Todd Latourette, an actor who has had minor roles in Better Call Saul and Longmire , reportedly cut off his own arm 17 years ago in an effort to garner more acting jobs. The actor has now come forward, admitting that he has bipolar disorder and the incident occurred during a period of time when he was not taking his medication.
Latourette made the startling admission during an interview with KOB-TV . He reportedly cut off his arm using a Skilsaw and then cauterized the wound.
“I severed my hand with a Skilsaw,” said Latourette. “The state of my mind was a psychotic episode.”
The intent of severing his arm was so that he could claim to be a wounded veteran and, as a result of this, kickstart his acting career.
“The film industry obviously took a different angle,” said Todd Latourette. “That I was different. And so they liked that.”
However, since the incident, Todd has not received as many acting roles as he thought he would get from taking such a drastic action. As Entertainment Weekly points out, Latourette “went on to land parts on the small screen and in the 2009 George Clooney film The Men Who Stare At Goats .” In addition to this, his most recent role was that of Skell in Season 4 of AMC’s Better Call Saul . In total, Latourette has nine acting credits listed on IMDb , a site that lists movies, TV programs, and the actors who star in them.
#BetterCallSaul ‘s Todd Latourette is coming clean about his past. https://t.co/xk6uBtmQ7t
— Entertainment Tonight (@etnow) November 1, 2018
He is now owning up to what he did in an effort to “right a wrong after years of pretending to be a wounded veteran, in the hopes of landing roles.”
“I was dishonorable. I’m killing my career by doing this, if anyone thinks this was for personal edification, that’s not the case,” says Latourette. “I’m ousting myself from the New Mexico Film Industry. And gladly so, just to say what I’ve said.”
The actor does not claim to want redemption for his actions. Instead, he has only now spoken out about the incident in the hope that it will help others with mental illness.
“The power is in your hands to take your medication in the morning, or at night,” Latourette revealed.
“So that, this, this discourse of my life doesn’t need to necessarily be yours. Because, it happens quick… it happens quick.”
Fox News approached AMC in relation to the matter but AMC “did not immediately respond” to the request.