Perhaps many people do not realize that in fact, Aaron Paul was nearly 30 years old when he starred in "Breaking Bad", and he was only 17 years old when he drove into Los Angeles with his dream, which means that he struggled from no name to fame for ten years; now that he has participated in the third season of "Westworld", he has also entered 40 years old, and another decade has passed, he has not gotten rid of the glory and shadow brought by "little fans", and his career has not reached a higher level.
However, this path was chosen by himself, and it was he who chose to follow his heart instead of chasing fame and fortune at the peak of his life. Aaron Paul is too sober to speak for Hollywood, but wants to live the way he wants to be — to be an evergreen tree in the industry.
Dream hollywood
After a decade of silence, he went to Universal Studios to make ends meet
Aaron Paul was born on August 27, 1979 in the northwestern U.S. town of Emmett, a baptist priest, and the family embraced a traditional conservative American life, so Aaron's first theatrical experience also took place in the church. Mother Dara gave birth to four children, Aaron was the youngest, and since she had come to the world a month earlier than originally planned, her mother could not go to the hospital and had to give birth to him alone in the bathroom—the father was not in the city.
Born with a thrilling birth, Aaron Paul had a bland first fifth of his life, but it wasn't the life he wanted, and he longed for something to achieve, as the TV preached, to make DreamWorks Hollywood groundbreaking. So after graduating from high school, he decided to become an actor, driving a 1982 Toyota with $6,000 in his bank card, taking his mother with him and embarking on a journey to Los Angeles.
Most of the American youth have a kind of infinite infatuation and yearning for Hollywood, where you do not need to be born amazingly beautiful, do not need to sit on a full belly, do not need to rely on the power of the sky, sometimes only need to be with the four eyes of the star scout opposite the spark of a moment, life from then on into the next chapter, into the cool script. Maybe the waiter in a café today will be printed in the center of the movie poster this time next year, appearing in theaters across the country. Compared with Wall Street finance and New York fashion, Hollywood has a lower barrier to entry, and thus becomes the best choice for the younger generation to escape the American banality.
Hollywood is naturally willing to hype up this set of logic of changing lives, attract more fresh blood for itself, and drive this huge creation and star-making machine to never stop, so the opportunities are also endless, and it seems that everyone can get a piece of the pie.
Aaron Paul, who arrived in Los Angeles in 1996, finished runner-up in the International Model and Talent Association competition, signed a professional agency, got some opportunities to appear in MVs and TV commercials, and also made cameo appearances in some movies and TV series, including "Crime Scene Investigation" and "Criminal Minds", which are known for "hosting the once youthful faces of famous actors".
Aaron had a small cameo role in the American drama "CSI".
In early 2000, he was given the opportunity to appear in the famous variety show "Price Quiz", Aaron participated in the game under his real name and lost miserably, and also showed an extremely lack of demeanor in front of the national audience - of course, this is also the routine operation of American variety shows, and if you want to get the favor of the camera, you need a stronger performative personality than others.
In addition to American dramas, Aaron's roles in the movie "Mission Impossible 3" (Part 1) and "K Star Stranger" (Part 2) are also playing soy sauce roles.
Aaron may have felt countless times that he was no longer far from success, he actually starred in Mission Impossible 3 and "K Star Stranger", but under the giant star rings of Tom Cruise and Kevin Spacey, who can remember this thin baby-faced boy? The period of obscurity lasted for a decade, and in those days of waiting for cameo opportunities, he also worked as a seat usher at Universal Studios Hollywood to make ends meet.
Career turning point
The first male protagonist of the movie, he was stopped by the police the day after the boot
In 2006, Aaron Paul spent a decade in Hollywood, finally ushering in a turning point in his career. Entering the 21st century, HBO continues the management strategy of "overall subscriber satisfaction", and constantly increases investment in TV series production, and these god-level American dramas such as "Brotherhood", "Under the Soprano Family" and "Six Feet Below" have laid the brand image of "HBO production must be a boutique", high-quality content and loyal users form a virtuous circle, and the success of its strategy completely subverts the industry rules. HBO also launched a number of popular topical episodes that year, such as "Big Love", which focused on Mormonism and polygamy, and Aaron Paul played a supporting role in 14 episodes, which really won Hollywood's attention.
In early 2007, his first starring film was also released, and although it was a low-budget thriller, the "starring" itself was significant. The film was called "Daydreamers", and the original budget was only fifteen thousand US dollars, but after adding Aaron Paul and Ariel Kebel, the budget rose to 96,000 US dollars, and the crew was able to shoot with Super 16mm cameras - which was not particularly high-end advanced equipment at that time, which was enough to reflect the economic dilemma of the crew. The film is so general that the filming process is much more interesting.
