On January 20, 2008, the first episode of the first season of "Breaking Bad" aired quietly on AMC. Audiences who watched the pilot episode back then could hardly imagine that this American drama would become the pillar of AMC in the future, a game changer for American dramas, a spokesperson for conscience dramas, and once the "highest rated drama in the world".
The movie is full of suspense, and the acting is amazing. The names of the protagonists of "Breaking Bad" are all related to "color" - one is a terminally ill middle school chemistry teacher "Old White" White (Brian White). Cranston), who embraces his inner darkness as he builds his own drug empire from scratch; and his likable but nothing-for-nothing partner, Jesse Pinkman ( Aaron Paul), Xiaofan slowly becomes a tortured moral center as the series develops.
Who would have thought that such an excellent American drama would experience many setbacks in the early stage of production. Showtime, TNT, HBO and other TV stations all rejected the proposal of "Breaking Bad" at first . FX TV station was originally interested and began to produce pilot episodes, but because the executives are still more optimistic about Courteney Cox ("Friends" "Monica) in the American drama "Rumor", in order to attract more female audiences, gave up "Poison Master".
"Breaking Bad" producer and screenwriter Vince Gilligan said that HBO hadn't thought about making "Breaking Bad" at all, and TNT actually liked the concept of the show, but they didn't The person who sells meth may be regarded as the male protagonist. Before the broadcast, AMC also received numerous emails, all worried that the show would beautify methamphetamine, but once a few episodes began to air, this worry slowly disappeared.
Even if it was later selected by Sony and AMC (Sony and AMC co-produced, AMC is the distributor), the filmmaker only saw Brian in comedy roles at first, and did not want him to play Lao Bai. But after their favorites, John Cusack and Matthew Broderick, both said they wouldn't play, Vince remembered a grotesque virus-infected person in his old work, The X-Files, who could be as long as he Sitting in a car going under 50 an hour will kill you with a headshot. That guy named Cranston, his crazy acting skills left a deep impression on Vince at that time. It's him!
On the tenth anniversary of the show's release, the writers and producers of "Breaking Bad" were interviewed by "Variety" magazine and shared some early memories of the show's first airing, some of the characters in the show. After all the ups and downs, and at the end of the fourth season, when the finale of the series very similar to the "Golden Finale" (remember the amazing profile of fried chicken Obama!), they still chose to shoot quality. The fifth season to the next level.
The interview process started from the fifth season of "Breaking Bad". Maybe you still remember that after watching the last season, and realizing that maybe any American drama in the future will give people the feeling of "except Wushan is not a cloud", then Heartbroken. In the episode of the finale, Lao Bai stroked his beloved chemical instrument, and in the BGM there was a "Baby Blue" that matched the tone of blue methamphetamine. The ending of benevolence and benevolence was so heartwarming, such a contented way to die for Lao Bai It couldn't be more perfect and calm.
In the last episode, Lao Bai finally lifted the mask he had been wearing for five seasons in front of his wife, "I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it. And... I was really... I was alive." What does this mean? I don't make drugs for some tmd family, property, children, these bullshit excuses, I make drugs because I'm good at it, I love it, and I don't live in vain! Hearing Lao Bai facing himself so frankly, this big truth also made the fans who were worried about his "different hearts" in front of the small screen finally reconcile with this character.
As a digression, the producer of "Lost" completely admitted defeat after reading this dialogue. He said: I really didn't make the final season of "Lost" well... (What do you mean? Don't you see this dialogue? I think the filming was done after "Lost"?)
When asked how the creators would change season 5 if they chose to start all over again, screenwriter Vince Gilligan said that while the answer might sound like a joke, he sincerely hoped that Xiaofan's teeth weren't. Perfect as in the show . Do you think, how can this guy still keep his perfect white and shiny teeth when he smokes meth every day and gets beaten up every now and then?
When it comes to Xiaofan, the screenwriters recall with relief that fortunately, they didn't let him take the lunch in the first season. Series producer Pete Gould opened up, "I remember being on set during the first season and Vince said to Aaron, 'So what, Aaron, I just wanted you to know: we were going to At the end of the first season, the character Xiaofan will be killed , but the good news is - we love you too much to kill you.' Aaron was holding a plate in his hand, shaking like a leaf , It's so obvious what he's thinking."
