playing
Ulysses in the movie normal,

because Ulysses

has seen a lot of life, and he's
a little bit worn down by it.

And I related to the guy.

I liked them,
and I liked his sense of humor.

He had a smile.

Things made him laugh.

And so, yeah,
I like playing the character.

And this movie has this grounded
small town feel,

but there's a lot of tension

that's just bubbling
underneath the surface.

What was it like building
that tone with Ben Wheatley?

That's the part
that I worked on the most,

and it's one of the reasons
I get a story by credit on this

film is because I helped
build out the story of that

small town.

Normal is the actual name
of a town.

Normal, Illinois. And it was.

The movie was originally called
The Interim as an interim

sheriff, part time sheriff, or,
you know, fill in sheriff.

And I said, let's

call it normal
because that's the kind of town.

And Derek
knew what I was talking about

because he's from Wisconsin.

That's the kind of town
in the Midwest

that we wanted to describe
these small towns of.

They've been hit

pretty hard by the economy
in the last 40 years.

They lost their factory.

They they have factory farms

that have taken over the smaller
farms.

And I wanted to tell the story
of one of those towns

that somehow chanced
upon this money.

And once the audience
settle into the story,

it kind of starts escalating
in a lot of unexpected ways.

What are you most excited
for people to experience

when they start to watch it?

Well, it's really a fun movie
to watch with a group.

If you're going to rent normal,

have some people over,
have some friends over the way

in which the story shifts,
as you point out, it changes.

It's like tectonic plates
shifting the, the, the,

the whole vision

of what you're looking at
becomes a different world.

And all those moments where
what happens to Henry Winkler

and what happens
with the champagne cork

and what happens after that,

those things
get the audience going.

Those are things to experience
with a group.

It's been a great, fun film
to watch with other people.

All right.
I really enjoyed the movie.

It was such a blast.

I had a fun time with that.

Normal is available
now on all digital platforms,

will be available
anywhere you rent movies.

Bob, I want to thank you
for joining me today, my friend.

Yeah,
man. Good to be here. Thanks.