Aaron Paul on Traumatic Black Mirror Episode, Breaking Bad and Heavy Roles

[This story contains spoilers for the Black Mirror season six episode “Beyond the Sea.”]

Aaron Paul’s live-action debut on Black Mirror has been five-and-a-half years in the making.

In December 2017, Paul had a voice cameo on one of Black Mirror’s signature episodes, “USS Callister,” as series creator Charlie Brooker wanted to add another wrinkle to Paul’s fictional feud with Breaking Bad co-star Jesse Plemons. Paul, who was already a huge fan of Black Mirror, agreed to voice “Gamer691” as long as it didn’t preclude him from a future live-action role. A gentlemen’s agreement was then made, and while Paul’s Westworld commitment prevented a season five appearance on the hit Netflix anthology, Paul says he’s grateful that Brooker stayed true to his word for season six’s John Crowley-directed episode, “Beyond the Sea,” co-starring Josh Hartnett and Kate Mara.

“Once you get to know Charlie, you know that his word actually has weight to it. He was very excited that I wanted to do ‘USS Callister’ as a sort of nod to any Breaking Bad fan. It’s a little Easter egg,” Paul tells The Hollywood Reporter. “And so I was happy that we were able to make [“Beyond the Sea”] happen. We tried to make it happen last season, but scheduling just didn’t work out. And so I’m happy that he continued to think of me.”

Despite Paul’s previous assertion to THR that his two episodes of Better Call Saul would serve as his farewell to Jesse Pinkman, the Breaking Bad triumvirate of Paul, Bryan Cranston and Vince Gilligan reunited earlier this year for a PopCorners Super Bowl commercial in which season one-era Walt (Cranston) and Jesse (Paul) encounter their old foe, Tuco Salamanca (Raymond Cruz). The team behind PopCorners originally approached just Paul and Cranston, but they offered to take things a step further.

“They presented us with this idea, and they wanted it to look and feel like a little sliver of a Breaking Bad episode,” Paul says. “And so we pitched them: ‘Well, what do you think about Vince Gilligan directing it?’ And they loved the idea. So Vince jumped on board, and a lot of the same crew from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul joined us on this couple-day shoot. So it was a lot of fun.”

Below, during a recent conversation with THR, Paul also explains his history with his Black Mirror co-stars Hartnett and Mara, before sharing his reaction to Cranston’s recent retirement talk.

So, five-and-half years ago, when you took your “blood feud” with Jesse Plemons to a whole new level on Black Mirror’s “USS Callister,” the one condition you had for your voiceover was that it couldn’t rule you out of a future live-action opportunity. Well, Charlie Brooker and co. kept their word. Is that sort of thing pretty rare as far as your experience in the entertainment industry?

Yeah, the entertainment industry is an interesting one. But once you get to know Charlie, you know that his word actually has weight to it. He was very excited that I wanted to do “USS Callister” as a sort of nod to any Breaking Bad fan. It’s a little Easter egg. But he’s known that I’ve been such a massive fan of Black Mirror since it started airing in the U.K., and I definitely made it known that it would be a dream to join the universe that he has created. And so I was happy that we were able to make it happen. We tried to make it happen last season, but scheduling just didn’t work out. And so I’m happy he continued to think of me.

Are you glad you waited a little longer considering the powerful material you received in this episode?

Oh, yeah. This episode [“Beyond the Sea“] was just such a dream come true. The moment I got the phone call saying that this offer came in, I instantly opened up the script on my phone and I read the entire episode in just over an hour. I just took it in and was thrilled that he thought of me for such a complicated character.

When I saw that you and Josh Hartnett were paired up together, I wagered to myself that you guys must’ve known each other back in the day.

Yeah, we did. I didn’t know him well, but he was always popping up at the same spots where I was. He was just so friendly and such a good guy, and I’ve always really respected him. I saw how quickly he became a massive star so early on in his career, and so this was the first time that we were able to go toe to toe together. We had such a great time tackling this beast.

Had you and Kate Mara crossed paths before?

Yeah, I’ve been friends with Kate for years, and this definitely cemented our friendship as a lifelong friendship. My wife [Lauren Paul] is obsessed with her, and she’s obsessed with my wife. We do playdates all the time with our little ones, and she’s just such a delight, my God.

So, what was the shooting order? Did you and Josh film the space material first?

