"Little Women" Star Bob Odenkirk Said He Believes Oscar Voters Were "Prejudiced" Against The Film

"I think that kind of prejudice on a piece of work is stupid," Odenkirk told BuzzFeed News.

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This year’s awards season has come to a close but Bob Odenkirk, star of TV's Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad, told BuzzFeed News that he thinks Greta Gerwig was snubbed by the Oscars for her adaptation of Little Women.

Odenkirk, who played Father March opposite Laura Dern’s Marmee March in the film, said he thinks Gerwig’s adaptation was overlooked because Little Women was viewed by awards season voters as a "classic."

“It’s a great piece of art and it will last, and it shouldn’t be held against it that it’s a classic. Greta should’ve been included in all those categories,” Odenkirk said on BuzzFeed News’ Twitter morning show AM to DM.

“It’s hard to break through, maybe, and feel like that they should reward it as being one of the best, but I just think it’s a shame," he said. "I think that kind of prejudice on a piece of work is stupid.”

The 92nd Academy Awards, which took place in Hollywood earlier this month, were criticized for their overwhelmingly white and male nominees. The Best Director category yet again lacked any women nominees, including Gerwig, despite Little Women receiving a Best Picture nomination. The only award the film walked away with was for Best Costume Design.

Odenkirk also said that he “couldn’t believe” that the Screen Actors Guild didn’t nominate the lead cast — Saoirse Ronan (Jo March), Emma Watson (Meg March), Florence Pugh (Amy March), and Eliza Scanlen (Beth March) — for the top prize.

“That was an incredible cast and they worked together so well, and I say ‘they’ because look, I’m not in it that much and I watched the other actors working together, especially those four girls,” Odenkirk said.

“Even though [Gerwig] found an incredibly fresh take on it and a meaningful fresh take, and also the way she shot it and the time jumps in it were very modern, I think it was probably not given enough credit because it’s just a classic,” Odenkirk said.

Odenkirk is perhaps best known for playing the iconic character of Saul Goodman (also known as Jimmy McGill) on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. The latter returns this Sunday for Season 5, which will be the show’s second-to-last season.

Goodman is the role of a lifetime, Odenkirk said, and one he would be happy to play in any future iteration, including a possible film similar to El Camino, which saw his Breaking Bad costar Aaron Paul reprise his role as Jesse Pinkman.

“Listen, the truth is this is an incredible role that I was given. I did nothing to deserve it,” Odenkirk said. “It’s an unbelievable part. Even I crack the scripts and I go, ‘Here’s a page where I'm doing comedy for two and a half pages and then seven pages later, heartfelt earnest drama, seven pages later a romance that’s got integrity to it and depth.'

“It’s just unjustifiable, and I’m thankful to have it and I would do it as much as they want.”

Odenkirk said he’s not sure how the series will end up for his beloved character, who has grown a sizable fanbase over the years. The actor said he suggested to showrunners Peter Gould and Vince Gilligan that it would be “interesting if the show was 180 degrees opposite Breaking Bad, sort of existentially,” and depicted Saul learning a positive lesson from all of his bad experiences, as opposed to Walter White (Bryan Cranston), who met his demise because of his bad choices.

“Walter White was kind of degrading to the worst version of himself in the course of Breaking Bad and I said, ‘Isn’t it possible that people sometimes learn the right lessons and become a better version of themselves with the experiences of life?’” Odenkirk said.

“And I agree that it’s not common or often that that happens, but I think that can happen. That can be a story that happens in the world ... but I don’t know if they see the world the way I do.”

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