Aaron Paul Talks About the Scene He Fought to Get Added Back Into EL CAMINO and His Hope For a Director's Cut
Fans of Breaking Bad were treated to a wonderful film last week, El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, that delved into the period of time in which the character Jesse Pinkman, played by the incredible Aaron Paul, was held captive as a drug manufacturer, and what he did after his escape that took place in the finale episode of the series. The movie was so incredibly good, and it gave such a complete and satisfying ending to that chapter of the beloved character’s life.
In a recent interview with GamesRadar, Paul opened up about the film’s runtime and what we didn’t get to see in the final cut. El Camino was originally “two hours, 57 minutes” long, but was cut down to two hours and two minutes. When asked about the deleted scenes, Paul said:
“There’s quite a bit that was taken out. There’s a… I don’t want to give too much away because hopefully, who knows, one day there could be an unedited version out. There’s a whole other alternate ending. A big chunk that was taken out post-leaving Kandy Welding. I would love to see that slip back in.” referring to the shootout between Jesse and Neil in the final third of the movie.
He then referenced a scene that he was particularly upset about seeing cut, and went on to say:
“I fought. I fought for it. It actually had a lot to do with Robert Forster,” before paying tribute to the late actor (who played Ed in both Breaking Bad and El Camino) who died last week. “I think the world would love to see that.”
While Paul was hesitant to get into the specifics of what the scene entailed, Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan was able to take more liberties, and explained to EW:
“There was this whole other scene with Robert in the movie originally where he finds Jesse hiding out behind his vacuum store the next morning. And there’s this moment, a silent reaction where Jesse pops up the trunk of his Fiero and there’s all this money in it. There’s this close-up we got of Robert where he’s staring down at this truck full of money. It was just so perfect.”
The fact that the creator and the star each had such complimentary things to say about a scene that didn’t make it into the film just speaks to the integrity of the entire movie. It was so excellent. I will definitely watch it again, and I am so grateful it was made for all of us diehard Breaking Bad fans. Check it out on Netflix if you haven’t gotten the chance.