Anna Daniels
You’ve been on the show for a number of years, but when you started, you were joining some cast and crew who had been living in the Breaking Bad world for quite a while. What was it like being one of the new kids?
Well, at first, it was pretty daunting. I was a huge fan of Breaking Bad, and then individually the work that people were doing on it, whether it was the acting or writing of individual scripts, the way they directed it, the way they edited it, Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould’s show-running effort. It’s just the way they create things. It was a bit daunting while being thrilling at the same time.
I wasn’t entirely sure what I’d get when I got there, but even at the beginning with the auditioning, with the screen tests with Bob and meeting Peter and Vince there, as well as other executive producers like Melissa Bernstein and Tom Schnauz and Mark Johnson, it became readily apparent that they were going to not just be receptive of letting new people into the sandbox to play but were excited by that.
Better Call Saul lives in the universe of Breaking Bad, obviously, but was meant to be its own thing. It wasn’t meant to be Breaking Bad season six. When I got there, I was met with a crew and a team of people that felt the same way. People were really lovely. It wasn’t like some club that you felt left out of.
How much did you know about Kim when you started?
Very little. I had the scene, I believe it’s in episode three of season one, where Jimmy calls me late at night wanting to get information about the Kettleman case, and then he tells me that he left a message using a paper towel. I ask, “You didn’t do the sex robot voice, did you?” It was a very funny, late night phone call scene.
But at that time, they still didn’t know. What exactly is their relationship? What’s their history? What’s going on here? By the time I got to set, I knew that she was a lawyer. By the time we shot the pilot, after I got the part, they did inform me that she’s a lawyer, that they have known each other for 10-plus years. In what capacity remained to be seen, but that they were each other’s confidants in the truest sense of the word.
It didn’t need to be defined by was it romantic, is it romantic, will it be romantic? It was sort of, there’s a deeper friendship and honesty between the two. They came up together through the mailroom. Kim was such a whiz that HHM offered to pay for her to go through law school, and she started to build her career. That was about it.
Then, we shot the scene where he comes in doing the Ned Beatty “You will atone” speech. We end up in the parking garage, and we had one sentence to share. That was the only line I had, but it’s still one of my favorite scenes. It says almost everything you need to know about Kim.
You’ve said in other interviews that you’re not much like Kim. Are there aspects of the character that you do relate to?
I relate to wanting to believe that if you work hard enough and are smart enough that everything will be okay. I relate very much to hanging onto that almost a bit too much, and to wanting to be self-sufficient and finding solace in that. I absolutely relate to that idea.
One of the first things I have to do when I go back each season and I’ve been away from the character for a bit is to start by just sitting on my hands and thinking about being still. I know Kim speaks with her hands sometimes, but she’s mostly a still person. She’s very still in her face. I’m a goof and a dork. Everyone can figure out what I’m thinking. I can’t hide anything in a conversation.
I really wanted Kim to have this stillness, and that arose out of the economy of language they gave her in those first couple of episodes. I thought, well, she’s clearly a very strong, interesting, intelligent person, and they hired me based on the subtext they saw me putting into the audition. So, I think they’re on the same page as me, that she doesn’t seem to be somebody who is snowed by Jimmy. She isn’t someone who is really quick to contribute to a conversation. So, why be that efficient and economic about your speech?
I just thought, well, let’s do deductive logic to make this character. If you’re that particular about what you say and when you speak, maybe you also don’t like people to know your thoughts. Maybe you’re economic with your gestures and your facial expressions. It just became this position of power for me, for the character, versus the position of weakness. I could just choose not to speak. She just observes these people until they hang themselves. I wish I had the ability to not desperately fill silences, and to not constantly want to make sure everybody in a room is okay. But that’s from my upbringing, and Kim’s is from hers.
Written by: Looper
