VOTD: Bryan Cranston And Aaron Paul Prepare To Read The ‘Breaking Bad’ Finale
By Angie Han/Sept. 30, 2013 12:30 pm EST
A recently uploaded video shows stars Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul preparing to read the “Felina” script over a couple of beers at Cranston’s place. “I’m so unbelievably depressed that this is happening right now!” Paul wails at one point. Check out the video after the jump.
I think it’s adorable that Cranston feels the need to introduce himself — “He’s Aaron, I’m Bryan” — like anyone watching this video doesn’t already know exactly who they are.
Sadly, the video doesn’t show us what actually happens when Cranston and Paul read the script. You’ll have to order the DVDs to see that. But happily, the actors have already spoken at length to the press about their general reactions to the episode.
In a chat with EW, Paul called the finale “100 percent satisfying,” even though his character doesn’t ultimately get his revenge on the man who ruined his life.
Jesse’s fate is really left up in the air, since he’s just driving away the last time we see him. (My guess is that he drives out of Albuquerque and straight on to the set of Need for Speed.) But Paul offered some of his own theories about what happened next:
I always had the vision of Jesse pointing a gun to Walt’s head, I really did. I’m like, ‘It’s got to end like this,’ and deep down, I wanted Jesse to kill Walt. But the closer we got to the end, I realized I didn’t want that. Jesse can’t kill anybody else — even though he ended up killing Todd. But that was really self-defense and he just had to get out of there. But it’s good that Jesse was put through that torture for the past four or five months, put in a hole, because Jesse’s not an innocent person. He did some very bad things. It’s good that Jesse was put through that so he did some time, but I believe that he deserved to get away from all of it and just leave. You don’t really know where he goes
Cranston similarly described the ending as “very satisfying and “unapologetic” — although he acknowledged that, at one point, he had a different conclusion for Walt in mind.
He’s like, ‘Oh my god.’ I think he probably goes and says bye to Brock, if he can, or at least just sees him from a distance and then he leaves. Maybe Alaska, maybe New Zealand. Becomes a bush pilot. It’s all part of the story.
To Cranston, the true tragedy of Breaking Bad was that Walt’s life didn’t have to turn out the way it did.
Because of his love for his family, there was a thought of mine that, ‘Would it be a more perfect hell for him to have to see his family die – his wife, his son, baby daughter — and he lives?’ And there’s some merit to that too. But ultimately, I think this is the best ending. A real satisfying ending. And I’m so grateful for that.
Tragedy is not a bunch of bad guys doing bad things: ‘Oh, they killed the good guys!’ Tragedy is when the bad guys are sympathized, when you realize that it could have gone another way. There was hope for them at one time. Macbeth! Oh! In its truest sense, our story is a tragedy — an American tragedy. It’s not ‘good conquers evil,’ it’s not ‘good guys against the bad guys,’ it’s much muddier than that. Shades of gray.