That was actually the last thing we shot. Wait, was it the last thing that we shot? It was kind of back and forth a little bit, but I feel like the last things I did were the heavy space scenes.

See, I thought you would have shot the space material first so that you could then use that time with Josh to study his performance and by extension, inform your performance as David’s (Harnett) version of Cliff’s robot. [Note: Paul plays out both his character, Cliff, and Hartnett’s character, David, as both end up using Cliff’s body replica after David’s is destroyed.]

That totally makes sense, but when we first started, we did rehearsals in London. And then we went out of the city for three weeks to shoot all of the stuff on the farm. And then we came back to finish things up. But honestly, it was such a traumatic experience that a lot of it has sort of left my mind. (Laughs.)

It’s pretty impressive how well you differentiated these two performances. Cliff’s robot was kind of a stick in the mud, while David’s version of Cliff’s robot was more cultured, artistic and romantic, at least until he wasn’t. So how did you approach each version?

This is a period piece, and so you could tell that Cliff is heavy-handed. I’m sure his father was even much more heavy-handed. So, in his mind, he’s probably a really sweet, delicate, nice, loving father, but the romance, the passion has drifted away from husband and wife [played by Kate Mara]. Whereas David, like you said, he’s the romantic. He is well-cultured, and when you meet him, he’s drawing portraits of his children and then Cliff and Lana’s [played by Auden Thornton] beautiful home. So, I just tried to study Josh [during rehearsal]. Again, I’ve known him for so long, and he’s very much like that. He’s well traveled and very smart. He’s just got an inherent charm rooted within him, and so I just tried to absorb as much of him as possible.

Cliff avoids any and all intimacy with his wife, Lana (Kate Mara). Is he just not comfortable with a robot laying a finger on her, even if it’s him steering it?

That’s part of it, but I feel like he’s just got some deep-rooted baggage. Some of the excitement has drifted away, and he’s just not comfortable communicating to help this relationship. He’s kind of stuck in his ways, and what’s so tragic is that everything that happened forced them to have these hard conversations. It awoke him into realizing, “Oh, my God. I have been just such a terrible husband and father. I need to change things.” And I feel like he started to go down the right path, but he was just so irked by David and his betrayal. He just couldn’t let it go, and it caused trauma.

I’m pretty sure you don’t use real life all that often in your work, but you sometimes spend considerable time away from your family when you’re on location. For example, your recent locations in Finland and New Zealand probably felt as far away as space. Did you use that familiar feeling to capture Cliff’s homesickness?

Yeah, it’s almost impossible to not let that drift in. But I try not to take any sort of personal experience into my prep or performance on the day. It’s just easier on my mental well-being to not picture real-life tragedy. As you know, I tend to gravitate towards the heavier side of things. I’ve been blessed, though, with my career. Most of the time, my family has been able to come with me. Finland [for Dual], not so much just because I was in and out. I was there for a week, but that was still very hard. But yeah, New Zealand [for Ash], was the longest I’ve been away from my family since the kids were born.

For the tragic ending involving Cliff’s family, did you have something horrific to look at on set besides the blood on the floor? Or was that just good old-fashioned imagination?

Yeah, I just sort of imagined what the situation would be like. I imagined just the quickest, most blunt-force aggression towards Cliff’s wife and child. I didn’t look at any of it before we shot, and so I didn’t want to know what I was walking into. I knew I was going to walk into blood on the walls and floor, and then a pool of blood in the kitchen, but I didn’t know exactly what. I just wanted to know where the cameras were so that I was aware of my surroundings, and that’s what you saw in that take.

Do you think David’s painting was a pure offer at first, or was it always a ploy?

I think it was a pure offer at first. I feel like that was the first time he saw a glimmer of hope. That’s the first time he realized, “Oh wait, maybe I can find happiness again.” So that brought a much-needed breath of fresh air into his life. Being trapped in a tin box can do a lot to you, especially after going through what David had gone through.

Alright, Aaron, I’m going to pretend to have a bone to pick with you. When we spoke for Dual, you told me you were taking the rest of the year off, but then Black MIrror came along shortly thereafter. And when I spoke to you for Better Call Saul and Westworld, you said that Saul was your farewell to Jesse Pinkman, at least until the inevitable Holly White series.

(Laughs.)

