events like Mark Ronson’ s Grammys afterparty, fashion industry dinners hosted by the likes of Katie Holmes, and photo shoots for treats! magazine. It was built in 1911, after all, and was the former home of a silent film actor. So it does have historic couches, or at least stiff ones. In the interests of informality and comfort, we lower ourselves onto the carpet and sit under the watchful gaze of a pastoral peacock family painted across the ceiling, their two taxidermied cousins holding court not far away. Dressed in black jeans and a white V-neck T-shirt, Paul has about three days’ beard growth on his face and wears a dog-tag style necklace around his neck.

Pearl Jam’ s Ten was the first album Paul ever bought.“ It came out on my birthday,” he says, his ice blue eyes warming up.“ I saved up money, rode my bike to a local mall and couldn’ t wait to purchase it.”

When Paul got home with the record, he found his usually full house surprisingly empty( turns out his pregnant sister had gone into labor just a bit sooner than expected). So he played the record over and over and as he did, his 12-yearold imagination started to take flight from small-town Idaho. Paul himself would follow suit just five years later.

Aaron Paul Sturtevant was born in the bathroom of his parents’ house in Emmett, Idaho. There were just over 4,500 people living in the city at the time. Paul became the youngest of five.

His father was a Southern Baptist minister, so the family went to church at least twice a week. Since the denomination favors music, there was no shortage of singing, though Paul says he steered clear of the choir( he preferred the Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Doors records his parents played at home). The acting bug did come from church, however, where Paul performed in plays as a kid.

“ My first roles were just standing in the background as a tree or a rock,” he tells me as afternoon light generously pours in through Elyx House’ s windows.“ My first speaking role was in a church play called Dinky the Donkey,” he says.“ And I was Dinky the Donkey. I was six or seven years old and I loved it. It was so funny.” This first big break as an actor left no indication that he’ d one day win three Emmys for playing the drug-addled sidekick / hostage to a sociopathic, meth-dealing, chemistry teacher.“ It was just playing make believe on such a higher level rather than by myself or with a friend playing cops and robbers,” he says.“ And then, when I was in middle school, I was introduced to films like Stand By Me, The Goonies … that’ s when I realized those are just kids playing roles and they’ re doing this for a living and, I’ m sure, having an incredible time.”

At the green age of 17, Paul packed up his 1982 Toyota Corolla and the $ 6,000 he’ d saved working odd jobs and took off for Los Angeles. But it wasn’ t just a fever fueled by classic movies and church theater that sent him on his way.

“ I never really talked about this, but I just couldn’ t wait to get out,” he confesses.“ My father and I were butting heads, and now we have such a beautiful relationship, but at the time, I really couldn’ t wait to get out of the house … I just needed to be out on my own and I was very eager to start my own personal journey.”

When Paul arrived in Los Angeles on February 28, 1997, his mother along to help him move, the first thing he did after unpacking in his small, North Hollywood-adjacent apartment was plug in the radio.“ I just turned on whatever station I could find and music was on. It was great, and then maybe 10 minutes into listening to music, we’ re seeing helicopters flying overhead and we start hearing rapid gunfire and I look at my mom, she’ s looking at me, and she’ s like,‘ What is that?’ And then, straight out of a movie, we

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