I had specific ways to get out of character at the end of a day. I wou — Breaking Bad

"Giancarlo Esposito - Gustavo "Gus" Fring"

"Jonathan Banks - Mike Ehrmantraut"

"In my initial research for a role, I always try to find the emotional core of a character. For Hal in Malcolm In The Middle it was fear. He was afraid of everything and theres a lot of comedy to be mined from fear. With Walt, I had a difficult time. I was trying to get in there and I was getting frustrated. Then I realised: Oh, I know what it is. In the beginning, his emotional core was so introverted from looking at apathetic students and his own missed opportunities that he imploded. He loved his family but for the most part it was just about getting by. Then this thing happened, this diagnosis, and a volcano erupted. Now his emotions spewed, they shot out: fear, anxiety, worry, power, thirst, hunger, lust, avarice, hubris … Hes feeling everything and hes alive. He hasnt been alive for most of his adult life but now he is, its just for two years but hes fucking alive. Hes ready to go and, in some ways, I dont know if he would trade it."

"Breaking Bad doesn’t engage you passively. It’s not a show where you can go cook dinner or mix some Lean while its on. You have to be attentive, because your loyalties to these characters are constantly being tested, and that’s where allegiances start to form. People were initially in my camp, because Walter White was initially a sympathetic character, which is part of the planned manipulation from Vince—in his masterful demonic way—to take the audiences down this road as Walts acts become more egregious and despicable. Some people went with me all the way to the end, they were on board with Walt, and a lot of other people got off the train and assigned their allegiance to someone else—especially to Jesse—because they can’t root for Walt any more. It was a show where we were constantly testing the audience to see how far they’ll go."