'Better Call Saul': Michael Mando Teases 'Breaking Bad' Crossovers, Nacho's Fate and More!
If you're in a bind, then you'd better call Saul. But if Jimmy McGill is in trouble -- he's calling Nacho.
After only three episodes, we at ETonline are wildly obsessed with AMC's Breaking Bad prequel, Better Call Saul, starring the incomparable Bob Odenkirk, and the best part is that this addicting drama is only just beginning.
Michael Mando -- best known to Orphan Black fans as Vic, Sarah's drug-dealing ex -- is leaving the world of clones behind, and fully embracing his badass side as Nacho Varga, the right-hand-man to one of the most iconic villains in Breaking Bad history: Tuco Salamanca (Raymond Cruz).
"To understand what makes a man like that tick is very interesting," Mando told ETonline of stepping into his new on-screen alter ego. "Someone who is that intelligent, and patient, and dangerous is very interesting. I always find myself asking what is his objective and how does one become like that?"
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Mando confessed that it's going to be a "slow burn" before Better Call Saul fans finally discover Nacho's full backstory. "I can tell you that [creators] Vince [Gilligan] and Peter [Gould] are these really brilliant architects, and they think very carefully about where they put their bricks," he said. "They really look at every possible angle before laying down the next brick."
In the second episode, fans were treated to an adrenaline-pumping hour when Jimmy's life was threatened (multiple times if we're being honest) by Tuco, before Nacho eventually decided to negotiate a leg-breaking compromise with his erratic boss.
So what's the biggest difference between Tuco and his protege? "I can tell you a major difference would be that Nacho is kind of like a peasant who wants to be king, but he doesn't have the proper bloodline like Tuco has," the actor explained. "He's someone who wants more than the cards he has been dealt."
Viewers can expect to see Nacho and Jimmy working closer together in a mutually beneficial partnership thanks to their "outcast" past and quest for respect.
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"I feel like Jimmy and Nacho are the two kids in the sandbox that nobody's playing with and nobody's playing with them for different reasons," Mando said. "Nobody is playing with Jimmy because nobody thinks Jimmy is good enough. And nobody is playing with Nacho because their parents told them not to."
With Tuco as our first surprise Breaking Bad character crossover, it's only a matter of time before another member of the Emmy-winning drama makes their Better Call Saul debut. But the question remains, who should it be?
"I have such respect for Bryan Cranston, and Aaron Paul, and Anna Gunn, and Dean Norris, and Betsy [Brandt], and everybody on that show," Mando revealed. "They're all threads in this incredible cloth and I feel like to pick one thread out and to single one person out would be almost unfair to this amazing ensemble. But I think nobody is out of bounds for Better Call Saul. We'd all love to see all of them, as many as possible, to come back."
Breaking Bad fans know that brutal and unexpected character deaths are the norm in Gilligan's small-screen world, and Mando is fully prepared to accept any fate that is headed Nacho's way. "No matter what happens to Nacho, I'll always be a fan of the show and I back them up 100 percent," he said.
Better Call Saul airs Mondays at 10 p.m. on AMC.
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