From the executive producers of Better Call Saul and The Office comes Lucky Hank, starring Bob Odenkirk and Mireille Enos. Meet Professor Hank Devereaux (Odenkirk), the English department chairman at an underfunded college in a ho-hum town where mediocrity prevails. Life’s been throwing him some curveballs lately with his wife Lily’s (Enos) new career goals, constant chaos at work, and the return of his estranged father. With that, Hank spirals into a midlife meltdown taking everyone with him. In this interview with amc.com we speak with Kyle MacLachlan about all things Dickie Pope, from his idiosyncrasies, to his awkward interactions with Hank, and his true intentions.
Q: Dickie Pope’s idiosyncrasies are on full display pretty much immediately and it’s a joy to watch. What was the hook that drew you to this project? Was it the scripts, the showrunners, or maybe you were a fan of the novel? 
A: I wasn't familiar with the book, but I've always liked Bob Odenkirk and I thought this would be a fun opportunity to work with him on something. Then I read the script and I said, "Oh, this is an interesting character that seems to be wide open to interpretation." I mean, sure there were some specific things about him, as you said, he's very idiosyncratic. I thought, "Well, this could be fun to explore where he's coming from, what's his agenda, why he’s so awkward."
Part of the fun for me is when I’m exploring a role, I start to think about people in my life who resemble them or have some of the same qualities. I was able to go back and think about people that I knew—I guess primarily focused on the business world—people I knew that had certain quirks. The ones that I know that are really brilliant, they do some things incredibly well and some things not well at all. In Dickie's case, it was his relationship with the human race. It's very challenging to him! So I said, "Well, how do I portray that? How do I manifest that?" The script was very helpful, because it already had some moments and beats and a little bit of a blueprint, if you will, to help me along the way, so I just followed that and expanded it a little bit. The beautiful thing about working with Bob is he'll bring in his character and the quirks of his character, and then I bring in the quirks of my character and then we get to play these two very strange people together in a room! Something about the whole idea really appealed to me, so I signed on for what in my mind was just a fun couple of episodes to do something a little different.
Q: I love that you're talking about Bob right away because I think when Dickie and Hank finally meet in Episode 4, the back and forth between them is great. There's just such a disconnect in how they communicate with each other. Dickie just plows through Hank's commentary trying to get to his points. What was it like working with Bob on this bizarre back-and-forth between these very different characters?
A: First of all, the location where we were filming this was a little odd. We were filming in a facility that was an asylum of some sort, I think.
This was on location in Vancouver, yeah?
Correct. I wish I could remember what the place was called! Anyways, it's a famous film location now because most of the facility has been retired. I think there's only a few buildings that are still operational. We filmed on the top floor of a very scary hospital with rooms that were empty. They had that kind of tile that's a weird pale green color and a bizarre mauve color. That kind of vibe. It was an odd place, and they built my office inside one of these rooms and made it all beautifully wood-paneled and really well-appointed. But when you walked out the door, down a little corridor, and you turned a corner, you were in this asylum-like hospital. It was very strange! So it was like, "Well, this is weird!" [Laughs] They had little chairs set up for us with little heaters because it was chilly there. When I started filming it was summer and by my last episode it was winter.
So, Bob and I would come in, bundled up in these big jackets. We had the pages in our hands, these little stapled pages, and we would just run through them. Bob comes from a writer's sensibility, right? So, he's immediately looking at the structure of a scene and the writing and the dialogue. He's very, very smart. And I'm coming at it from the character as the guy trying to interpret him and trying to figure out what he's doing in the moment while he’s in this environment. So we really have this wonderful little dance that we did. And I worked with two directors, Dan Attias and Nicole Holofcener, and they were both really, really adept at letting us – meaning Bob and myself – explore these two characters in this environment in our own way. They let us alone and we futzed around and figured it out.
It’s always a very odd dance that happens in a scene and it's made even more [so] because the scene is about, as you said, people not connecting, so instead of trying to find a common ground, we're actually trying to go the opposite way. We just muddled our way through and came up with a structure pretty quickly because time is always of the essence, and we laid a few down. It's almost like music – you lay a few tracks down and if you like what you're doing you just kind of go from there. I guess using the music analogy – we were playing a nice song, I felt, Bob and I, and we kept ourselves in character a little bit and then when we finished the scene, it was big hugs, lots of smiles, and like, "This is so much fun, I'm loving working with you, I'm loving working with you," back and forth. It felt like two actors who knew what they were doing, really enjoying each other and each other's skill set, and playing together in a big sandbox.  
Which sounds like the ideal situation.
It is and it's not always like that! But in this case, it was really fun.
Q: Your career includes so many different memorable characters with some of the most iconic all-American sounding names! From Dale Cooper and Dougie Jones, to Trey MacDougal and Orson Hodge, Dickie Pope is definitely part of that crew now. You’ve played characters like Dale who are “innocents” as David Lynch famously said, but you’ve also captured some seriously flawed and dark characters too. We don’t know much about Dickie, but signs point to him not being an “innocent”—is it fun to play more villainous roles? 
A: Dickie definitely has an agenda that we learn about towards the end of the season and he's not what he appears to be exactly. But at the same time, he's driving towards that goal. He's not necessarily trying to muddy the waters, but he's not talking about it. So, I think in his mind he has a purpose and a reason and a goal that is very important to him and he's driving towards that. And we'll see at the end how it turns out. I'll leave it at that.