As for why the screenwriters didn't want to keep Xiaofan in the first place, Vince's explanation was that after the role of Xiaofan brought Lao Bai into the circle of "drug trafficking and drug production", why do we keep him? Killing him will also allow Lao Bai to avenge Xiaofan's death in the second season. But Aaron is too cute, the concubine can't do it.
Screenwriter Jennifer Hutchinson said that with the progress of the plot, Xiaofan has become more and more a person with a steel scale in his heart. You know he's obviously not a good bird because he lives in such a world where "no drugs is not an American", but he does have more "conscience" than Lao Bai. Of course, despite this, Xiaofan continued to make mistakes, and Lao Bai took advantage of this.
It is also God 's will. In the original script, Xiaofan will leave the crew in the ninth episode of the first season . However, in early 2008, "Breaking Bad" caught up with the screenwriters' strike as soon as it was launched, and the first season had a total of seven episodes. Before the little fan could get the lunch, the screenwriters discovered the potential of this character and were impressed by Aaron's acting skills. Not only that, Vince originally planned to let Lao Bai reveal his evil "true face" at the end of the first season, but also because of the strike, he had more time to unfold Lao Bai's "blackening" process in a delicate and natural way.
There were a lot of American dramas affected by the screenwriter's strike that year. The most famous ones are "Lost", "Hero", "Prison Break", etc. The quality of "Hero" after the second season suffered a cliff-like decline. He was cut in half, fell off the altar and hid in silence; halfway through the third season of "Prison Break", the protagonists wandered in the dirty Panama prison and ended in a hurry for no reason...
Affected that year also included "Justice League", which Warners was in preparation. Because the script could not come out, Warners planned to postpone the project. In 2009, Warners began to prepare a single-player hero movie similar to Marvel's "Spider-Man" and "Iron Man" - "Green Lantern", so the plan for "Justice League" was once again put aside, and " Green Lantern also failed to open that door for Warners.
Thanks to "Breaking Bad" for holding on!
When asked when everyone knew the fate of the protagonists, the screenwriters were very consistent - Lao Bai had absolutely no chance of surviving! According to my memories, I don't know which master suggested, "If Lao Bai was the only character who survived, wouldn't it be ironic?" Think about it, Lao Bai's lung cancer has already sentenced him to death, but he But he is still alive, or he is still alive, but all his family members have been wiped out, isn't this idea too dark! Xiaofan can still be saved, but Lao Bai has really gone too far.
As for Lao Bai's method of death, screenwriter Sam Catlin revealed that someone once imagined that Lao Bai would die on a mobile gurney in a hospital, hiding quietly like a nameless person, and the earth would turn around without him. After all, what Lao Bai has pursued for the second half of his life is his status and the attention that others place on him. This method of death is simply the most deplorable way of dying, which makes him silently thrown aside and forgotten. Thomas Schnazer said there were also writers who suggested that he climbed into the restaurant after being shot, kind of like the scene in the Coen Brothers' Blood Maze , and collapsed under the table in his restaurant with fried chicken Obama .
So what will Xiaofan do after the show ends? Both Gould and Jennifer said he would go to New Zealand to be dashing.
I am afraid that it is not appropriate to express the character of Lao Bai as "both good and evil", especially his performance in the second half, which often makes the screenwriters stop and reflect, especially Lao Bai's wife Skyler (Anna · Gunn play) role. In addition to "Yo bitch" (Xiaofan said "bitch!!" a total of 54 times in the show), " I'm the one who knocks" is a line that fans of "Breaking Bad" love. The context is old white bragging about the flight attendant - you think I'm the one who opens the door waiting to be shot? No, I'm the one who knocks on other people's doors).
Jennifer reminded fans that if you think about it carefully, Lao Bai was bullying his wife completely, he didn't do any heroic feat at all, just chatting like this because he couldn't raise his head in front of her. And this is actually very interesting, because people who watch the show usually stand by Lao Bai and step on the flight attendant, which makes it difficult for the screenwriters to do it. The only way to make everyone like the flight attendant is for her to start "cooperating" with Lao Bai, but This is not in line with the character of the flight attendant. How can we make the audience understand that Lao Bai is actually a bad guy, and a flight attendant is actually a good guy? It's very important to stay true to the character itself.
Vince was also quite interested in this line. He said that when Lao Bai said "I'm the one who knocked on the door", it was actually more to convince himself that he was a boss, because he was deeply in his heart at that time. I know this isn't true at all. It's embarrassing that for years, the whole world watched Old White mess up New Mexico, thinking, "He's doing it for his family!" And yet George Mastas says that all screenwriters know , "Old Bai is the most selfish, he is not for others!"
