Salon.com > Vince Gilligan

Vince Gilligan on last episodes of “Breaking Bad”: “It’s going to be polarizing”

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 22:25:00 +0000

Vince Gilligan and his writers are about two episodes away from writing the series finale of one of the best shows on television, "Breaking Bad," whose final half-season will air this summer on AMC.

Vulture interviewed Gilligan to find out what the writing team is thinking about in this "schizophrenic" time. “It’s going to be polarizing no matter how you slice it," he said. "But you don’t want 10 percent to say it was great and 90 percent to say it sucked ass. You want those numbers to be reversed.”

Gilligan didn't reveal any plot twists, but he did share what the writers are thinking about when writing the show's final episodes:

1. Even Gilligan doesn't know how the show is going to end, yet, but he's hoping to create something that will mix the element of surprise with a sense of inevitability:

Vince Gilligan does not want “Breaking Bad” to end

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 22:15:00 +0000

Vince Gilligan clearly enjoys the decompression process. A few days after Season 5.1 of “Breaking Bad” ended, I had a chance to briefly catch up with him, as he was deep into a round of exit interviews.

One thing that strikes me is how much Gilligan is the anti-Walter White. Unlike his fictional creation, Gilligan is generous in recognizing the contributions of his fellow workers, and has a very accurate perception of where he is, why he is there, and where he is going. But as you will see, this sets up a problem that is mirrored in the drama of “Breaking Bad.” Gilligan and his team are stuck with their characters, their actions and the consequences of those actions. In some profound way, Walter White and his extended family have achieved a life of their own, and in the case of Season 5.1, as you will see, this led to some dilemmas that were not totally solved.

“Breaking Bad’s” Anna Gunn: Skyler might kill Walt

Sun, 26 Aug 2012 19:00:00 +0000

Things are pretty bleak for "Breaking Bad's" Skyler White, played by Anna Gunn. Trapped in her marriage to Walt, her increasingly malevolent, manipulative meth-lord husband, she's terrified for the safety or her children, but unable to see a way out. With just two episodes left in the first half of "Breaking Bad's" fifth season, it is simultaneously hard to imagine how things could get much worse for Skyler, and even more difficult to think that they could get better.

Gunn spoke to Salon about Skyler, her predicament, her depression and the possibility of her killing Walter White.

I’m extremely worried about Skyler. It’s getting really stressful to watch her. Was it stressful to be her?

It was. It really was. There were days on set where it was like, “Wow, it’s hard to live in this place.” And thank God for Bryan Cranston being so hilarious and great, and pretty much our whole cast and crew, so we have a lot of levity. But I had to dig deep into some pretty black stuff this year. As an actor you wait for this kind of material, but it can also be very emotionally exhausting.

There have been a number of scenes that have been totally skin crawling. Every time Walt touches Skyler, I get the most serious heebie-jeebies.

Vince Gilligan: I’ve never Googled “Breaking Bad”

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 20:47:00 +0000

In my recap of “Breaking Bad's” Season 5 premiere, I quoted the critic Paul Nelson, on Bob Dylan: “Hungry for a sign, the world used to follow him around, just waiting for him to drop a cigarette butt. When he did they'd sift through the remains, looking for significance. The scary part is they'd find it – and it really would be significant."

To a dedicated legion of fanatics, and I am one of them, “Breaking Bad” carries that significance.

Last Thursday, as it has over the past four years, “Breaking Bad” garnered a slew of Emmy nominations. The next morning, I spoke with Vince Gilligan, the creator and show runner of “Breaking Bad.” “Breaking Bad” fanatic that I am, this conversation was akin to traveling on the “Way Back Machine” to the Nashville studio as Dylan recorded “Blonde on Blonde,” and asking him, between takes, “Just what the hell is a “Curfew Plug, anyway?”

And then, to have Dylan answer, candidly.

I hate Walter White

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

“Breaking Bad,” AMC’s incredible, amped-up methodrama, begins the first half of its final season on Sunday night, and though it is just starting, I am consumed with how it will end. Over the course of its first four seasons, “Breaking Bad” has taught us what we can expect from it: It will not let us, or our pulses, down. The irascible Jesse will chirp the word “bitch,” among other endearingly smart-aleck, street-inflected phrases, while wearing a hoodie and sneakers. Walter White will continue to become more and more evil as he wrestles with another opponent and manipulates the people he purports to love in increasingly bold ways. It will play like a gorgeously filmed, superbly acted and psychologically rich action movie, a serious drama that is uncharacteristically serious about plot, zooming through story lines like a speed freak on a Yamaha. Everything will be filmed in deadening yellows and washed-out blues. And there will be blood. It's whose blood, exactly, that I have become so consumed by.