Aaron Paul makes impatience look like a poor defence against hurt. We rate him most highly in Breaking Bad, where his exchanges with Bryan Cranston let us care about Jesse Pinkman without requiring him to become easy company.
Fi1m perspective
In Breaking Bad (2008), Jesse Pinkman needs Walter White and resents needing him. Aaron Paul gives that resentment enough hurt to make the partnership uncomfortable even when it is funny. We were moved by Jesse's impatience with Walter, because Paul makes his irritation carry the pain of having to rely on someone he dislikes. The performance earns our confidence by letting Jesse be difficult company. We can care about him without being asked to excuse him.
Paul had gained notice in the recurring part of Scott Quittman in Big Love (2007), but Jesse became the role that defined his career. The part was retained because of his chemistry with Bryan Cranston, and the reason is visible in their exchanges. Cranston's Walter can take charge of a lesson more easily than he can deal with another person; Paul keeps making that second task awkward. Without Jesse's impatience, the pair could settle into a tidy comic routine. With it, Walter has someone to contend with rather than merely someone to instruct.
The move into leading film roles was less straightforward: Need for Speed (2014), his first major film lead after Breaking Bad, received a mixed critical response. That does not settle the question of what Paul can do, but it does warn against treating an effective television partnership as a guarantee elsewhere. He returned to Jesse in El Camino (2019), while The Path (2016–2018) and his work in Westworld (2020–2022) kept long-form drama central. Voice work in BoJack Horseman also took him beyond the troubled young men with whom he is often associated.
The reservation is about repetition: a part that only asks Paul to suffer risks wasting the irritation that makes him interesting. Jesse is affecting because the hurt does not make him agreeable, and because Cranston gives him someone worth pushing against. For us, the useful question about a new part is how much it lets him do besides suffer. Start with Breaking Bad for the exchanges with Cranston, and do not expect either character to make the evening comfortable.
Biography
Aaron Paul, born Aaron Paul Sturtevant, is an American actor. He is best known for portraying Jesse Pinkman in the AMC series Breaking Bad (2008–2013).
Paul began his career with guest roles in television and minor film parts, including a recurring role on the HBO series Big Love. He has since appeared in films such as Mission: Impossible III (2006), Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) and Central Intelligence (2016), and reprised the role of Jesse Pinkman in the film El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019) and the series Better Call Saul (2015). For his performance in Breaking Bad, he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2010, 2012 and 2014.
