Being Jesse Pinkman: Tales from behind the camera
Jesse Pinkman’s story throughout Breaking Bad is one that many can never forget, from his early days as a wannabe dealer to the almost tragic end in captivity until his escape.
The story of playing Jesse Pinkman is equally a journey that one Aaron Paul lived and breathed, with many highs and maybe a few lows along the way. This page is a collection of just some of the behind the scenes details and stories that have been shared over the years by Aaron Paul and others. Detailing the experience behind the camera, and what it was like for AP to play Jesse Pinkman.
In the beginning
It’s a little crazy to be able to see the actual audition tape, capturing that moment in time where Aaron Paul became destined to become Jesse Pinkman. From this moment his life would change forever. When asked about this video a few years later, Aaron describes how desperate for the role he was at this time in his life, but also just how bad this audition was. The fact he forgets his line, and needs a prompt, is one moment the star has said he would rather forget.
I pictured Jesse as an average-looking guy, you know, a 25-year-old snot that cooks meth. On the spectrum of life, he’s a loser,
Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan
Vince Gilligan was quoted with the following words.
‘So when Aaron Paul walked in to audition for the role of Jesse Pinkman in 2007, he had a severe handicap: He was too handsome.’
Despite reservations from the AMC executives, Gilligan was convinced they had found the guy in Aaron Paul, even to the point of threatening to pull the project unless he was hired. They hired him and as a result, Gilligan notes that his perception of the show, and of Jesse slowly began to change, as Aaron brought the now legendary character to life.
The First Season
Jesse Pinkman came alive on 6th March 2007 when filming began on the pilot episode. The first scene that was filmed was the moment Walter White exits the bank and talks to Jesse about being awake. ‘What?’ became a legendary return, and is now an excellent meme.
Due to the pressure Paul put upon himself to master the role of Pinkman, he went very method to try and bring a sense of reality to the character. In the very early days AP would continue to wear the oversized outfits of Pinkman once filming wrapped, and then sought out the world that Jesse was supposed to be a part of on the streets of ABQ. Putting himself into scary locations, he would bum cigerettes off of crackheads in some of the shadiest parts of the city, to enable him to fully get into the emotional headspace required. Paul explained that he would talk like Jesse and was staying out till 4am to fully embrace the world. It finally took Bryan Cranston having a well timed word with the actor to bring the method under control.
Bryan, in the second season, I think he may have just noticed I was exhausted one day or just super beat up. And he goes, ‘You know, Aaron, it’s okay to at the end of the day, you know, take off your wardrobe and wash your makeup off and just be yourself.’ And I started doing that. And it was much easier for me.
Aaron Paul
An often talked about fact regarding those early days of Jesse Pinkman is the original plan to kill him off in Season One. The original plan was for when it was going to be a 9 episode first season. It was however reduced to 7 due to the writer’s strike, that seemingly removed the episode that would have been Jesse’s demise.
In 2011 Vince Gilligan countered this, stating that the decision to not kill off Jesse wasn’t due to the timing of the writer’s strike as often believed. He claims that he and the writing team had already worked out by the time they were working on episode 2 that Aaron Paul was a great actor to work with and to kill Jesse Pinkman off would be a huge colossal mistake.
Vince then told Aaron that he wasn’t being killed off, thinking this would please the actor, but it only served to trigger the fear in Aaron that Jesse would always be an option for being killed off at any given moment. A trigger Cranston played upon with teasing about new scripts, but ultimately these fears were unfounded as Jesse Pinkman ironically became one of the few to actually make it out of the final episode alive!
Tough Times to be Pinkman
‘Grilled’ is an episode in season two that could go down as the episode that really tested Paul to his limits. The storyline set up things up that the character of Tuco, played by Raymond Cruz has taken both Walter White and Jesse Pinkman hostage. It takes place in remote dwelling away from civilisation and was described by the production team as a horrible environment to film in. The heat and the flies made things quite unpleasant for all, but add to that the experience that Aaron Paul had on set, and it truly seems to have been a nightmare.
The stand out fact about this episode was revealed by Aaron Paul in a Reddit chat, where he revealed how he got a concussion during the fight sequence with Raymind Cruz.
“Yeah, Raymond Cruz who played Tuco gave me a concussion during the episode ‘Grilled,’ where Tuco takes Walt and Jesse to his shack in the middle of nowhere where we meet the famous Uncle Tio,” Paul said. “Tuco takes Jesse and he throws him through the screen door outside, and if you watch it back you’ll notice that my head gets caught inside the wooden screen door and it flips me around and lands me on my stomach and the door splinters into a million pieces.”
