From Airplane to Beverly Hills Cop to Wiseguy to Designing Women—even if you didn't realize it, you've been watching actor Jonathan Banks on television and in movies for the last 40 years. Banks has over 162 acting credits on IMDB, but most people probably recognize him now thanks to his role as Mike Ehrmantraut, the gruff-but-wise enforcer on Breaking Bad.
Banks, who "usually plays sinister types or villains" according to IMDB, is currently gearing up to star in Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul later this year. He stopped by Gothamist HQ this morning to talk about the new show, his rapport with Ken Jeong, living on the Upper West Side in the '70s, his appreciation for John Steinbeck, and the best ham to pair with hard cider.
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No half-measures for Better Call Saul: The spinoff, which also features Bob Odenkirk reprising the charismatic and shady title character, is set to start filming around May and premiere on AMC in November. Banks said he believes the outlines of the first two episodes have just been completed. As for the mood of the show: "Here’s what [showrunner Peter Gould] said to me: essentially, there’s no way around Saul, he’s going to be a lighter tone. And the darker tone will be Mike."
Banks said he hasn't yet started thinking about whether he'll approach the character any differently knowing where Mike ends up during the events of Breaking Bad. But he did offer one piece of background on the character that he hopes is explored more in depth in the prequel:
When I dropped my granddaughter off with the car with the balloons [in Breaking Bad season 3 episode "Full-Measures"], and I went and killed a whole bunch of people, but I tell her go to your mom, 'your mom is waiting.' Vince directed that shot from a distance. And I said to Vince “It's a cold day in Albuquerque,” and inside, I knew, “That's her mother, that's not my daughter.” Wherever Mike's soul was lost, it has something to do with his son. Hopefully some of that will be revealed. Mike, unlike Walter, knows that he commits great wrong and knows that he contributes to great wrong and has lost his soul, whatever that soul is.
Banks also said he was a big fan of the final half of season 5:
I loved the ending. We watched that in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery on a big screen, we watched the last two episodes there. And it was so much fun. I thought it was done really well. And the LA critic said when [Walter] strokes the meth machine, he wanted to do two things: he wanted to hold baby Holly, and then the very last thing you see is the caress of the machine, and the LA critic got it right when she said “It’s obvious which one he cared for the most.”
Hanging with rats on the Upper West Side: "I used to live near Central Park on the Upper West Side before it was gentrified, between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues," he said. "There were still kids on the street with plastic bags dropping rats." Although he loved visiting The New Yorker movie theater in the '80s ("They ran Japanese films all day—and this shows you how much I was working—I'd be there with a huge bag of popcorn and huge Coke and watch three movies in a row"), he fell in love with California along the way.
I worked for a short period of time as stage manager for the musical Hair. I think that was 1970, I got my first place in '69 but I was in and out of the city, on the road with the musical Hair and then I ended up re-staging it for the national tour. And then that took me overseas. But when '73 came, I had probably my worst year financially that I ever had. And I went on the road with A Little Night Music and we came to California. Sat down at the Schubert in Century City. Jean Simmons, the actress who was married to director Richard Brooks, had a nice home in the Hills, invited us to use the swimming pool and play tennis all the time, dadadada. And I thought “What’s not to like about this? I’d rather starve here than in New York.” So when the tour was over I came back and I’ve been there ever since.
Banks doesn't love sitcoms, but he does love being an actor: After Breaking Bad ended, Banks nailed a high profile guest starring gig on season 5 of Community. He seems to have enjoyed it, and is open to coming back (if the show is renewed), although he's not crazy about sitcoms in general:
The only problem with sitcoms is that they’re not funny, otherwise they're great. And unfortunately I said that many years ago and a lot of these guys would come up to me, these show runners, and ask, “Did you really say that?” Now on the other hand, you know Community is almost an absurdist comedy.
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As you can see in the photo above, we showed him a Vine clip from last night's episode which had been tweeted by Times' writer Dave Itzkoff. "I’m barely into the 21st century, I’m barely into the 20th century," Banks said when asked if he tweets. But watching the clip did seem to perk him up:
Oh Jesus. Now do I enjoy putting on silly hats and being stupid? I love it. There's nothing easier than being an actor. There’s nothing easier. You go to work, you have a good time, and you leave. The only way it's hard is if you make it hard. I never thought of it as work; I could be on my fourteenth hour, I can be wet, I can be in the snow, and I guarantee you I'm uncomfortable, and I hate that. But it's not work, not ever, in 47 years professionally. Well, 45 professionally, but 47 since i got my first paycheck.
And here are a few more tidbits we learned about Banks:
On his relationship with Community cast member Ken Jeong: "Ken Jeong, who I love, you realize that he was a doctor. Ken was a doctor! And I’ll go out of my way to call him a drop out...[Ken] is the easiest laugh in the world. You just have to look at him and he goes oobububub. And there should be something of him making fun of me, imitating me, and I say 'Ken, that’s not funny.' Any time he would do it I’d say, 'Ken, that’s lowbrow humor, please.' And when I’d laugh I’d say, 'OK, I’m a sucker for lowbrow humor.' I really enjoyed being with him."
On other TV shows he enjoys: "I like Boardwalk Empire a lot...I wanna watch the Spacey thing, I wanna watch the "Detective" thing, I haven’t seen Jeff [Daniel]’s thing, is it The Newsroom? I have a whole list, and if I figure out how to use the iPad my family gave me, I’d watch them."
On TV networks: "When you meet guys like Charlie Collier, president of AMC, a straight up good guy, he will look you in the eye right there, he’ll walk into a room and introduce himself to everyone. That’s who he is. And I’m so glad for his success. Because there are others from other places, that will show up late in a room full of people and do nothing more than open up a script. And you just want to reach across the room and say, 'Where are your manners?' And I shouldn’t get started."
On John Steinbeck: "I would say this, and I’m not trying to sound cocky, but you should revisit [the American classics]. You should revisit many, many things by the time you get into your late thirties, early forties. Because if you read Steinbeck, 'East of Eden,' then... no young kid should ever read 'East of Eden.' [Steinbeck] was a national treasure. I didn’t dislike Gore Vidal, but Steinbeck was popular, which people are naturally jealous of. And Vidal said, 'Well, we considered him a high school classicist,' and I thought, 'Fuck you.' Excuse my language, but when you finally do read 'Grapes of Wrath,' one of the best American novels ever written, it’s hardly 'high school classic.'"
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On the best ham to pair with Smith & Forge, a hard cider from MillerCoors which Banks is promoting: "[I didn't drink cider before], but I really like this one because it’s strong. Now we’re being serious, it really is strong! Now I’ll tell you what it goes well with it, this is my total recommendation: a Smithfield ham and a biscuit. They're very heavily salted but they’re great. They’re dense, they're thick, but we eat it with a biscuit."
On sending Bryan Cranston a cooked ham: "I went to see the premiere of All The Way on Broadway last night; I got a 10 pound cooked ham that they sent to [Cranston's] door. You understand the reference to that right, 'Ham actors, ladadada.' I saw him after the show. He was great, he was really great."
His love for the film About Time:
Banks: That reminds me, did anybody see that movie About Time? It was a British movie with Bill Nighy and nobody’s seen it.
Gothamist: Yeah, it was by the same guy who did Notting Hill.
Banks: But it was so good, it was so sweet.
Gothamist: When are you going to star in your own romcom?
Banks: I don’t know. I would love to be in a romantic comedy. I could watch Bill Nighy do anything...When he was playing ping pong with his son, umph [fakes crying].
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