Exercise Used to Bore Bob Odenkirk. Now He’s Doing Stunts.

Sometimes it does a man good to vent, which is what Bob Odenkirk pitched as a selling point when he decided to reshape himself into an action star.

He had this crazy thought, he told his manager a few years back. His show “Better Call Saul” was popular around the world. He was in good shape and willing to train more.

“And this is kind of key,” he said in a recent video call from Los Angeles. “We had had a break-in at my house a few years earlier and it left me with a lot of anger. I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if I could act that out?’”

In “Normal,” in theaters on Friday and his third action film after “Nobody” and “Nobody 2,” Odenkirk plays Ulysses, a sheriff on temporary assignment in a drowsy Minnesota town who soon discovers what lurks beneath all that charm.

Guns are rampant, a knife ends up in a throat, and Odenkirk delivers an especially juicy blow with a meat tenderizer.

“You feel unburdened,” he said. “You let all that rage go in a pretend fight. I have found it to be genuinely cathartic.”

Odenkirk, who has Emmys for his comedy writing on “Saturday Night Live” and “The Ben Stiller Show,” shared some of his favorite things, including stunt training, Bonnat chocolate and the My 10 series itself (“I read it every week”). These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

Internet-Free Mornings

I have succeeded for a few months now in starting my day without the internet for nearly an hour. What a thing! I will grant that it gives me a calmer, healthier, more focused morning. But after that comes 12 hours of three windows open simultaneously. Working on it.

Protein Smoothies

Every morning I eat this, all ground up in a blender, here goes: kale (two big stalks); spinach (a fat handful); half a banana; one cup of frozen organic blueberries; a dollop of peanut butter; a dollop of almond butter; protein powder (not whey); additional collagen protein powder; creatine; any other cool, weird powder; ice and water. Low sugar, very high-protein gloop. Works for me.

Bonnat Chocolate

The best chocolate in the world, and I’ve tried it all. There are some close contenders, but none beats the smooth, potent impact of any variety of Bonnat’s dark chocolate. One bar can last a couple days. You don’t need much to remind you how good life can be.

Largo at the Coronet

When I need to remember how it all began, with joy and daring and inspiration, I go to see any show at Largo at the Coronet here in L.A. (and sometimes appear in those shows). It is a mix of new talent and stalwarts including Judd Apatow, Tig Notaro and Patton Oswalt, and music acts like Andrew Bird, Aimee Mann and Jeff Tweedy. People try new things, fail, succeed and reignite that passion.

Mountain Trek Health Reset Retreat

My wife, Naomi, tries to go every year. I probably go every other year. This changed my life and set the ground rules for a healthier lifestyle in every aspect: exercise, diet and overall balance. Beautiful hikes in the stunning Kootenay mountain range in British Columbia for a week. Healthy eating, good vibes. Led to a new career in action films and helped me survive a drastic heart incident in 2021, but mostly made every day better.

‘On Cinema at the Cinema’

At the end of a stressful day, you just need to laugh. This ongoing fake-movie-review show is actually the dumbest, most hilarious soap opera ever produced. It’s a thin premise, but give it a few episodes and start to grasp the rich and undeniably thick through lines of resentment, ego, inane pedantry and intrusive side hustles and pure nonsense invented by Tim Heidecker and Gregg Turkington. A masterpiece.

Daily Stunt Workouts

I trained for years to do my own stunt fighting. Along the way my stunt trainer, Daniel Bernhardt, showed me countless ways to move, stretch, exert yourself and bring your body to strength and life. Exercise was always boring to me until this pursuit opened the whole thing up.

Bob and Ray and My Son, Nate

I am as surprised as anyone at my turn to drama and even action that started with “Better Call Saul.” Comedy is at my core, my first love, and the great radio-comedy team of Bob and Ray are the best example of the silliness that I believe can save the world. My son, Nate, who has written comedy bits since junior high, and I get together once a month to write up and perform three new character pieces at a comedy night somewhere in L.A. Bob and Ray are our inspiration.

My 10 in The New York Times

Seriously. I read it every week, and I always find a thing or two that provokes my interest and exploration. I am always looking for other people’s shortcuts to life!