He was the heart of perhaps the greatest television drama of all time - but that hasn't translated
to big screen stardom.
In a recent sitdown with Vulture, Aaron Paul - star of the AMC TV series Breaking Bad and
its upcoming sequel film, El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie - offered a little insight as to
why he hasn't popped up more often in feature films, and why he's not likely to in the future.
Paul recalled that, in the wake of the wild popularity of Breaking Bad and his subsequent
stardom, he was eager to parlay his success into starring roles in other projects, whether
on the big screen or small - and he was in no way hurting for opportunities.
He confessed:
"I was so spoiled at the height of Breaking Bad.
I was being offered everything."
After Breaking Bad ended in 2013, he starred in several smaller, independent features,
though they did little to raise his profile.
Paul's chance to make a splash in a big, expensive blockbuster came his way in 2014, when he
appeared in the lead role in the video game adaptation Need For Speed.
Unfortunately, the flick failed to jump-start Paul's movie career.
It underperformed at the box office and was savaged by critics, and his next big studio
effort - the Ridley Scott-helmed biblical epic Exodus: Gods and Kings - didn't fare
much better.
It simply seemed that Paul's acting style - all barely contained emotion, with worlds
of subtext plainly visible in his soulful, expressive eyes - was much better suited for
the small screen, and he also appeared to thrive the most when his characters were given
the room to breathe and grow afforded by the serial format.
His next television effort, in the lead role in the Hulu original series The Path, drew
critical accolades for his performance - but the creative minds behind the series weren't
quite as focused as those responsible for Breaking Bad, and Hulu axed the show after
three seasons.
Paul continued to surface in indie features and smaller major studio productions, but
he continually ran up against the same problem: casting directors who seemed to think that
they were securing the services of Jesse Pinkman, rather than Aaron Paul.
Exhibit A: the 2016 Dwayne Johnson/Kevin Hart comedy Central Intelligence, in which Paul's
character makes frequent use of a certain five-letter "B" word with which Pinkman was
known to pepper every other sentence.
"I'll give you three seconds to get your ass out here.
One…
Two...
"This is my own private domicile and I will not be harassed…
b----!"
Eventually, the phone calls from the big studios became fewer and further between, due to the
perception that Paul couldn't carry a major Hollywood production on his own.
The actor explained:
"You do one commercial film that's not the success they think it's going to be, and you're
damned."
Fortunately, Paul had found plenty of space to flex his creative muscles as the voice
of the eternally cheerful yet deceptively complex Todd Chavez on the Netflix animated
series BoJack Horseman, and roles in smaller features - such as Zack Whedon's 2016 thriller
Come and Find Me and Jake Scott's 2018 drama American Woman - have kept him busy.
We'll be seeing him on the small screen early and often in the months to come, starting
with a triumphant return to his signature role in El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, an
opportunity which presented itself directly after his agent had discouraged him from taking
a role in a feature that went on to become, quote, "a monster, monster hit."
Paul declined to name said feature.
Paul said of that experience:
"There were some big thorns in my side that I had to let go.
My wife knew all of this was going on, so when I told her what [Breaking Bad creator]
Vince [Gilligan] wanted to do, she threw her arms around me.
She knew it was an opportunity for me to spread my wings again."
Breaking Bad fans absolutely cannot wait to see Paul saddle up as Jesse Pinkman one more
time, and while it's almost certainly the last we'll ever see of Pinkman, we're going
to be seeing plenty of Paul.
He can currently be seen in one of those small indie thrillers, The Parts You Lose, as a
violent fugitive who forges an unlikely friendship with a deaf youngster - but he seems most
excited about his involvement in the upcoming third season of HBO's Westworld, in which
he'll play a role that's shrouded in secrecy.
As far as big-budget features are concerned, however, Paul appears to have had his fill
of that world.
He said:
"I can't live with that pressure on me, nor will I. I'm happy."
We can only hope that Pinkman will be able to say the same at the conclusion of his story.
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie premieres on Netflix on October 11.
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