But you bring up a very interesting point about the names. The names of characters say so much and I was like, "Hmmm, Dickie Pope." I said, "Why isn't he Richard? Why wouldn't he be Richard Pope? Or Rich? Or just Dick Pope? What is it? Why is he called Dickie Pope?" So that opened a whole other little wormhole for me to go down. You see, actors, we become obsessed with these little details because the writer put it in there for a reason. Whether he knows it or not, it's there for a reason for the writer. So, I checked with Paul [Lieberstein] a little about it. We talked about it. But I kind of wanted to put my own spin on Dickie. In my mind, it was like he can't escape Dickie. Somehow, somewhere, in his past, someone called him Dickie Pope and he just cannot escape it and now he's kind of had to embrace it. You know, it's like Richard Nixon was Tricky Dick, right? So, there's just something about it and he's had to make his peace with the name, but I don't think it's the name that he would have chosen to be known by. The other side of the coin is that Dickie Pope implies, "Hey, I'm not a threat. I’m Dickie Pope. I'm your best pal." And I'm like, "Mmmm, no he’s definitely is a threat." So again it's a little bit of smoke and mirrors. Hank can't quite get a handle on him. Those are the kind of things that when you read a script, you're like, "Oh, that's an interesting choice. That's a different choice." I like that idea because it opens up a door. They don't tell you everything, you know?
I also like what you're saying about the power of names particularly when it comes to Dickie Pope, because his solution to rectifying the name of this new building is to just add a ‘Q,’ you know? That's just another instance of his idiosyncrasies, I guess, he's just like “Well, that solves it!”
It is funny! He's not really interested in the details. "We'll put a Q in it. It'll be fine." But the other part is I love that he's self-aware enough to realize that the character of Jeffrey wasn't crazy about the ‘Q,’ didn't really like the ‘Q.’ But he just went forward with it anyway. Just funny little comedy bits.
Q: The groundbreaking scene in Episode 4 is fraught with chaos in the most delightful way and I think the zoom in on Dickie's face when Hank starts boxing the goose is so perfect!
A: Oh, I'm so glad! I'm so glad.
It's so funny! This is such a strong ensemble cast and filming those scenes in particular must have been a thrill.
Well, this was one where the editor came to save the day because on that particular day, we did not have a goose! There was some issue with avian flu I think! We never understood whether the bird was sick, or whether they were worried that we would get sick if the bird came to visit the set. So, I was never quite sure. This was in keeping with the tone of the story, I gotta tell you. [Laughs] It was a very funny thing when the director said, "Okay, now the goose is chasing Bob and now Bob has turned and is sort of batting at the goose like a boxer. Now he's running and the goose is…" So it was basically just the director verbally walking the actors through what he was thinking was going to happen visually. Listen, I've been doing this long enough, as have all the other actors, so we all know that this is sometimes what you have to do, you just go with your imagination. Fortunately, as you said, we have a cast of really, really talented, funny, and nuanced actors. Performers that understand comedy and exactly how much or how little to turn the volume up or down.
One of the great pleasures I had was reuniting with Cedric [Yarbrough]. He was on a half-hour that I worked on called Carol's Second Act, and I think he was really the anchor for that show in many ways. When I found out he'd be working on this I couldn't have been happier because he's very talented and very funny, and he's just got such a great history of wonderful work. So, I loved that he was there for the groundbreaking scene.
Q: In Ep 1 Hank talks about “the misery business” always outperforming the “happiness business,” and it’s a concept that stuck with me. You share so much about your life on social media that I have sense of how you might answer this, but how do you disrupt “the misery business?” What are the little day to day things that bring you joy? 
A: Oh gosh. I'm pretty much a glass is half-full type of person, and I can find joy and humor in lots of little things. You know, it's really my family. It's my son, who's 14-and-a-half, and just seeing him walk through a room makes me happy. I'm always looking for the fun or the funny in a moment in whatever the situation is, when it's appropriate! I think I have a slightly different take on the world, a lighter side. It's not agony for me, but then again I'm not a comedian. I feel like a lot of comedians, there's some agony in there which they counteract with the funny. So, I don't know – I just find joy in the day.
I mean, there's nothing wrong with an eternal optimist. I feel like we need more of those anyway.
And you pointed towards social. I feel like my social is… well there's plenty of commentary out there on any different subject, be it political, personal, social, whatever it is. I just kind of want to present something to make people laugh, a lighter moment, a way of looking at things that might be a little bit different. A little bit of brightening the day.
I loved the video that you posted the other day on Instagram of your dogs promoting Stand Up To Cancer’s 31-Mile Dog Walk Challenge that you’re doing. That looks awesome!
Yes, I love that organization! When they need help, I'm just so happy to do it because they do such good work. Also, we live on a street that’s full of dogs and full of people walking their dogs. I don't know if we're going to get to 31 miles — it's not that long of a street — but we walk the dogs many times during the day, and I really enjoy it.

Full episodes of Lucky Hank are available to stream on amc.com (with a cable provider login), the AMC apps for mobile and devices, and AMC+ subscribers get early access to episodes on Thursdays. AMC+ is available at amcplus.com or through the new AMC+ app available on iPhone, iPad, Android, Fire TV, Apple TV, and Roku. AMC+ can also be accessed through a variety of providers, including AppleTV, Prime Video Channels, DirectTV, Dish, Roku Channel, Sling, and Xfinity. Sign up for AMC+ now.