Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul are back to reprise their roles as Walter White and Jesse Pinkman in a Breaking Bad-inspired Super Bowl commercial for PopCorners. That ad was titled “Breaking Good”, it was written and directed by Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan, and there’s now an extended version that you can watch!
“The people at PopCorners may have heard interviews about how much we enjoy working together, and I’m not sure how they conceived the idea. But once we heard the creative behind it and what they wanted to do, to really reestablish the authenticity of the characters, the wardrobe, the RV and all that, we were intrigued. It’s funny, after almost seven years of doing [Breaking Bad], we didn’t have a lot of opportunities to just have fun, because of the intensity of the show. This was different because we had three days of just smiling and laughing and just enjoying each other’s company and putting on these costumes that meant so much to us — as did the show itself.
“I realized when Aaron and I were looking at the creative and being pitched that we’re having fun with the characters, we’re not making fun of the characters, and that was important to us, to be able to stay in character. The characters don’t break and goof around. They are who they are.”
Cranston continued to talk about the fun experience of shooting the commercial, saying:
“We were just smiling the entire time and looking at each other’s clothes again, and the sensibility and how Raymond Cruz as Tuco talked, how Jesse talked. Even how Walt talked. We all had our own distinctive ways of communicating. It was just so much fun. That’s one of the biggest reasons we did it. One, PopCorners was going to stay true to the milieu of Breaking Bad, which was really important to us. And the second thing is: We’re just going to have a lot of fun. Like I said, we didn’t have a lot of opportunities just to be laughing and smiling through production on Breaking Bad because of the content.”
You can definitely tell that they all had a blast making this! Cranston went on to say:
“April 3rd of this year, so just two months away, was the last day of shooting Breaking Bad [10 years ago]. And when we all stood as a group out there in the middle of the desert, everyone’s speaking of what it meant to us. We thought that was going to be the last time we ever did those characters. And then we had another opportunity in the El Camino movie, and then it was like, ‘Oh! So it might not be the last.’ So we’ve stopped saying, ‘This is the last time we’re ever going to do this.’ Who knows? It could be. I’m not sure, but… you know, we’ll just leave it to the fates.”