Why Aaron Paul returned to TV after failed attempts at movie stardom

Vulture

Paul found it hard to leverage his Breaking Bad success into a film career. “I was so spoiled at the height of Breaking Bad,” he tells Vulture. “I was being offered everything.” He starred in the race-car drama Need for Speed and Ridley Scott's Exodus: Gods and Kings following Breaking Bad's series finale. When it became clear that he wasn't a box office draw, the fallout was immediate. “You do one commercial film that’s not the success they think it’s going to be, and you’re damned," he says. From 2016 through 2018, Paul starred in Hulu's The Path. But he found the cult-set drama unsatisfying. “I love everyone on that show,” he says. "But story-wise, I don’t know if we knew the direction it was going.” In early 2018, Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan met with Paul in his office and gave him the script for El Camino: A Breaking Bad Story. "When I flipped the last page, I just laid there in silence," says Paul. "But I was also thinking, My God, what is this gonna look like, revisiting this guy?” Turns out, it was easy to slip back into the Jesse Pinkman role -- Paul shot every scene without rehearsal. After wrapping the movie, Paul joined the cast of Westworld, where he found himself overwhelmed by HBO's elaborate sets. “You walk on and you’re like, My God, they have a lot of money. Holy sh*t.” He's also starring in the Apple crime series Truth Be Told, as well as wrapping up his voice role on Netflix's BoJack Horseman. Paul says he's decided that he'd rather pursue TV than another megamovie. “I can’t live with that pressure on me, nor will I," he says. "I’m happy.”