“Raymond just thought I was acting so he continued and kicked me in the side and picked me up over his shoulder and threw me against the house, but in reality, I was pretty much unconscious … I kept pleading to him, saying ‘stop.’ The next thing I know I guess I blacked out and I woke up to a flashlight in our eyes and it was our medic. And then I hopped up acting like nothing wrong, but it appeared like I was drunk, and I kept saying, ‘Let’s finish the scene’ but then my eye started swelling shut so they took me to the hospital. Just another fun day on the set of Breaking Bad!”
Eagle eyed viewers may catch in a couple of scenes that AP’s right eye is a little puffier than usual, particulary when sat in the car just before they spot the other car approaching, but clearly attemps were made to hide it more with camera angles and lighting/shadows.
It was noted in the commentary for the episode Peek-a-boo that the episode Grilled was filmed out of order, due to the availability of Raymond Cruz. This put Grilled as the episode that filmed just before Peek-a-boo, and it became a concern that in the Peek-a-boo episode there was a scene where Jesse is knocked out by the junkie. Naturally this was not an ideal situation for AP, given his recent head trauma filming ‘Grilled’, so it was purposely filmed so that when Jesse is attacked, it’s in the dark and cut strategically so that AP was in no danger of a second concussion.
Did you also know that this wasn’t the only incident Aaron Paul faced during the filming ‘Grilled’? In a behind the scenes interview on the DVD, Paul revealed that he also got locked in the trunk of Jesse’s car at one point much to the amusement of those on set. He had to wait a while in a hot trunk until the crew worked out how to get him out (without damaging the car I guess!)
We could also spare a moment to mourn the loss of Jesse’s cool car in this episode as well, for the rest of the show Jesse drove a much more comedic looking car that never reached the same heights!
And not so tough times…
Noted in the commentaries there were some other times AP suffered as Jesse, although for these moments it’s fair to say he didn’t garner much sympathy from his fellow cast. Aaron revealed how painful it was on his thumb to hold the ligher ‘alight’ for the scenes where Jesse wants to burn Mr White’s house down and Hank is talking to him. He proclaimed it really hurt during various takes, and being a long scene. There is much laughter from Bryan Cranston and Dean Norris in reaction on the commentary. (ok, it also made me laugh too!).
In a similar vain and in another commentary, he makes light of the fact his arm really hurt whilst re-painting Jesse’s living room. The scene where Walter White is trying to ask Jesse to kill Gus Fring. Having to keep his arm raised as he painted for several takes of that scene was apparently ‘uncomfortable’. Again, there wasn’t much sympathy shown when this was revealed by AP in the commentary!
Probably not so much fun was the revelations by both Dean Norris and Bryan Cranston that during scenes in which they were throwing punches at Jesse, both admitted to making contact with Paul. Although to even things up a little, AP did reveal he also caught Bryan Cranston when it came time for him to throw the punches.
A less fun time was had when a rogue eyelash irritated Paul’s eye whilst wearing the prosthetic black/swollen eye make up after the beating from Hank. The scenes filmed outside the hospital, yes including the ‘so roll me further, bitch’ scene Paul describes in the commentary that his eye was agony but he was reluctant to delay or stop filming so put up with it until the end of the day – finishing with a gunky eye at the end of the day for his troubles!
A tougher scene physically for Paul came whilst filming El Camino, where Jesse Pinkman is goaded by the neo nazi’s and the welder into testing the metal frame that he was chained to. On set there was genuine concern that the rigging, and the action of throwing yourself against it could cause serious injury. For the most part a stunt man doubled for Paul in these scenes but he did do a few takes himself, and then revealed about the harness painfully pinching and having sore ribs as a result for a few days after.
Settling into Jesse’s skin
It didn’t take too long for AP to become at one with Jesse and attract a fanbase as he settled into the role. A role that would catapult his career with three Emmy wins between 2010 and 2014. The evolution of Jesse during the five seasons was often discussed and commented upon as the baggy clothes and innocence gave way to better fitted clothes and darker days.
Season three however brought a different challenge for Aaron Paul that he says threw him for a loop – playing Jesse now off of the drugs and going clean, fresh out of rehab.
It was hard to nail him. I had no idea where they were going with this character. He’s so numb and cut off from everything.