Poster for the movie "The Daydreamer"
It was late summer 2005, when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, so a crew that had planned to shoot in New Orleans was forced to move to downtown Los Angeles and squeeze in the same location as the Daydreamer crew upstairs and downstairs. The sound insulation effect of the building is not very good, causing several oolongs, originally the downstairs crew shouted "Action", the result was that the upstairs machine began to turn, originally the upstairs crew shouted "Cut" and the downstairs actor stopped... Both groups felt overwhelmed, and this was only the first day of booting. The next day of filming, the police found the door, it turned out that the crew did not report according to the regulations, and as a result, they were directly ordered by the police to shut down the machine...
Everything is predestined
There are only nine episodes of "little fans" who have jumped into one of the two male protagonists
By 2008, the story of Breaking Bad began. The series, along with Mad Men that same year and The Walking Dead, which aired two years later, turned AMC Cable into a new upstart in the circle, surprising Hollywood with a series of viewership data and awards, and was even once regarded as a strong competitor to HBO. Although the current AMC lacks the ability to continuously produce high-quality blockbusters, HBO has also retained its position as an industry leader, but "Breaking Bad" has left its name in history and become one of the greatest American dramas in history. For Aaron Paul, the role of "Little Fan" in the play is the best opportunity he has encountered in Hollywood for many years, and the triple jump from 2006 to 2008 made him stand out from the ocean of talent, and finally rose to become a star with the popularity of "Breaking Bad".
Stills from Breaking Bad
Aaron Paul won three Emmy Awards for Breaking Bad.
Breaking Bad, whose power has never been dropped, has brought Aaron Paul three prime-time Emmy Awards for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, setting a record for the highest number of awards won by the same person in this award — who doesn't love the morally depraved and unconscionable little bastard? In this Hollywood with unlimited dreams and limited resources, Aaron has since realized his Hollywood dream in stages. And this success, in fact, there are also its coincidences.
According to the original plan, Jesse Pinkman, the "little fan" played by Aaron Paul, should be finished in the ninth episode. The point of the time and place is that in the face of a Hollywood screenwriter strike, producer and screenwriter Vince Gilrigan was able to re-examine the entire project during the "vacation", and was moved by Aaron Paul's interpretation of the role at the right time and decided to change the scene for him. After that, as all aspects of the character were completed, the popularity became more and more high. Breaking Bad has also evolved from "Big Man" to "Double Male Lead", with Jesse Pinkman being the only character other than "Old White" Walter White to appear in all 62 episodes. He even becomes the general existence of "Lao Bai's last conscience", and by the end of the story, Vince Gilrigan has sent the "old white" to the end and left hope to "Little Fan".
Want to be an evergreen tree
For the first time, work is no longer about survival, it's about being a role
The aura brought by the series and characters allows Aaron Paul to enter the stage of "human drama" life. "There are some big studios that have extended an olive branch to me, but I'm not sure if that's the right direction. I've always believed that if you want to stay in this industry, the key is to choose the right role. Finally, for the first time in my life, I was able to work for a role rather than survive, so I wanted to pick a suitable project. Maybe it's the wrong choice, but honestly, I don't care, I just want to shoot projects that excite me, even if it's just small productions. ”
Movie "Need for Speed"
So when he had the choice, Aaron chose independent films like "Suicide Four" and "Thorny Head". Of course, he is not completely opposed to big productions, after "Breaking Bad", Aaron starred in the famous game adaptation of "Need for Speed", participated in Ridley Scott's "Pharaoh and the Gods", but the results of these films are not very good, and Aaron Paul's popularity and industry status are difficult to go to a higher level. On the one hand, the Hollywood genre operation has given actors a qualitative tone, on the other hand, the actor's personal choice, Aaron Paul finally failed to broaden his own play path, from a small screen celebrity to a big screen superstar.
Seven years after the end of "Breaking Bad", Netflix launched "Breaking Bad: Breaking Bad Movies" to accurately cash out the feelings of fans, which also marked Aaron Paul's slow return to the TV circle. This year he was once again a primetime Emmy hit for his third season of HBO's Westworld. However, the popularity and reputation of the third season of "Westworld" are not the same as the first season, and the fate and mental journey of the character played by Aaron Paul are also like a copy of the heroine Dolores in the real world (only the guide of this awakening is Dolores). Aaron's performance in the play is remarkable, but it is almost impossible to recreate the glory of the "little powder" of that year with this role.
Stills from Westworld
Fortunately, the era of blind pursuit of success and measuring happiness by only one standard is gone. "Not red" can also be a way out of life, and this road was chosen by Aaron Paul himself. He wanted to be an evergreen tree in the industry, not a moment of dazzling fireworks. The reason for this may lie in the silent decade of hollywood. He once famously said in the face of the many temptations after fame: "This is very dangerous for children who come here with dreams - fame and fortune will eventually change people, and almost no one can be free from fame and fortune." But I'm 30 years old and know myself well enough. At the age of 17, you may think that you know everything, but in fact, you are just a child, and there is still more to learn. ”
Written by/Dojo Arashi
Edited by Wu Dongni Proofreader Zhao Lin