Aaron Paul on NPR: How My Baptist Preacher Father Responded to my Crystal Meth-Dealing Breaking Bad Character

If you didn’t watch AMC’s “Breaking Bad” when it aired, you have a lot of fun in your future.  (Seriously.  Why are you at work, when you could be starting this series?)

The show follows Walter White (played by Bryan Cranston) a chemistry teacher who decides to cook crystal meth after receiving a diagnosis of cancer in order to provide for his family.  His hapless sidekick, Jessie Pinkman, is played by Aaron Paul.

When Terry Gross interviewed Aaron on Fresh Air, he talked about how different he was from his character.  When the actor reveals that his dad is a former Baptist preacher  — and that he grew up being inspired by his sermons — she seems surprised.

“Did your parents try to like bar the door and do everything in their power to prevent you from going, and telling you that you were making a huge mistake that you would always regret, that you are throwing your life away and throwing away everything that they had ever done to help you in life, etcetera?” she asked.

What other reaction would “Bible thumpers have,” she must think.

But Aaron’s description of his family is very touching. He reveals that his parents have been married for over 40 years, that he is one of a bunch of kids, and that they had Breaking Bad parties every week in their Idaho home.  Here’s his response to Terry:

You know what? Not at all. It was quite the opposite. I always had the plan of moving to L.A. They knew I always wanted to do this. And I think really in eighth grade I made it certain just to let my parents know this was my plan. You know, I’m going to move to California or New York and I’m going to try to become an actor, and that they knew that from early on. And so when I started taking it very seriously in high school and they would see, you know, these productions that we put on and they would see how excited I would get about them, they were all about it when I mentioned to them that I wanted to take zero hour, where I’d go to school early, you know, to do an extra class and take correspondence, which was really homeschooling as well, just to graduate early so I could get out to L.A., you know, sooner than later.

And they just applauded me and they said go for it. Just do it. You want this. Like I love, you know, like, I love your passion. And so they supported me… from everywhere I was getting blessings from every side… it was just so great that they were supportive of going after dreams. And – ’cause if you don’t then what do you really have? You know, you might as well just shoot for whatever you want to do.

Obviously I couldn’t have done this without them and it’s incredible, very, very blessed.

If you’d like to hear the whole interview, see below.  Aaron starts talking about his family at the 19 minute mark. (He also tells a sweet story about how his mom confronted a guidance counselor at his school who tried to dissuade him from acting.)

If you’d like to see the best four minutes of the entire series — no spoilers! — click here.  (It also happens to be one of the most stirring half-presentations of the gospel I’ve seen.)

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