‘Breaking Bad’: Bryan Cranston Reveals Famous Death Was Originally Even More Shocking
Breaking Bad deaths increased in frequency the longer the series aired. As Breaking Bad showed Walter White (Bryan Cranston)’s transformation into Heisenberg, there were many casualties, both bad guys and sympathetic characters. One of the show’s most traumatic deaths was almost even more brutal, Cranston revealed in a recent interview.
[Warning: This article contains spoilers for a major death on Breaking Bad.]
Cranston was on the Basic podcast on July 6 to talk about his experience on Breaking Bad. Discussing the famous death scene, Cranston revealed how the scene was softened from its original concept. Cranston appears as Walter White again on Better Call Saul Season 6, returning July 11 on AMC.
Bryan Cranston agrees Jane was one of the saddest deaths on ‘Breaking Bad’
Krysten Ritter played Jane, Jesse (Aaron Paul)’s girlfriend and a heroin addict, in Breaking Bad Season 2. Walt moves closer to the dark side when he sees her choking and lets her die.
“It’s kind of complex because [Breaking Bad creator] Vince Gilligan first conceived that scene as Walter White sitting on the edge of the bed, seeing these two strung out people on heroin and realizing that this girl got my partner, my de facto son if you will, hooked on heroin,” Cranston said on Basic. “She’s basically going to kill him. That’s his pathway.”
Jane’s ‘Breaking Bad’ death was almost even more tragic
However, originally Walt was more hands-on in Jane’s demise on Breaking Bad.
The original concept was for Walter White to caress her shoulder and then push her on her back to allow the choking to happen. Basically, directly involved in her death. The network and the studio went, ‘Aaaaagh it’s so soon. Please, can you hold off? It’s just season 2.’ So he rethought it and to his credit, he listened and then it got to the point where it was indirect that my focus is on Jesse to try to wake him up. As I shake him to wake him to come out of his drug stupor, that motion, that vibration made her fall on her back on her own. It wasn’t intentional and I did not notice that she fell on her back because my focus was on Jesse and my despair at looking at this young boy in this state.
Bryan Cranston, Basic podcast, 7/6/22
Walter White still isn’t innocent in Jane’s death
Gilligan changed the scene but he still didn’t let Walt off the hook on Breaking Bad. He recognizes that Jane is choking and will die. He could have made a decision to help her, so he bears some guilt by inaction.
“Then, when she starts to choke on her vomit, my impulse was help her,” Cranston said. “So I get up and I run across the bed to the other side to help her and before I do, now I stop myself. Wait a second, what am I doing? Am I just saving her temporarily? Is she then tomorrow going to have another one and die then? And in so doing, is she going to kill my partner? Do I stay out of it and let fate as if I was never here?”
