“I’ve been robbed, I’ve been assaulted. The thieves may have stolen material value from me,
but they didn’t steal who I am as an individual.” Best known for his portrayal of Walter White Jr.
on Breaking Bad, RJ Mitte has carved out his path in Hollywood by breaking down stereotypes about
cerebral palsy and changing people’s mindsets. In today’s video, we’re looking into the actor’s
life, struggles, and triumphs, including how he had to take care of his family as a young child
and the audition you won’t believe he had right before landing Breaking Bad.
Mitte was raised by his mother following his parents’ separation, and from the age of 13,
he was financially responsible for the family. Just a few months after his mom gave birth
to his sister, she got into a car accident and was partially paralyzed for six years.
After the accident, she was fired from her job. She was a single parent,
and they had just moved into a new place and feared they would lose everything.
“I mowed lawns, picked up stuff and took it places. I did whatever I could to scrape cash
together. I have devoted my life to my mom and my sister, and I still take care of them today.”
When his younger sister was discovered by a talent agent at 18 months old and invited to an audition
in LA, 13-year-old RJ and their mom accompanied her. The agent decided to sign both siblings,
and the future star added acting classes to his daily speech therapy and exercise regimen.
After receiving several roles as an extra, including in the Disney series Hannah Montana,
Mitte was offered the role of Walter White Jr., who also has cerebral palsy,
in the AMC series Breaking Bad. “My role on Breaking Bad was the
opportunity of a lifetime,” Mitte says. “I hope I was able to educate viewers about CP
and to give them a better understanding of what it means to live with a physical disability.”
The actor has cerebral palsy, but he was not diagnosed at birth.
It took years for his family to learn about his disability. He and his parents remembered going to
doctor appointments where the doctors would say, “We know you have something; we don’t know what.”
He was diagnosed at the age of three, and doctors put both his legs in casts for six months
in an attempt to straighten his feet. Mitte was then fitted with leg braces and used crutches
throughout most of his childhood. However, his body became stronger through sports and exercise,
and he no longer needed any walking devices by the time he was a teenager.
Mitte considers himself lucky to have grown up in a family that was all about building
confidence and self-esteem. The actor said he always tried to put himself in
situations where people might see a person with a disability and say they shouldn’t be there.
“I was very lucky because the resources that I did have, when I had them growing up, were
adequate enough,” Mitte said. “I had my community behind me, supporting my health and wellness.”
Once, Mitte was asked about his advice to kids being bullied and
how he sees the acting industry changing to accept more actors with disabilities.
The actor said he was fortunate to have had a few close friends who
defended him when he was bullied, and he now encourages others to be that kind of friend.
“When you see a child being bullied, be that hero, and speak up and say something,”
Mitte says. “Be the advocate you would want someone to be for you.”
As a young boy, Mitte also took karate and martial arts classes that helped
his spasticity and increased his confidence. “If I was pushed, I learned to get back up,
look the bully in the eye, and ask them what their problem was,”
Mitte says. “It’s important to take a stand and to show bullies they can’t push you around.
He also said the best advice anyone ever gave him was “can’t is a decision,” and
it’s something he wants to pass on to people who will listen. If he “can’t” do something,
it means to him that it’s something he doesn’t want to do in the first place.
So, RJ finds the things he can do –– even if he’s never done it before — because
trying them will hopefully lead to bigger and better opportunities.
To this day, the actor has to put himself in vulnerable situations, including going
on 50 to 100 acting auditions a year and maybe getting “three, or two or only one,” he said.
One of the funniest audition moments Mitte encountered in his acting career came right before
he auditioned for Breaking Bad. Mitte — who would play the son of Walter White, a terminally-ill
high school chemistry teacher who begins selling meth to support his family — initially auditioned
for an anti-meth video campaign. He found the timing of the two auditions ironic and is glad
he got cast for the show over the campaign. “If it weren’t for Breaking Bad,” Mitte
said. “I wouldn’t be here. You wouldn’t give two shits about me.”
Fame is not what drives the young actor to continue auditioning for roles. Instead,
it’s the impact he hopes to continue to make in the acting industry for actors with disabilities.
Over the last decade, Mitte believes he’s seen the number of actors with disabilities
rise from about three to hundreds or thousands. “There are a lot of actors with disabilities in
leading roles, making movies, but you don’t see them because the productions are ultra-low budget
and sadly don’t always make it,” Mitte says. Mitte has no problems with Daniel Day-Lewis
playing Irish writer Christy Brown, who had severe cerebral palsy in My Left Foot.
Same with Eddie Redmayne taking to a wheelchair to play Stephen Hawking in The Theory Of Everything
but thinks there should be more opportunities for actors with disabilities of all kinds.
“A lot of the time, when people see disability in a movie, it reminds them of their limitations.
But the whole point of highlighting them is showing there are no limitations ... I
believe that all of our faults and all of these perceived weaknesses are actually strengths.”
He firmly believes that everyone holds something special about themselves,
which might be tiny or hidden to most people,
but it could help another person change their life. “Don’t squander or disvalue it.”
Mitte takes his life experiences and brings them into all characters he plays. Despite sensing
that Hollywood has become formulaic in how actors with disabilities are cast and written for roles,
he believes it’s essential to have the platform to normalize their disabilities.
He feels a responsibility to play characters “you’re not going to normally see in film and
television”, which is why he made Triumph, where Mitte plays Mike,
a high schooler who wants to join the wrestling team. But his greatest triumph is not won on the
mat. Instead, Mike’s biggest triumph in this movie is not accepting the perception of him.
“When you have a disability, there are these assumptions that you’re weaker,
that you’re slower, that you’re fragile. In this story, Mike makes his life the life he wants.”
The film is based on the life of writer Michael D Coffey , and Mitte saw his own story reflected
in it. “Luckily, I was able to not accept what people wanted for me. Luckily my family
didn’t accept what people wanted for me.” Also, an executive producer on the movie,
RJ was eager to be involved because of the film’s strong message. “All of us – not just people with
cerebral palsy — face challenges. But you still want to accomplish your goals, no matter how
unattainable they seem to other people. To me that is something that people need to hear more often.”
RJ chooses his films based on the morals of a character.
One of the reasons he decided to play Mike is his direct connection
with the values of the character that gave positive overall effects on the community.
Above all, the actor hopes to help overturn many common misapprehensions about cerebral palsy.
“Many people think that because some people with CP have a speech impediment
they have lower intelligence, but that’s a myth,” says RJ. Given all his years talking
to doctors and his life experience, Mitte jokes, “I’m probably ahead of the curve.”
His overall goal is to show people how normal disability is. Who’s to say what normal is? Who’s
to say what your worth is? Just because you are different, it should not mean you are ostracized
from your community. Through the media, the actor believes that we can change that mentality.
“Just because you have a disability does not make you disabled. You can still accomplish your goals.
Sometimes it will take a little more training and a little more ingenuity, but that doesn’t mean
it’s impossible. The human body is so strong and so resilient and so capable of repairing itself.”
Mitte considers CP an ability, not a disability, and is proud of how it’s made him the person
he is today. “I’ve learned that no one can stop you from achieving your dreams,” he says. “It’s
important to focus on your goal and to move forward and be the person you’re meant to be.”
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