Why Aaron Paul Struggled To Land A Successful Movie Role After Breaking Bad

He was the heart of perhaps the greatest television drama of all time - but that hasn't translated to big screen stardom.

In a recent sitdown with Vulture, Aaron Paul - star of the AMC TV series Breaking Bad and its upcoming sequel film, El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie - offered a little insight as to why he hasn't popped up more often in feature films, and why he's not likely to in the future.

Paul recalled that, in the wake of the wild popularity of Breaking Bad and his subsequent stardom, he was eager to parlay his success into starring roles in other projects, whether on the big screen or small - and he was in no way hurting for opportunities.

After Breaking Bad ended in 2013, he starred in several smaller, independent features, though they did little to raise his profile. Paul's chance to make a splash in a big, expensive blockbuster came his way in 2014, when he appeared in the lead role in the video game adaptation Need For Speed. Unfortunately, the flick failed to jump-start Paul's movie career. It underperformed at the box office and was savaged by critics, and his next big studio effort - the Ridley Scott-helmed biblical epic Exodus: Gods and Kings - didn't fare much better.

It simply seemed that Paul's acting style - all barely contained emotion, with worlds of subtext plainly visible in his soulful, expressive eyes - was much better suited for the small screen, and he also appeared to thrive the most when his characters were given the room to breathe and grow afforded by the serial format. His next television effort, in the lead role in the Hulu original series The Path, drew critical accolades for his performance - but the creative minds behind the series weren't quite as focused as those responsible for Breaking Bad, and Hulu axed the show after three seasons.

Paul continued to surface in indie features and smaller major studio productions, but he continually ran up against the same problem: casting directors who seemed to think that they were securing the services of Jesse Pinkman, rather than Aaron Paul. Exhibit A: the 2016 Dwayne Johnson/Kevin Hart comedy Central Intelligence, in which Paul's character makes frequent use of a certain five-letter "B" word with which Pinkman was known to pepper every other sentence. Keep watching the video to see why Aaron Paul struggled to land a successful movie role after Breaking Bad!

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