But then you reprised Jesse in a Super Bowl commercial for PopCorners just a few months later.

(Laughs.) I am apparently a liar! I just didn’t see any of this happening. I really was focused on taking some time off, but it’s impossible to say no to Charlie. He’s just so brilliant and he’s such a kind guy, and when he’s presenting you with something, you know it’s going to be really interesting and really thought-out and completely different than anything you’ve ever seen. So I had to say yes.

And anytime I can join forces with Bryan [Cranston] and Vince [Gilligan], I have to jump at the chance. That Super Bowl commercial was such a fun thing to do. They presented us with this idea, and they wanted it to look and feel like a little sliver of a Breaking Bad episode. And so we pitched them: “Well, what do you think about Vince Gilligan directing it?” And they loved the idea. So, Vince jumped on board, and a lot of the same crew from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul joined us on this couple-day shoot. It was a lot of fun.

From Pops to PopCorners, your life has come full circle.

(Laughs.) Full circle, baby! They’re beautiful bookends.

You guys may have shot your coverage on different days, but when you saw Ray Cruz, did you experience any flashbacks to the locked screen door incident?

Oh my God, that guy. First of all, Raymond Cruz is the kindest, sweetest man, but he plays just such intense and crazy characters. But no, we shot all of our stuff at the same time, and it was great. He’s such a force.

Well, I’m glad to hear there was no PTSD.

Yeah, no PTSD. It was nothing but warm memories.

Bryan Cranston recently sent a shiver down the Internet’s spine with his talk of retirement and selling his stake in Dos Hombres. He then clarified that the acting break was only temporary. But are you going to be “Un Hombre” soon?

(Laughs.) No, it’s always gonna be Dos Hombres, but we’ve had such a great time building this company together. It was self-funded from the day one, and we’ve only hemorrhaged money into the company. We haven’t made a single dollar. So, the goal would definitely be to eventually make money off of the company, but it’s always gonna be the two of us. It just might not be as hands-on as it currently is. I mean, we do business calls every single day, and we’ve hired every single one of our employees, personally. It’s a labor of love at Dos Hombres. But yeah, when I read all of that, I was like, “What is he thinking?” (Laughs.)

Dos Hombres received some nice placement in a recent episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Did you guys enjoy playing versions of yourselves?

Yeah, it was so much fun. I just loved that whole crew over there. I’ve known them for so many years, and what a dream, really. I have so much respect for that entire company over there, and I actually pitched Rob [McElhenney] and Glenn [Howerton] the idea of Bryan and I coming into Philly to do a Dos Hombres tour and somehow we connect. Maybe we would stumble into their bar and chaos is created, and that’s sort of what we did. So they came up with this idea, they threw the script at us and we were super excited to jump on board.

That scene on the plane really felt like a bizarro Walt and Jesse scene. Bryan even did his trademark voice drop a la Heisneberg. Did it kind of have that vibe to you as well?

Yeah, it was great. Doing that [It’s Always Sunny …] was just something for us to have a lot of fun with, and they shoot an entire episode in three days. [Writer’s Note: For comparison, Breaking Bad typically had eight-day shoots] When I got to set and we started doing it, I quickly realized that I need to do more comedy. I really do, because that set is so fun. Everyone was laughing and having such a great time. I wasn’t in a corner torturing myself and trying to get into a proper headspace for a traumatic scene I’m about to tackle. So, we had such a great time doing it.

Before (spoiler alert) Jesse murdered Gale (David Costabile) at the end of Breaking Bad season three, you had a lot of comedic moments on that show, so hopefully you get more opportunities. Dual also gave you some good dry material.

Yeah, I love doing real life sort of comedy. I can’t do slapstick comedy. I just don’t find myself funny, but if funny situations are happening to these characters that cause people to laugh, that’s what I’m all about.

And lastly, your terrifying space adventures don’t end with Black Mirror. How was your time with Eiza Gonzalez on Ash?

Oh, man. We had such a beautiful experience on that project. I have been dear friends with Eiza for just north of 10 years, right when she moved out to Los Angeles. And so when this landed on our desks at the same time. I hit her up instantly, but she hadn’t read it yet. And so we were in each other’s corners during the whole process of deciding whether or not we were going to tackle this thing together.

***Black Mirror season six is now streaming on Netflix. This interview was edited for length and clarity.

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