This is also a great challenge to Bryan Cranston's acting skills. He must keep it all the time, exuding a "loser" temperament of the greasy uncle next door. If you change to an actor whose acting skills are not as good as him, even if you change any actor, once there is too much evil in his eyes, it will deviate from the original intention of the character. Moira Wally-Beckett remembers the episode where Old White kills Mike (Jonathan Banks), Brian can't protect his character anymore, and he's finally starting to accept the darkness inside him .
Bryan himself, as an actor, actually had to go through a lot of inner struggle during the filming process, which was really difficult for him. In the later stages of filming, Vince was even embarrassed to criticize how evil Lao Bai had become in front of him , because he slowly realized that Brian had been deeply involved in the play, and such chatting would hurt his feelings. After filming the episode in which his girlfriend Jane ("Jessica Jones" Krysten Ritter) died of a drug addiction, Lao Bai cried uncontrollably because he thought of his daughter .
With the development of the series, the color of Lao Bai's clothes became darker and darker, which was proportional to his "blackening" degree. In many episodes in the fifth season, he directly wore black and dark gray clothes.
The old white in the original script is only 40 years old, but AMC believes that there is a midlife crisis at the age of 40, which is a bit unreasonable, so he changed his age to 50 years old , which is what we see now. Ryan's version of old white. Rarely recognized by AMC, Brian gets up at 5:30 every morning to put on makeup, and his level of dedication is awe-inspiring.
"Breaking Bad" has basically maintained a high standard for five seasons, which is rare. In addition to the emotional ending of the finale, the reporter changed the topic and mentioned the third season that seemed to act as a turning point - whether it is " Fried Chicken "Obama" Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito), Mike, or "Beautiful Attorney" Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), whose roles expand in season three a lot.
In response to this situation, Sam's explanation is that most of the decisions the screenwriters make are for the so-called "problem solving", not because they have some long-planned genius plan, but just to be loyal to the characters and loyal to the "poison master" "world . For example, the role of Mike was created because "The Coquettish Lawyer" Odenkirk's schedule was too full.
There is also an episode. Originally, Uncle Fried Chicken would only appear in 3 or 4 episodes in total. When the creators invited him to return for the third season, he thought that 7 episodes were too few and wanted to add drama to himself. We have also seen the final result. There are 13 episodes in the third season, of which 11 episodes Giancarlo appeared, and he successfully made the role of "Gus Fring" become a way of living or dying in the history of American dramas. One of the most impressive villains. The writers also wanted to make Tio Salamanca, the wheelchair bell daddy played by Mark Margulies, the villain from the third season, and later changed to Gus. So Mark didn't watch the fifth season after that - his characters are gone!
The reason why this American drama has achieved such success is also closely related to the screenwriters' attention to character design step by step, not seeking a shocking reversal, not trying to sway the popularity of fans , after all, there are many "hours" good dramas It's all ruined in this regard, in their words - everything in "Breaking Bad" was conceived as "organic".
So in the process of writing the script for this drama, what was the most useful thing that the screenwriters got? George thinks it's the spread of emotion in the show, " Because time on the small screen is precious, it's important to not only tell a good story, but also to make every second full of emotion. If you're going to take 5 seconds screen time, it’s best to make sure it’s emotional, maybe very, very subtle, but trust the audience to notice that.”
"Before Breaking Bad and after the show, you always found a trend where the producers thought that sometimes the audience wouldn't even notice the tiny details, so they made everything obvious and exaggerated. . But what Vince taught me is to focus on the emotional content so that the audience can relate to the show.”
Vince is really strict, and it was he who decided to let "Breaking Bad" only have five seasons , because he didn't want to make the mistake of many other high-quality dramas "not guaranteed for the evening", and cut off the unfinished end, that's all; he , deliberately chose not to star in a bigger star , so as not to steal the limelight of the play itself; it was also he who complied with the voice of the soundtrack team and chose to let Lao Bai die in the sound of "Baby Blue" - Wen The decisions made by S. Gilligan eventually created the drama we see now.
Some fun facts about the "poisoner" from IMDb:
1. Lao Bai has a "Breaking Bad" tattoo on his ring finger.
2. Actor RJ Mitt, who plays Walter Jr., the son of Laobai's "cerebral palsy", really suffers from the same disease as the character in the play in real life, but the symptoms are much milder. Junior's role of leaning on a cane in the play was all learned by Mitt, including learning to speak at a slower pace.
