In the modern-day television classic “Breaking Bad,” viewers are naturally exposed to the dangers Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) constantly face as the makers of a chemically perfect blend of methamphetamine. Just as important to the storyline are the perils users face while taking the harmful street drug, as addicts like Jesse himself struggle with addiction to meth at the same time he’s trying to produce it.
One character who never faces that sort of double jeopardy during the series is Walter, who only cooks meth to care for his family in the long term after he is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Yet, while Walter transforms from a man of meager means as a chemistry teacher into the fearsome drug lord Heisenberg, series creator Vince Gilligan told Entertainment Weekly in 2018 that the idea of the character using meth himself was never on the table.
Recalling different ideas that he and his crew had for Walter and Jesse during the series, Gilligan told EW, “We talked about everything. The other thing we talked about was: Should Walter White ever try his own product? Somehow, it just never seemed right. It seemed like the thing he’s hooked on was the power and the chemical process.”
Making Walter an addict would have hampered his ability to control things, Gilligan says
The idea of Walter White merely trying the methamphetamine he cooked, or worse yet, getting hooked on it, wasn’t completely far-fetched, Gilligan told EW in the interview, which came five years after the ending of “Breaking Bad.”
Gilligan added in the case of Walter’s story, it would have been nonsensical since the character is driven by another sort of addiction after cheating death. Knowing he has more time to build up financial security for his family after his cancer goes into remission, Walter begins his ascent in the criminal underworld. Becoming a user of his own product would have undermined that rise.
“I read stories of former meth cooks. A lot of the recovering ones we talked to or read about said that they became hooked on the process of cooking, as some heroin addicts become hooked on the process of getting a needle ready,” Gilligan recalled for EW. “It would’ve muddied the waters if he started using the drug, because this was a man who never had control in his life, and suddenly he’s got control. Why mess up a good thing?”
Of course, in the case of Walter, aka Heisenberg, his control ultimately means doing criminal things that were out of control in the eyes of the law. Citing the series as a cautionary tale, Cranston said “Breaking Bad” taught him that anyone can be dangerous.
