To play a terrible person on screen has not been easy for Aaron Paul. The actor shares the transition that his character of a drug peddler goes through in different seasons of Breaking Bad
Jesse is a high school drug dealer while Skyler is a housewife who just wants to protect her family. Why is it that the audience sympathise more with Jesse than SkylerIJ
I don’t know. I find it odd. Jesse is a drug dealer and a murderer but for some reason you want to care for him. You want to protect him. When I watch Skyler, I feel for her so much. She just wants to protect her family and for that she does go to extremes. I guess anybody who loves their family would but I think the audience really roots for the bad guy. So Jesse inevitably ends up gaining more pity than Skyler.
How much bad is left in Jesse and how much good is left in Walt at this pointIJ
When the season ended last year, Jesse was completely exhausted. He had reached a point from where he wanted to come out of the drug business. He now wants to stay as far away from Walt’s as possible because Walt’s true colours were revealed to him towards the end of last season. They’ve always been slow in revealing themselves but he’s terrified of this man and he wants nothing to do with him. So he wants to try and stay out of the business, if he can.
Does the character of Jesse have a backstoryIJ
The character of Jesse was revealed to me as and when the episodes happened. He did not really have a back story he was in a constant search for some guidance in his life. Even though he never admitted it but he was searching for a father figure because his parents had given up on him years ago. That father figure he found in Walt. That is why he always wants to protect kids because he never really got that or at least he didn’t feel that he had that protection from his parents.
There was an episode a couple of weeks ago with just Walt and Jesse and a fly. How does the show adapt to such scriptsIJ
When I first read it, I thought it was possibly the most brilliant thing I’ve ever read but also, I was like, ‘There’s no way this is going to make it on the air’ and this was before Mad Men had come out. I didn’t know AMC was doing original programming but they had the courage to go for it. I didn’t think it would happen.
How tough was the audition for Jesse’s roleIJ
A year before I went in for Jesse’s audition I had shot an episode for X Files, where I played Sky Commander Winky. Vince Gillian (creator of Breaking Bad) asked me which episode I shot for. When I said lord of the Flies, he immediately recognised me as Commander Winky and told me that Winky has his nickname in college. That broke the ice and we ran an audition.
It was an hour later that I found out that Vince was testing me and that I had bagged the part.
Did you ever try Meth to get into the skin of the characterIJ
Of course. I’m a method actor and I have played my share of drug addicts in my day. However, I did do a lot of research because I’ve never played a kid addicted to Meth. It’s such a horrible, sad and tragic drug and I’ve seen so many drug documentaries and people obsessed with intervention. It’s amazing what you can find on YouTube.
There are people actually using and you see it really affecting them. It’s pretty intense but that’s the research I did for the drug use. But this season, Jesse made a valiant effort to try and stay clean and I spent some time, before we starting shooting, at a rehab facility. I didn’t check in, I toured around and berated this guy with questions like, ‘What’s stopping these people from walking out the doorIJ’ I was wondering why would Jesse stay there when he replied, ‘Honestly, there’s nothing. The door is right there. They can just walk out but people come here because they want to make a change in their lives.’
From what we have seen so far, Jesse can be quite a terrible person. Won’t it be hard for himIJ
It might be, but at the end of the day he’s a loveable drug addict (laughs).
(The show airs on FX)