It's no wonder. In Better Call Saul, the Breaking Bad prequel that shifts its focus to dodgy but lovable criminal lawyer Saul Goodman, Gilligan is attempting to do something that rarely succeeds: a spin-off series from a hit TV show.
Not only that, but he's following the champion of TV boxset binge-watching, with Breaking Bad causing viewer addictions akin to the blue meth cooked up by the show's cancer-stricken teacher Walter White.
As this room full of demanding journalists shows, anticipation for Better Call Saul is huge.
So, out of the all the questions being flung at Gilligan, the most important one has to be this: "Why do it?"
Gilligan is quick to deflate expectations. "The best thing is to admit that it is impossible, or next to impossible, to better Breaking Bad," he sighs, his voice cracking after a morning full of interviews.
Bob Odenkirk of Better Call Saul features on the cover of this week's TimeOut:
"That's a show I want written on my tombstone. I will be more proud of it than anything else I have a hand in. But we love to work, and we love this character. The way we're approaching it is, 'Do we love this story we're telling?' The answer I'm proud to report is, 'Yes, yes we do'."
Gilligan pauses, then explains exactly why he's nervous.
"Will it be received as well as Breaking Bad? Probably not. It's possible people will hate it."
Those words are probably ringing in the ears of the man whose shoulders all this rests upon. Just down the hallway sitting quietly on a cream couch is Bob Odenkirk and, with his dated suit and comb-over, he may as well be in character.
In person, Odenkirk embodies the spirit of Saul - composed and measured, but also awkward and restless. Like Saul, he's a chatty motormouth, but he constantly seems to be looking for an out, like a cornered cat.
He's also surprisingly frank. The 52-year-old is a screen veteran - he started out as a writer on Saturday Night Live and acting credits include last year's Fargo - but he's humble and open. He also has two important admissions to make.
Here's the first: "For the whole of the first three seasons (of Breaking Bad), I didn't know what was going on. I had an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old. In our house, there's no 'leave me alone, I'm watching TV' rule. It's not like Dad can go watch TV for three hours in a room with the door shut. What if a kid walks in and catches the boxcutter scene?"
That casual attitude gives his performances an immediacy, Odenkirk believes. But it was a dirty little secret that Bryan Cranston nearly uncovered during filming.
"In the third season, Bryan looked at me and said, 'Don't say Gus [Fring's] name like that, he's not your friend. I go, 'Oh'. He goes, 'You don't know this show, do you?' I just laughed, thinking, 'I can't admit that I don't know everything that's going on'.
"F***, I just didn't have time to watch it'."
He's seen Breaking Bad now - he binge-watched it when his kids went to summer camp. But here's Odenkirk's second admission - he's adopted the same casual attitude for his portrayal of Saul.
"I did not read the outlines. I said, 'I don't want them, I don't care what I'm supposed to care about four weeks from now, I care about right now today in this scene, in this moment'. As an actor, I would argue that you don't need to see everything or know everything or find out where it's going or where it was."
Despite decades of journeymen roles behind him, Saul is Odenkirk's first lead role in a TV show. Odenkirk knows there are concerns, but he's quick to deflate them.
"I don't think it's an issue. If I came away with one impression, it's, 'Holy shit, Vince Gilligan is a great storyteller. He can lead you down a trail and it's involving and engaging and amazing'.
"The confidence he tells his story with ... he's just the best."
It's fair to say Gilligan is not at his best right now. He's been calming hysterical journalists all day, and his relief as the end nears is obvious. He's still working on Saul, and he's keen to get back to the editing suite.
But before he goes, Gilligan has his own admission to make: he's still surprised by the success of Breaking Bad.
The 47-year-old one-time X-Files scribe has no idea why the transformation of a humble science teacher into a psychopathic drug boss - or "Mr Chips into Scarface" - became TV gold.
"I know we worked hard to make the best show we could - but everyone does that," he says. "We had an excellent actor in Bryan Cranston - but a lot of shows have excellent actors supporting them.
"Success is often harder than failure. Failure is the only thing we truly learn from. It's easy in the aftermath of a big crash to say, 'This thing crashed because of this and this'.
"But when something goes soaring off into the stratosphere, you're like, 'Why is that flying again?"'
It's one of the reasons Better Call Saul has arrived so quickly, just 16 months after Walt's demise. Gilligan was worried he would "psych himself out" if he spent too long deciding what his next show was.
A running joke from Breaking Bad's first season, Saul didn't become a real prospect until the series' final eight episodes began airing and everyone started worrying about their jobs.
Then, it was like a snowball. But it's one rolling along with its own set of challenges.
"When we made Breaking Bad we set out to make something audiences hadn't seen before. Now, with Better Call Saul, we have the added obstacle of creating a show that's not quite like any other TV show - including Breaking Bad."
He might be in competition with himself, but Gilligan promises the results are worth it.
"We have the same feeling of accomplishment that we felt when we were working on Breaking Bad," he says, as his assistant winds up the interview.
"This was hard-fought, but we really like it. We pleased ourselves, and at the risk of sounding immodest, that's no small feat. We're our toughest critics."
No bad blood here
Every episode is different... You need to see a few to get the scope of the tone. We know it's a Breaking Bad prequel, but little else. Creator Vince Gilligan and writer Peter Gould explain exactly what Better Call Saul viewers are in for.
Here's the first thing you need to know about Better Call Saul - there will be no sign of Walter White or Jesse Pinkman. At least, not during the spin-off show's first season.
"We are letting everyone know who not to expect so people aren't holding their breath for the first 10 episodes," says Vince Gilligan.
"You will not be seeing Walt and you will not be seeing Jesse. We think it's only fair to say, because people are wondering if we'll see these guys, and we don't want to build up false expectations."
Breaking Bad's main duo are AWOL, but plenty of others are making a comeback. Fans of stony-faced private investigator Mike Ehrmantraut, played by Jonathan Banks, will be pleased to see him pop up early in the first episode, as a gruff court carpark attendant. And at the beginning of episode two, there's a surprise appearance by one of Breaking Bad's more notorious - and erratic - characters, which we won't spoil here.
Set six years before Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul will follow the transformation of small-time lawyer James McGill into Saul Goodman or, as Gilligan describes him: "He's a good guy living a tough life trying to excel in his chosen field."
But Peter Gould is careful to explain that the show's tone is difficult to describe.
"Every episode is different," he says. "Some episodes start out flat-out comedic, other episodes are suspenseful or even scary. You need to see a few to get the scope of the tone. It goes to some unusual places."
Gilligan admits Saul was initially pitched as a comedy series because of Bob Odenkirk's ability to play Saul as Breaking Bad's comic relief.
But along the way, it turned into something else.
"It's not quite like anything else we've seen," he says. "I thought it was going to be a flat-out comedy. It is much more dramatic than I would have ever thought it was capable of being."
And with the show's opening scene a flash-forward past the finale of Breaking Bad, there's plenty on offer for die-hard fans mourning the demise of Walter White.
"Those who pay close attention to the show will be rewarded," says Gilligan. "You can watch this show while you're eating a sandwich and painting the living room, but there will be a different level of enjoyment for those who pay attention."
Get your notepads ready: with positive overseas reviews and AMC already renewing it for a second season, Better Call Saul could be your new TV addiction. It's gotta be better for you than blue meth.
What: Better Call Saul, the prequel to Breaking Bad
When and where: Debuts on Lightbox, February 9 at 8pm; episode two screens the following night. Visit lightbox.co.nz for sign-up details.
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