Anna Daniels
Was there a particular moment during shooting where you were like, “Oh, I get Lalo now?” Something that crystallized the character for you?
Well, I think that it just happens more and more every time. I think that one of the great things about Pete and Vince and all the writers is that it’s sort of this living, breathing organism. They don’t have the story set in stone, they just kind of go with what they start seeing that works.
You’ll see the things that start happening in the story. There are just so many little tiny things that are written that are like, “Oh yeah, that’s very Lalo-ish.” Then I’ll start doing things and Vince will go, “Do that. Do that more. Let’s do that with your hand all the time.” So, he starts sort of creating this character there, that just starts getting more profound. Then he’s not just a smiley guy all the time. He’s a guy that’s kind of scary.
Do have a lot of room to kind of give input into your character like that?
Not really. They’re very well written. They run a tight ship as far as you can’t just start saying whatever you want, but what they do is that when they see something that works, they go with it.
I think that’s something that happened with Lalo. I’m not sure, but I’ve heard that he wasn’t supposed to be in the whole thing, and it just started working better and they said, “No, no, no, this is our guy. Let’s keep it going.” So, it’s sort of like, you go out there, you start doing some things that you think are better, you start to say let’s try this or that and they said, “Yeah, that works.” Then, all of a sudden, they fall in love with the character and just kind of go with it.
Do they let you know what Lalo’s story’s going to be very far in advance?
God, I wish. They don’t let me know even when you’re reading the episodes. It’s like, “What?” What happens in the last episodes of this season, I was like, I just started jumping up and down in my sofa, in my apartment in Albuquerque. I was like, “This is out of control.” They go way over the line on this one. It’s a set up for the end. Amazing.
And you don’t know if you’re going to get killed. I’ll go have dinner or lunch or something with Rhea, and she’s like, “They told me that they’re going to let me know a couple of days before I get the script so that I’m not reading it and get killed, but so far so good.”
I kind of think it’s funny because Banks he comes up to me, he’s like, “Hey kid, don’t get mad if I have to kill you. You know?” So, he didn’t know that I had become a series regular. I was like, “Yeah, okay.” And the next time, “So far, so good. You’re not going to die.” Then finally he came up to me, he goes, “So you’re a series regular, kid.” I was like, “Yeah.” “Why didn’t you tell me? I thought I was going to kill you.” Screwing around with me is all.
What kind of prep do you do before you shoot?
Well, I’ve always kind of done the same kind of prep. You got to start with how he talks, how he walks and start seeing other maybe characters or people that he could be similar to. For example, one of the things that I pride myself on is I think Lalo is very similar to Jules Winnfield, which is Samuel L. Jackson’s character in Pulp Fiction. Kind of this smart ass, sort of scary but kind of carefree, kind of cool guy.
That’s one tiny little thing that you grab. Also, I have a friend down here in Mexico who’s just the most charming guy in the world, so I kind of grab a little bit of him, and then the stuff that’s written and then how he walks and how he kind of bends over, You start doing all that stuff for a while at home like a crazy person and then you got to go show up on the set and you kind of got it.
Is there anything about your work on Better Call Saul that you’re particularly proud of?
Well, all of it. It’s my work. I’m proud of everything that I do. There’s not one thing that I would choose over the other. It’s all very studied. It’s not random. I take it very seriously. I work on it hard to make sure that the character is as far off away from me, but also, very true to the story and true to itself. So, I wouldn’t know how to pick one single thing because there’s just so many things that entail the wholeness of Lalo.
Written by: Looper
