The fact that this is the first post-Better Call Saul project for Bob Odenkirk makes Cecilia Miniucchi‘s Worlds Apart a must-see. The film premiered on September 1 at the Venice Film Festival in the “Giornate degli Autori” section. The film was shot entirely remotely in Los Angeles during the first months of the Covid lockdown in the spring of 2020. Writer/director Miniucchi, Italian-born but a longtime Los Angeles resident, called her good friend Odenkirk at the start of the lockdown to ask him if he was willing to do something from their respective homes, using iPhones, iPads, Bluetooth and little else.

Odenkirk, on a Saul hiatus (before he resumed production on the series last season after suffering a heart attack from which he completely recovered), immediately agreed. Miniucchi (Expired, Normality) wrote a script in just a couple of weeks about an art gallery owner and art dealer (Odenkirk) in a personal and professional tailspin, trying to save his gallery all the while entertaining a secret “zoom” relationship (he’s married) with his lover (Radha Mitchell). Worlds Apart also features Danny Huston as a wealthy political science professor and author who may or may not buy a costly painting from the art dealer (thus solving huge problems for Odenkirk). The professor is also going through marital problems with his fitness-obsessed wife (Rosie Fellner, Huston’s real-life partner).

We talked about this curious film, entertaining and experimental at the same time, with Odenkirk via Zoom – we in Venice, he in Los Angeles – right after the film’s screening at Venice.

Director Miniucchi told us you almost worked together many years ago. How did that go?

Right. It was for a movie called Expired which she eventually did in 2007. We have remained in contact since. I really wanted to do Expired, I loved the script Cecilia wrote, but you know, that’s Hollywood, things happen. I, unfortunately, couldn’t do that film. Anyway, she called me at the end of March 2020, when we were all sheltered in our homes, and told me about this idea of a ‘dramedy’ set in L.A.’s art scene, all to be shot remotely.

Nobody could interact with others in those first few months.

Right. My kids were in their rooms here at home, going to college via Zoom. I was, like everybody, wondering what would come next and when. There was no vaccine, things were getting worse by the day. As a parent, you were trying to act kind of brave and unafraid in front of your kids. But the truth is, you had no idea where this was going to go or how long it would last. I was waiting for someone I knew to call and say, “Let’s make a remote movie or show with our phones. Let’s do some acting. Let’s do some creating because we’re going to go crazy.” And Cecilia was the one who called. She worked very fast and put together a story that could play out with three or four people who are connected, but who are in separate homes and can’t meet. That little puzzle is a tough one to do. It was an act of will.

Did you make lots of suggestions about the script?  

Well, Cecilia let me be very interactive. But the truth is, I did the film to act. As an actor, I was doing Saul for so long and I’ve gotten to know acting and acting is almost like an athletic endeavor. It’s a thing that you do in the present. You train yourself up for it, you focus yourself up for it and then you do it and then it’s done. And when I do that, whether it’s Better Call Saul or anything else, I will share my thoughts. But in the end, I take the script and I really want to make it work. I think I added probably some funny lines for myself. And I was very involved in the editing process.

Are the pressure and anxiety of the pandemic reflected in the film?

When we shot this, one of the thoughts I had was that, hopefully, we’re all going to get through this pandemic scenario and people are going to forget how much pressure we were under because we’re playing the feelings the characters had and that we are having right now. This guy, Jonathan, my character, is suffocating. And it’s almost hard to remember now, which is a survival mechanism of the human brain. Where was this going to end up? Were we going to go back to work ever?

In terms of this process and making this film, using FaceTime, do you think it’s made a change in the way in which movies and television are made?

I don’t know if we’re going to have perspective on that for a couple of years because I think we might end up looking at how relationships are scripted, the stories that we chose to write, the way people refer to each other or interact. I’m about to go do a new series called Straight Man for AMC through Sony, and I’m thinking a lot about the characters. There’s no scenario that connects to COVID or what we’re still even dealing with is not portrayed on the screen. And you almost must remind yourself how to behave around other people who aren’t your wife or your actual wife or your kids. 

Did this experience make you want to direct again?

Directing is the best job in the world, you get to tell the story. Whatever components I’m made of lend themselves to acting. When I say that, I guess I feel like I use a lot of what’s wrong with me. A kind of a fractured psyche and ability to compartmentalize or lose yourself in an imaginary scenario, which really works great for acting and that may be a desire to not be yourself.

Saul Goodman has been so important to your career. However, is there relief to say goodbye to him now?

I have very mixed feelings. We get into this business, most of us I would say, to do a variety of things, to play a variety of characters, to tell a variety of stories, to move on. It’s one of the joys of show business is you get to tell a different story and be a different person. So, it was a long time to play one guy and be locked into his psyche. On the other hand, Saul had a wide-ranging set of behaviors and way of thinking. I mean, he could be very comical and extremely shortsighted. Then he could also have moments of clarity and deep thinking and deep feeling that were beautiful to be given to play. So, I got such variety in him. I don’t think I’ll ever get that again in my life. That’s a hard thing to achieve. That’s a hard thing to fit into a single character.

In your book, “Comedy Comedy Comedy, Drama” you wrote that it was a generational thing.

Young people really love sketch comedy, and they love improv because it’s new ideas coming in your head over and over. New idea, new idea, every two minutes, every four minutes, there’s a new idea. The older you get, the more you care about people and character and less about kind of conceptual ideas. I also think you don’t want to watch old people do sketch comedy. I had a great time doing Tim Robinson’s show “I Think You Should Leave,” but I still love sketch comedy. I just don’t think people want to watch old people do it. Look at this beard I got. Which by the way is for Straight Man.