[This interview contains spoilers for Better Call Saul season six, episode “Carrot and Stick.”]
After seven years, You better call Sol he’s still up to date with Kettleman.
Julie Ann Emery and Betsy and Craig Kettleman of Jeremy Chamos are finally back in In Satan’s shoes The AMC Universe in Episode Two of You better call SolThe sixth and final season of “Carrot and Stick”.
Initially, white-collar criminals were only supposed to appear in a few episodes of the first season, but their roles quickly expanded after the cast and crew fell in love with husband and wife scammers. When the first season finally premiered in 2015, audiences followed suit, as suburban robbers became a fan favorite in no time.
While Emery and Chamos have repeated their roles four times through different media over the years, the big question was whether the screenwriters’ room could find a suitable way to bring them back to the mother ship.
“Writers have been talking about bringing us back for a long time.” [co-creator] Peter [Gould] He turned several times, saying, “We’re looking for a good way to get you back, boys, but there has to be a sense to the story,” Emery told The Hollywood Reporter.
Kettlemans last appeared in “Bingo” from the first season, as Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk) forced Craig to face the music about his rap for embezzling $ 1.6 million. The second episode of season six now catches up with the criminal duo a few years later, as Betsy and Craig own and manage Sweet Liberty’s tax offices. Although Craig has just spent up to sixteen months in prison, the Cattlemans are still doing their old tricks as they routinely collect portions of their older clientele’s tax refunds.
“I always thought they were still cheating and they felt obligated. So it didn’t surprise me at all that they were still doing something “illegal,” Emery said.
In a recent interview with THR, Emery also discusses that Betsy is a harbinger of the Karen wave, as it also delves into the surprising ways in which the Cattleman family inspired Sol Goodman’s famous Breaking Bad law firm.
When you finished the short film by Jen Carroll and Ariel Levine, season three, No picnicdid you expect this to be your only return as Betsy Kettleman?
So I assumed I was done with Betsy three or four times. When Jeremy Chamos and I finished Bingo in the first season, we, the Kettleman family, gave corn to the crew’s kettle, and I thought that was our goodbye. And then the beautiful No picnic happened. Ariel and Jen are extremely talented, and Jen, who is currently a producer, was the producer on the set for the second episode of the sixth season. She is fantastic. So we fired [season six, episode two] a year ago and I guessed it would be. Jeremy and I have thought this over and over again. And then we came back again for American greed episode. We shot this in March this year, so the turnaround was very fast. So we thought we were saying goodbye to Kettleman after the end of the sixth season, but suddenly Vince came up with the idea for You better call Sol–In Satan’s shoes the crossover is on American greed.
And who brought the good news that you will be back for “Carrot and Stick” from last season?
Well, the official good news was delivered through my agent, but when we did Inside the Gilliverse podcast [in August 2020], we did a podcast in character, like the Kettleman family. And [Better Call Saul executive producer] Tom Schnauz was the co-host of this show. And since everything was going to be improvised, we had a little meeting with Tom before the show to make sure we weren’t going into territory that could cause us problems. Filming for the sixth season had not yet begun, so then we realized that our return was on the horizon. We were excited.
Bob Odenkirk as Sol Goodman, Julie Ann Emery as Betsy Kettleman, Jeremy Chamos as Craig Kettleman in an episode of “Better Call Sol” Carrot and Stick. Courtesy of Greg Lewis / AMC / Sony Pictures Television
Are you and Jeremy back in those roles? He looked like a spectator.
So I find Betsy terrifying to play as an actor, because her pocket is about six inches wide. If you go out of your pocket, it’s just a bad game and no one wants to be bad at it In Satan’s shoes–You better call Sol The universe, because everyone is brilliant in it. I never feel like I have her until I’m with Jeremy, and I think Jeremy has a similar experience. We created them a lot together, more than anything I’ve ever done on screen. Until we behave like Kettleman, we don’t have them. So when we arrived in Albuquerque, the first thing we did was get together, line up, and talk while gliding back to things. So I don’t think it’s the easiest role to return, but it’s the most exciting.
