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Better Call Saul actor Todd LaTourrette told news station KOB4 this week that he cut off his own arm 17 years ago in a “psychotic episode,” then claimed he was a wounded veteran to land acting roles. LaTourrette, who says he is bipolar, told the station he was not taking his medications when he “cut off” and cauterized his own arm almost two decades ago. “I severed my hand with a skill saw… The state of my mind was a psychotic episode,” he said. LaTourrette then claimed his arm was severed while serving overseas, he said. “The film industry obviously took a different angle,” he said. “That I was different. And so they liked that.”
LaTourrette called his lying “dishonorable.” “I’m killing my career by doing this, if anyone thinks this was for personal edification, that’s not the case,” he said. “I’m ousting myself from the New Mexico Film Industry. And gladly so, just to say what I’ve said.” He hopes his story will help others struggling with mental illness. “The power is in your hands to take your medication in the morning, or at night,” he said. “So that, this, this discourse of my life doesn’t need to necessarily be yours.” LaTourrette was also featured in the 2009 film The Men Who Stare at Goats and in the series Longmire.