No Half Measures: Creating the Final Season of Breaking Bad

- Action. - He's ordering me...

to stay and check your system,

And I can't get away.

We Are going back to the beginning,

to a decisive era of Breaking Bad.

Before the series ended, we wanted to make sure

of seeing the origin of the story we saw,

Everything that happened, in the end.

I'm sorry, I'll be late today.

I don't know what itchy Bogdan.

After chapter 514, we filmed two more.

But since we had to shave Bryan and change Jesse's appearance,

For logistics, we had to film this breakthrough at the end.

So this is the last day, not only of episode 514,

but the last day the series is filmed.

- Thanks sweetie. I love you. - I love you too.

- Cut. - It's farewell day.

The last day of filming of Breaking Bad.

There are like 23, 24 degrees. It is a fantastic day.

So many hundreds of people worked on this,

putting work, love and art,

That some days I think I'm just one more.

Today I feel a little like that.

This day is terrible. Frightening. This is horrible.

I had no idea, at first, that the program would go so far.

Who would have said we would go so far and have so many fans?

In February 2004, Vince and I talked on the phone,

and I mentioned a New York Times article

about a guy who cooked methamphetamine in an apartment.

"It's a good idea,

maybe we should cook methamphetamine in a motor home

to make extra money."

And before I knew it, a Breaking Bad script came out.

They came with the idea of the program to my desk

"It sounds interesting, a little risky,

but we are like that, we go for the interesting and risky idea."

And yes it was big, interesting and different.

The time had come for Breaking Bad

It wasn't just a script, words on paper.

We wanted it to be a reality.

And we wanted to make it happen with our AMC partners.

We met with the president of the study, Michael Lynton,

to give us his blessing.

They described the program to me, and I

"Let's see if I understood:

He is a middle-aged chemistry teacher with children.

He has cancer, and decides to become

a methamphetamine trafficker."

"That's right."

If it had been a movie, a scratching

record would have been heard.

There was only silence. Michael looked up.

I listened to everything, but I didn't make eye contact. And said:

"It's the most delusional and worst

idea I've ever heard for a program.

I don't care who writes it. It's crazy."

We must understand that, at that point, we were very involved.

And the story we told was made with such conviction,

that there was no way to be rejected.

"We really believe in this, we believe in Vince,

and we think it can be a fantastic program."

"Guys, it's your careers.

If you really think this is so good, do it."

I don't know if another head of study had accepted it.

That is a compliment to this place.

I don't think it would have aired anywhere else.

Before I started with Breaking Bad, I finished casting

for La Jolla Playhouse

and Bryan Cranston came to be tested for the lead role.

And we were impressed.

Bryan Cranston has everything necessary to do Walter White.

It was the perfect combination.

When we talk to Vince about some ideas,

we couldn't stop talking about Bryan Cranston,

whom Vince had in mind when he started to form the cast.

So there was a coincidence, and it was very useful,

because when you go to a chain

and you say that for your new drama series

you want the father of "Malcolm in the Middle"

You can imagine the reaction you will get.

"This is an incredible literary piece."

I wanted to spread my scent on that character.

I wanted to mark it as if it were mine

so that when Vince Gilligan saw the character,

he could feel my particular smell and say:

"I don't know why Bryan leaves the page"

But that is what happened.

Filming of the pilot episode.

When we entered the set, everyone gathered

in a unique and perfect way.

And Bryan and I had that chemistry from the beginning

That really worked.

You quickly realised that the team was top notch.

We had John Toll, winner of two Oscars.

He was the director of photography.

There were people who offered to work for free

Just to be on your team.

I remember it was a cold morning in To'hajiilee

I went out, pulled Bryan aside and said,

"How do you feel with your underpants?"

"What is the most embarrassing thing I can wear?"

I said, "Try the white underpants," and

"It's what I'm going to wear,

that's what the character asks."

I wanted to be overweight. I wanted to be a

guy who didn't care about anything any more.

Get out of the motor home on the pilot

and have my member folded in my tight white underwear

It was not the image I wanted the world to have of me.

And yet you have to have the courage to do it.

This is a moment I will not forget.

We were filming in the desert and he danced in shorts

"My God, I love this man."

The idea of our star would have so

much fun and not be taken very seriously

especially while we were doing very

intense scenes, it is a wonderful thing.

Cut.

Luckily, for the pilot's first display,

I already knew that Sony and AMC liked it.

"If you add 20 minutes to that pilot,

it will be perhaps the best independent film of the year."

We had it at Sony, just for the team and the cast.

And we were all impressed by how beautiful it looked,

and by how it was directed.

We All start screaming and clapping,

We were so proud and surprised.

"I can't believe it's part of this."

I still didn't understand how they were

going to transform it into a series,

and I still didn't know what Vince had in mind.

I honestly can't say I saw it and said, "Oh my God. Eureka."

What worried them when they finished watching it

"This is fantastic, but what will the series be like?"

I'm not sure Vince or anyone knew how it was going to be.

When we stopped, we said, "Oh, God. Now we must finish it."

Breaking Bad's trip was wild.

We didn't know what we were getting into.

The first season aired.

We had seven episodes to show the world,

of the original nine, by the writers strike.

If you wonder why there were only seven in the first season,

It is because of the strike of writers of that year.

Vince managed to do it with only seven episodes.

- We had low audience. - Why?

Why don't more people look at it?

He was perplexed because he didn't register it in the environment.

There were very low measurements and few followers, but faithful.

Dean talked about the measurements,

and wondered if I saw them.

"No. What can you do? Act with more determination?"

"I'm trying. But if you need better numbers,

I will really concentrate"

Thanks to critics and journalists, because we liked them.

I must give them the credit. They

kept us in the air in the beginning.

They told me there were no bad

reviews. We did not have a bad review.

That first season culminated with Bryan

winning the Emmy for Best Actor.

Suddenly, people said, "Wait, what is this Breaking Bad?"

In the second, we had our first full season.

In the second season, we were excited

about the scenes with Walt and Jesse.

It was transforming into a two character show.

In other words, the series is about Walter White,

but it's also quite about Jesse Pinkman.

Michael Slovis entered the second season,

and I think it improved the program

in terms of its appearance.

It made it even darker, more provocative.

- He brought Odenkirk... - Better call Saul.

And Jonathan Banks.

The program evolved and enlarged.

The third season becomes darker.

He introduces us to these well-dressed

cousins who turn out to be very dangerous.

In the third, I began to feel that our program took flight.

At the end of the third season,

Time magazine published the best 10 TV episodes of the year.

"One Minute", directed by Michelle MacLaren, was number 1.

When Gus Fring arrived, we worked at an impossible level to predict.

Giancarlo Esposito brought the most intense

villain in the history of television.

Mass production and the super lab...

The laboratory was a point of visual and physical inflection.

The third season was the loss of innocence for Jesse.

The last scene of the season is he pulling the trigger

and proving that he was the bad guy.

The Emmy kept coming.

Bryan won for season three, Aaron won for season three.

It was very exciting, a confirmation of that society.

Three Emmys in a row made people talk about Breaking Bad.

People, who otherwise would not have known the program.

Only after the third season I could say:

"Well, quite a few people watch the program"

The success of the program was evident.

Vince and the show won for the third season

the Writer's Guild Award.

Stephen King called it "one of the best shows ever."