Aaron Paul, New York Magazine, 2010
At the time of this new approach Bryan Cranston noted: ‘It was wonderful to see him, for lack of a better term, just sit down in it and swallow this new approach’. Aaron Paul spent some time prior to the season at a rehab facility to gain some insight and experience in preperation for a ‘new’ look Jesse.
Another notable transformation for the character came in season four.
When Jesse lost his hair, that was actually an idea from me. When I read that script, it was after he killed Gale. And in reality, whenever we go through something traumatic in our lives, such as a serious break-up or a death in the family or something very traumatic, you tend to sort of shed some hair, different hairstyles, start fresh, start new.
Aaron Paul, Vanity Fair 2019
After coming up with the idea to have Jesse shave his head after season 3, Paul ran the idea by Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan. It meshed well with a scene already planned for season 4, during which Jesse shaves one of his friend’s heads — a prime opportunity for him to give himself a new look as well.
“There is a scene where Jesse is shaving a guy’s head, and I mentioned to Vince, what if, when you see him, Jesse just already has a shaved head?” AP said. “So, you just assume he shaved his head just before this guy.”
As Jesse continued to evolve, treading a darker path as he went Vince pointed out that some traits always remained the same with Jesse.
He started off the show as the student, and he in many ways remains that well into season five
Vince Gilligan, New York Magazine, 2012
When remarking on the characters of Walt and Jesse, Bryan Cranston made an interesting comparison worthy of a mention here.
Walt plays chess, Jesse plays video games
Bryan Cranston, New York Magazine, 2012
Aaron Paul clearly shone as Jesse Pinkman, and he acknowledges his own journey as an actor through playing Jesse Pinkman, and getting to act opposite Bryan Cranston.
At the beginning of my career I was not great. Even at the beginning of Breaking Bad – I was OK, I got the job. But I grew so much as an actor. Everyone saw it
Aaron Paul, The Guardian, 2019
With the return to Jesse Pinkman’s story in 2019’s El Camino, Vince remarked on why it was important to not ignore a particularly traumatic period of Jesse’s story, to push Jesse to that ‘happy’ ending.
It’s hard to watch because you love Jesse so much, but it felt like something we couldn’t avoid. It felt like something we needed to see to remind the audience just how terrible of an ordeal he went through
About El Camino’s Flashbacks, Vince Gilligan, TV Guide 2019
The Legacy of Jesse
Regardless of all the above, it’s fair to say that the seven years of filming Breaking Bad were some of Aaron Paul’s most fondest memories. As a fan it’s always so heartwarming to see just how close the cast and crew of Breaking Bad became, and how much the show means to them and continues to be such a key part of their lives.
Aaron Paul never shies away from talking about Jesse, and how much he loves the character.
it’s incredible how I feel, like, such a personal connection with Jesse; feels like he’s almost a part of me, to be honest. But I couldn’t be such a polar opposite from this kid. But going to work every day and kind of zipping on his skin is such a – you know, such a dream.
Aaron Paul, NPR interview, 2011
Jesse fate was a much asked question pre-El Camino, with Paul often being asked and most of the time he would mention Alaska, but one time he threw in a couple of different options but the working with his hands remained a constant.
I’d like to think he’s living peacefully somewhere in maybe New Zealand or Canada, making stuff with his hands, but the truth is his fingerprints are all over that massacre, and he’s being hunted.
Aaron Paul, Digital Spy 2018
I lived and breathed every moment of his life that we saw, and then some. This is the role of a lifetime.
Aaron Paul, The Guardian 2019
Returning to a younger Jesse in 2021
Time travel is not yet possible but Aaron Paul managed to do the next best thing. He not only returned as Jesse Pinkman, but also played him in a pre-Breaking Bad era for one of two episodes in Better Call Saul’s final season.
Whilst a lot of attention was drawn to Aaron Paul’s ability to age 15 years in… 15 years (shocker) a lot of credit must be given for the now legendary scene between him and Rhea Seahorn, outside Saul’s offices. Jesse was right there, in the energy and delivery – and factor in the fact Paul was suffering with his first ever migraine during the filming, it truly embodied how much this character means to Paul, and to Vince Gilligan, and was a fine addition to the Pinkman timeline within this universe. A literal torch, in the form a cigerette was passed between Kim and Jesse, bringing BCS so sweetly into BrBa’s world. Read our post about this episode after it aired.
[Jesse Pinkman] will always have a special place inside of me, but I can confidently say that [Better Call Saul] was the last time we’re going to see Pinkman. So it was a nice farewell,
Aaron Paul 2022
