[FunBBGroup] The Working-Woman Hero of ‘Better Call Saul’ - WSJ

by Crime Time Tamil on August 02, 2018

The Working-Woman Hero of 'Better Call Saul' - WSJ

For "Better Call Saul" fans
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-working-woman-hero-of-better-call-saul-1533127877

The Working-Woman Hero of 'Better Call Saul'

Kim Wexler, the unsinkable Albuquerque lawyer played by Rhea Seehorn on 'Better Call Saul,' has emerged as a genuine Wonder Woman in a sensible suit and pumps

Don Steinberg

Updated Aug. 1, 2018 2:15 p.m. ET

Not all the heroes at the recent Comic-Con expo in San Diego pursue justice wearing a cape or twirling a golden lasso. Kim Wexler, a character on "Better Call Saul," has a stylish yet practical uniform: a blue Tahari or Jones New York suit over a silk blouse, Nine West pumps and a ponytail.

Many viewers have embraced Kim Wexler, an unsinkable Albuquerque lawyer played by Rhea Seehorn, as a genuine Wonder Woman. At Comic-Con last month, more than 6,500 fans filled the biggest auditorium to hear the cast and creators of "Better Call Saul" discuss the show, which returns for its fourth season on AMC on Aug. 6.

"Lots of people tell me, constantly, how much Kim means to them. On Twitter. On Instagram. In person, at panel discussions, at fan events," says Ms. Seehorn. (Her first name is pronounced "Ray.") "It's women and men talking about working 16-hour days just to get a foothold in the middle class, and struggling, and being the person who deeply needs to believe that if you work hard enough you'll always be OK."

Rhea Seehorn says that Kim Wexler, above, the striving attorney she portrays on 'Better Call Saul,' resonates with viewers including ones 'working 16-hour days just to get a foothold in the middle class, and struggling.'

Kim hustles harder than any man at Hamlin, Hamlin & McGill—the show's fictional law firm. She started in the mailroom, got a law degree and became an associate. In some of the most memorable scenes from the first three seasons of "Better Call Saul" she is constantly at work, putting things in order, making things right. Banished to the mind-numbing task of "doc review" in the basement, she shoehorns in time to make dozens of phone calls, covering the office stairwell with sticky notes, to land the firm a huge client. (Her boss, played by Patrick Fabian, assigns the work to another lawyer.)

After Kim pulls an all-nighter at the office, a senior partner (Michael McKean) arrives early and mentions "Coffee?" It's not an invitation—he's actually asking her to make coffee for him. Ms. Seehorn says the script gave her a moment to stare at him in restrained disbelief. "I could feel the audience groan," Ms. Seehorn says.

Kim's ne'er-do-well boyfriend Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) formerly worked at the law firm. When he interrupts her doc-review labor to suggest he try to get her into the good graces of her bosses, Kim pushes back and utters her signature line: "You don't save me. I save me."

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Near the end of season 3, when Kim's Mitsubishi Eclipse gets stuck in the mud of a Texas oilfield, she pushes it out herself. Later, exhausted from all-nighters spent preparing binders for a meeting, she zones out and crashes her car into a ditch, sending her papers flying across the desert.

Kim almost always wears blue at the office. "It's maybe the color of people who stick by the rules," says Jennifer Bryan, the show's costume designer. Kim has the wardrobe of someone striving to look good on a budget. "She wears the same jewelry all the time," Ms. Bryan says. "Sometimes I would put her in nice pinstripes, but maybe the jacket doesn't match the skirt. We mix and match and repeat her pieces."

"The women I grew up with didn't have a different purse to match all their outfits," Ms. Seehorn says. "I like the simplicity to the way she dresses, and the way she has a uniform. She goes in like a warrior."

'Better Call Saul's Peter Gould, left, with co-showrunner Vince Gilligan, says the Kim Wexler character has 'superpowers,' including perseverance and a poker face.

The creators of "Better Call Saul" didn't set out to create a working-woman hero, just a deep character.

"Sometimes in the writers' room, we talk about characters having their own superpowers," says co-creator Peter Gould. "Kim Wexler definitely has a couple. She's undaunted. She has been climbing a steep, granite wall, hanging on by her fingernails, and she never gives up. The other superpower is her poker face. It's fascinating how little she gives away about what she thinks. But you can't take your eyes off of her—because there's so much thought behind even her stoniest poker face."

Ms. Seehorn says early in her acting training, she learned that when you're on stage and not talking, you should be thinking about why your character isn't talking.

"Better Call Saul" is a prequel series to "Breaking Bad," which ran from 2008 to 2013 and was set in that time period. Mr. Odenkirk played Saul Goodman, the anything-goes lawyer hired by improbable drug kingpin Walter White (Bryan Cranston). "Better Call Saul" which launched in 2015, is set in 2002, focusing on Mr. Odenkirk's character when he went by the name Jimmy McGill. Jimmy and Kim have an easy rapport but a complex romance. Mr. Gould says the show's creators had old screwball comedies in mind, even though things get dark sometimes.

The writers have been stingy with details about Kim's past. In a job interview, she says she's from a small town near the Kansas-Nebraska border but refuses to name a city. "That's a suspicious way to be answering someone in a job interview," Ms. Seehorn says. "Kim doesn't like giving up details, and I carry that through everything we do. When they started decorating her apartment and office, I said 'No personal photos.' "

Watch a trailer for 'Better Call Saul'

She may be the conscience of the show. But "Kim's moral compass is not straightforward. She seems to have a taste for a little bit of danger," Mr. Gould says. She's oddly comfortable engaging in the occasional scam with her shifty boyfriend. Even Ms. Seehorn wonders what that means. "Is that part of her history?" she asks.

As season 4 begins, online discussion boards fret more about Kim's future than her past. "One of the things I hear a lot is 'You better not let anything bad happen to Kim,' " Mr. Gould says.. She isn't in any "Breaking Bad" episodes, so presumably she is gone by then, one way or another.

Or maybe not. "Better Call Saul" has included scenes that take place after the "Breaking Bad" narrative, and Mr. Gould hints it also could explore events that occur during the "Breaking Bad" years.

"I'm kind of worried. We've talked about it a lot," Mr. Gould says. "How can Kim still be part of Jimmy's life when he becomes Saul Goodman? It's not straightforward. I think you get some of the answers this season, but it's still an open book."

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