Betsy and Craig have learned something or two since Craig was in prison for embezzling $ 1.6 million. Now they are stealing much smaller amounts than the refunded taxes of the people. Were you a little surprised that they are still playing their dribbles?
Writers have long talked about our return and [co-creator] Peter [Gould] he turned a few times, saying, “We’re looking for a good way to get you back, boys, but it has to make sense of the story.” But I’ve always thought that they were still cheating and that they felt obligated. So it didn’t surprise me at all that they were still doing something a little off center. I guess Betsy will see it that way, but they’re still doing something illegal.
Watching the internet over the last few years and seeing the rise of Karens has been really shocking to me. Maybe these people have always existed, but they just go out of the window and make a lot of voices on the Internet. There are probably more videos to watch now that everyone has a camera at all times. But there are people who think they have a right to everything they think is right theirs lives and theirs families. And that’s a lot of Betsy. So she doesn’t see the law as her barometer. They need to get out of whatever financial situation they are in right now, and she has found a way to do that. And I say that because I think a lot that Mr. Kettleman just agrees. But now it’s a little louder than before. The prison changed him a little. He is ready to say: “Mr. McGill! I’m so glad to see you, “she told Betsy, even though she knew it would make her angry. Mr. Kettleman is so funny; he became a happy couple in prison, which is interesting to me. (laughing.)
Yes, Craig is willing to lead with kindness until Betsy puts him back in his place. She was probably not thrilled by his “mazel tov” in response to Jimmy and Kim’s marriage announcement.
He’s getting in a lot of trouble, so she has to take care of him. (laughing.)
But I’m glad you mentioned the Karen phenomenon, because every time one of these videos came out in the early days of the pandemic, I immediately thought of Betsy Kettleman and how he was ahead of the curve. You better call Sol it was.
Yes, Jeremy and I really found these characters together and very symbiotically. No one knew what Kettleman would be in this first episode You better call Sol, and they did some rewriting for us after that episode. We did a lot more in the first season than we had to do, which is such a compliment and such a luxury on TV. This never really happens on television. But at the time, Jeremy and I were posting videos and documentaries on YouTube. For example, the governor of Virginia and his wife [Robert F. McDonnell and Virginia McDonnell] were accused at the time of making concessions. In Los Angeles, there was a scandal with City of Bell, which was on the NPR all the time. It was an entire city council that took in a quarter of a million dollars a year as a salary when the city could not afford police salaries. And if you listen to these NPR interviews, they really don’t find anything wrong with what they do. So at that point, it was just beginning to creep into the spirit of the times, but in the seven years since, we’ve really seen this particular brand of white woman emerge. And they are very vocal, but I would also say that they are people in general. So this is worrying to me, although it should be satisfying as an artist. Yes You better call Sol it was forward in this way, but I find the lack of morality or the lack of a moral compass very disturbing. And that’s what You better call Sol is all about. And now, in the sixth season, we see Kim and Jimmy’s morale fluctuate even more, which just drives You better call Sol the perfect show for the moment.
So, the last time Kim (Ria Seehorn) saw Betsy, Kim was demoted to HHM’s cornfield because of Kettleman’s loss as a client, and then Jimmy had to help rectify the situation. And since Kim doesn’t like being in a situation where she can’t solve her own problems, you can tell from this last episode that she’s still harboring resentment toward Betsy. So, what was Kim’s stage of payment for you?
Well, first of all, Rhea and I are friends in life and being with her, Bob and Vince on the set again was an absolute joy. The flip side was Tom Schnauz and Ariel Levine wrote such a brilliant screenplay and they wrote Betsy so beautifully in this screenplay. This particular scene has such a big rainbow for Betsy that I was mostly worried about living with it. I read this scene, and then my husband [Kevin Earley] he asked, “How’s the script?” And I said, “I hope I can do what it says here.” But with Vince behind the camera, it was a lot easier as an actor because I trust him so completely. So it was stressful in the sense of …
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