way, Pinkman is an avatar for Millennials who have had to deal with the economic mess made by Gen Xers and baby boomers. Maybe, I say to Paul, if Breaking Bad was Bryan Cranston’ s vehicle, then he was the show’ s steering wheel?

“ Aw, thank you man,” he says, almost embarrassed.“ He [ Jesse Pinkman ] quickly became, as Vince [ Gilligan, the show’ s creator and head writer ] likes to put it, the moral compass of the show.” Paul chuckles then adds,“ Yeah, if there was going to be a moral compass, even though he’ s a drug addict and murderer.”

We rooted for Jesse Pinkman in a landscape that didn’ t offer much to root for, and we continued to do so long after White had become a stand-in for our irredeemable ids. Paul walked that line so adeptly he became the only actor to win three Emmys for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series since it became its own category in 1970. He’ s also the only actor to win three Saturn Awards for Best Supporting Actor on Television.

Yet Pinkman almost never entered Paul’ s life at all. He was scheduled to attend the Berlin Film Festival in support of a small indie film he starred in when something made him cancel.“ I got cold feet, I guess. I don’ t know, I just felt like I shouldn’ t go,” he explains.“ It sounds crazy to say, but it felt like something was really keeping me in L. A.”

It turned out the festival would be taking place the same week Gilligan and company were casting for Jesse Pinkman. It also came at a time when Paul was dead broke and sweating rent.“ It was really the first time in L. A. that I was scared,” Paul says.“ But I never wanted to give up.”

Instead, he did something he hadn’ t done the decade he’ d been slogging away in Los Angeles.“ I was forced to make that humiliating call to my parents, and they paid my rent three months in a row,” he says,“ which was so much money for them. Then, Breaking Bad was sent to me and I read the script and I just knew this was easily the best pilot that I had ever read and I knew I had to fight harder for this than anything I had fought for.”

The show’ s creator, casting directors and producers had to fight, too: against the studio suits who hesitated to take a chance on Paul.“ They just didn’ t think I fit the role,” he chuckles.“ I’ m happy I had the boss [ Gilligan ] in my corner.”

Initially Paul’ s role was only written into the first season, but great acting, chemistry between Cranston and Paul, and Gilligan’ s sharp eye quickly proved Paul integral to the show. A similar alchemy is at work in Hulu’ s The Path, the second season of which premiered in January.

In The Path, Paul again plays a lost man dangling on the edge of either salvation or ruin. There’ s connective tissue between Jesse Pinkman and Eddie Lane, the latter a father who suffers a crisis of both faith and conscience while his family is deeply embedded in a spiritual cult. Again, it’ s the deftness with which the show’ s writers and actors navigate the epistemological tension between those two concepts— the confounding nature of choices— that gives The Path resonance far beyond its enticing setup. Also, as with Breaking Bad, Paul’ s character is in some ways a hostage of circumstances and finds himself in both partnership and conflict with the cult’ s leader, played by Hugh Dancy.

Paul is adept at walking these tightropes because he thrives inside characters at odd with themselves and the world around them.“ First of all, I think everybody loves stories with conflict,” he says.“ I just love playing characters that are going through a lot. It doesn’ t need to be turmoil, excessive turmoil, but with that said, I do love characters that are going through something. So, as an actor, I’ m able to grab at many different things.”

Perhaps Paul was going through something similar to Eddie Lane, and even Jesse Pinkman if you want to take it to the extreme, when he set out on his own at 17. Perhaps we’ re all searching for a safe landing somewhere after we break with our inherited narratives.“ Maybe,” he says,“ I was just the one who was trying to run away from something as well as run to something.” treatsmagazine. com 45