3. Because of his resemblance to Matt Damon, Jesse Plemons who played Todd are affectionately called "Meth Damon" by fans. "And the latest season of "Black Mirror", you must not be unfamiliar with this actor.
4. The source of "Coquettish Lawyer" Saul Goodman is actually the homophonic sound of "It's all good, man."
5. The address of Lao Bai's house in the play is actually a private residence. Because fans always imitate Lao Bai's performance art of throwing pizza on the roof, the owner went crazy and told the media that he hoped to be clean.
6. The chemical formula C10H15N and the number 149.24 appearing at the beginning of each episode are meaningful. C10H15N is the chemical formula of methamphetamine (meth), and its molecular weight is 149.24.
7. The script was set in Riverside, California, but due to lower taxes in New Mexico, the story took place in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The pilot episode, where the RV drives through the Indian reservation, was originally intended to be set in a cattle ranch in California.
8. Samuel L. Jackson suddenly appeared on the set of "Breaking Bad" one day wearing Director Fury's costume, because "Poison" and "The Avengers" were filmed in the same studio, Jackson thought As the director, he came to make a cameo appearance in "Poison Master", but was rejected by the producers (lost the opportunity to say "motherfxxker" to Lao Bai and Xiaofan!)
9. The character of "Fried Chicken Obama" was originally called Kesyer Söze (if you've seen "The Usual Suspects", you must know! But the name in that movie is Keyser not Kesyer), this character was originally intended to appear later in the first season, However, due to the writers' strike, only 7 episodes were played in the first season, and the name was later changed. Uncle Fried Chicken himself also acted in "The Very Suspect".
10. Bessie Brandt, who plays the old white sister-in-law Mary, was pregnant when the second season was filmed. Whenever Anna Gunn, the "flight hostess", had a need for a pregnant belly, Bessie was hers Belly substitute.
11. In the five seasons of "Breaking Bad", the directors of the highest rated episode (S05E14, the penultimate episode of the fifth season) and the lowest rated episode (S03E10, the episode of fighting flies!) are all directors of "Breaking Bad". Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Ryan Johnson.
12. "Old White," "Beautiful Attorney," and "Badger" Matt Jones have all made guest appearances on "How I Met Your Mother."
13. The highest actor in the whole crew is Lao Bai's son, he is 182.
14. The first episode of the first season of "Breaking Bad" and the last episode of the fifth season were both directed by the show's creator, Vince.
15. As of the end of last year, "Breaking Bad" was the most rated series on IMDb, followed by "Game of Thrones". Only these two dramas had more than 1 million votes, and both rated 9.5. point.
16. The Dodge Challenger that Lao Bai bought for his son, appeared in the first season of "The Walking Dead", and Glenn drove this car ("The Walking Dead" became AMC's pillar after the end of "The Walking Dead") . When the stewardess asked Lao Bai to return the car, the manager's name was Glenn.
17. Colombia remade the Spanish-language version of "Breaking Bad" in 2014, but only for two seasons.
18. Tuco played by Raymond Cruz, whose name comes from Tuco Ramirez in 1966's "The Bad and the Bad", in that western, Tuco was in Albuquerque, where "Breaking Bad" took place hanged.
19. The title of the first episode of the second season is called "737", which foreshadows the plane crash in the last episode of the season.
20. Lao Bai and Xiaofen are the only two actors who have appeared in all 62 episodes. The amazing thing is that Xiaofan and Laobai's son are the only two characters who have never met in the resident characters in the play.
21. Total fatalities in the show: 270, of which 167 were killed in the plane crash in the last episode of the second season.
22. When Dean Norris, who played Hank, was filming the first half of season 5, he got an opportunity to do another sitcom. In order to make that show, Dean suggested to Vince to kill him in the first eight episodes of season five. Dropped Hank, but was turned down by Vince, who said that the role of Hank would still be useful in the second half of the season.
23. In the play, Lao Bai's birthday and death day are on the same day-September 7th.
24. Whenever a main character dies, there is always a new character to take his/her place - when Combo dies, Uncle Fried Chicken appears for the first time; when Jane dies, Mike first appears; Uncle Fried Chicken dies , Lydia followed shortly after; after Mike died, Jack Welker came.
25. Xiaofen has shared these on screen (not science): marijuana, methamphetamine, heroin, cigarettes, alcohol, caffeine and cocaine.
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