Aaron Paul’s Jesse Pinkman from the Breaking Bad franchise is one of the most complicated characters in television history. At first, fans had a difficult time rooting for him due to his drug addiction, but as time went by and viewers finally saw the hidden kindness within him, he became a fan-favorite figure.
Paul actually fought for a minor scene that the director wanted to remove. For the actor, it showed that there is still humanity inside Pinkman. It’s always the minutest details in the show that best portrays the character.
Aaron Paul Reveals A Beloved Scene He Fought To Keep
During his conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, actor Aaron Paul shared he asked to keep a scene in 2019’s El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie. It was a minor one, but for the actor, it speaks a lot about Pinkman.
When we were shooting El Camino, there was a night shoot that was right before he blew up [Kandy Welding Co.]. And there’s a scene where he’s waiting for the girls to leave, and then he sees a beetle and picks it up and looks at it. It was a throwback to Breaking Bad’s “Peekaboo.”
Paul recalled how he begged the director not to remove the scene once it entered the editing room because he really liked it.
And the first AD came up to me and was like, ‘We’re gonna scrap that little scene. We’re gonna head to this other shot. We’re running out of time.’ And I just begged them to keep that in there because I just loved that moment so much.
He asked to do one take of it, and he performed his best. Thankfully, the scene made it to the final cut. Paul said he loves those moments that let the audience get a glimpse inside the character’s heart.
It’s true that even though Pinkman has committed a lot of crimes, he still has a sense of humanity inside him. This makes him a really complicated anti-hero, but fans would still root for him no matter what.
Breaking Bad’s Peekaboo Displayed Jesse Pinkman’s Humanity
Aaron Paul mentioned that the scene in El Camino is a homage to Breaking Bad’s Season 2 Episode 6: Peekaboo. The chapter follows Bryan Cranston’s Walter White assigning Pinkman to track down the couple who scammed Skinny Pete.
He finds them and their son, and they both agree to pay him back once they have broken into an ATM they have lifted. Pinkman got the money, but only after the wife murdered her husband out of irritation. He would take the child outside and contact the police to help save the kid.
The scene was lauded by fans and critics, and now it has been hailed as one of the best Breaking Bad episodes in history. Paul wanting to keep the scene in El Camino that reminded him of this was one of the best decisions ever.
Breaking Bad and El Camino are streaming on Netflix.
