Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul have shared how their friendship formed while working together on Breaking Bad. Breaking Bad first hit screens in 2008 and, despite excellent reviews, the show began with relatively low ratings. However, after being picked up by Netflix, Breaking Bad's popularity exploded, and its finale was watched by over 10.3 million viewers, in contrast to the pilot, which only had a viewership of 1.4 million. The show is now widely regarded as one of the best series ever made, and its legacy includes the spin-off Better Call Saul, which has also received universal critical acclaim, and the epilog movie, El Camino.
Cranston and Paul headed up the show’s cast as Walter White and Jesse Pinkman, respectively. The relationship between the duo became the core of the show, as the pair descended deeper and deeper into the criminal and dangerous world of the drug trade. Since appearing in the show, the two actors’ careers have reached new highs. Cranston has starred in some of Hollywood’s biggest movies and picked up an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor along the way. Meanwhile, Paul has continued his TV career on Westworld and BoJack Horseman.
Now, in an interview with Esquire, the pair have discussed how their personal relationship was shaped by their time on Breaking Bad. Paul shared how he “instantly fell in love” with Cranston when they first met, described his now-business partner (the two co-founded liquor brand Dos Hombres) as one of his “closest friends” and a “mentor.” However, the actor also revealed that there are difficult sides to forming attachments to co-workers on set, saying that after Breaking Bad was finished, he realized it would be “hard to stay in touch.” Check out Paul's full comments below:
“I instantly fell in love with this man. He’s impossible not to love. Impossible! ... He became one of my closest friends—my mentor—very early on. Someone I can confide in. And when [Breaking Bad] was done, it was a very hard goodbye. A lot of times when you're doing a show, a film, a play, it's like you're going away to summer camp. You've become best friends with these people and you think, oh, we're going to be ride-or-dies until the end and then you go your separate ways. You get back into your day to day normal life and you realize, oh, it's hard to stay in touch.”
While Walter White and Jesse Pinkman’s relationship wasn’t always positive (to say the least), fans will be glad to hear that Cranston and Paul remain close friends. With their shared experience on Breaking Bad, working together for several years, it’s unsurprising that the two formed the bond that they did. Over the course of their time on the show, Cranston and Paul also shared a huge amount of critical praise, and won seven Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead and Supporting Actor between them. Given their move into the business world together with a thriving new liquor brand, it's clear Paul and Cranston's friendship will be continuing on for some time.
Branston got the chance to reprise his role as Walter White in a flash-back cameo in El Camino, and it might have been the last time the pair were seen on-screen together. The Breaking Bad universe is seemingly coming to an end, with Better Call Saul season 6 marking its final installment. Better Call Saul will conclude the story of Jimmy McGill (aka Saul Goodman), and fans are hoping that it will wrap up the storyline of all the two series’ characters. Only time will tell whether the story have space for one last cameo from Cranston and Paul, who will no doubt be more than happy to share the screen again.
Source: Esquire