Canadian Michael Mando does the dirty work in ‘Better Call Saul’

PASADENA, Calif. – Things could not be breaking any better for Michael Mando.

The Quebec City native remembers he was playing basketball with some pals when he got the big call.

“Are you sitting down?” his agent asked.

He sat, and she gave him the good news: he’d won the part of savvy career criminal Nacho Varga on “Better Call Saul.”

His friends sprung for cigars and drinks. “That was a really nice evening,” Mando says.

“Better Call Saul” premieres Sunday on AMC before moving to its regular Monday slot on Feb. 9.

This is the much-anticipated prequel to one of the most critically acclaimed TV series ever, “Breaking Bad.”

Bob Odenkirk stars as shifty lawyer Saul Goodman and Jonathan Banks is the other “Breaking Bad” holdover as Saul’s private investigator, Mike Ehrmantraut. Michael McKean (“Spinal Tap”) plays Saul’s unhinged brother Chuck.

Mando is the guy who does Goodman’s dirty work.

The series is shot in the same town as “Breaking Bad” — Albuquerque, New Mexico — with most of the same crew. The showrunners are two of the hottest hands in television, executive producers Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould. They co-wrote the pilot, which Gilligan directed.

As a newcomer in this mix, Mando was intimidated at first. Then on his way to a costume fitting, he ran into Banks, who “had me laughing within 30 seconds. He’s really the life of the party.”

The Montreal-based francophone has credits on just about anything with cops and guns in Canada — including “Rookie Blue” and “The Listener.”

It was his role as an abusive, drug-dealing ex-boyfriend on “Orphan Black” that put him on Gilligan and Gould’s radar. Gilligan told reporters at the recent TV critics press tour in Pasadena, Calif., that Nacho is “going to fit well into the pantheon of really smart, formidable, cold-blooded folks” seen on “Breaking Bad.”

Mando has seen thugs like Nacho before, although he’s reluctant to talk about it. His IMDb bio references an incident in which he was shot in the knee in a gang fight, an injury which cut into his love of playing hockey, football and soccer.

The reference was taken down shortly after this interview.

“That’s a long, unfortunate story,” says Mando, who, along with his brothers, was raised by a single father.

“I did get into trouble at some point in my life, but I was very fortunate to come from a good family.”

Mando spent much of his childhood in Africa before coming back to Canada for his teen years.

By his early twenties, Mando had lived in 10 cities, five countries, four continents and over 35 different houses. He studied psychology at the University of Ottawa and international relations at the University of Montreal before finding his calling at Montreal’s Dome Theatre. His TV work took off after a move to Toronto.

Mando has no doubt his constant change of scenery contributed to his development as an actor, and as a man.

“I think if anything, what it does is that it really opens your mind to all the different cultures. It permits you to embrace people a lot easier, to be more open minded to people’s differences and to really see the world as one. I think that’s something I’m very grateful for.”

— Bill Brioux is a freelance TV columnist based in Brampton, Ont.