It is crucial to remember that, as with any television or film production, a large number of actors go through a strict audition procedure. This enables the production team to identify the interpreter who, in accordance with the character’s development, ideally matches the role.
Many performers were competing for parts in the AMC crime series at the time of the audition. Not just Aaron Paul, who was unheard of in Hollywood at the time, had ambitions to play Jesse Pinkman in Breaking Bad. Aaron Paul said that a well-known celebrity challenged him for Jesse Pinkman.
One of the several explanations for why no one can imagine another actor playing Jesse Pinkman in Breaking Bad is the amount of acclaim Aaron Paul garnered for his caliber of performance. Undeniably, his involvement with the AMC series fundamentally altered his life.
During an interview for Entertainment Weekly in 2019, Aaron Paul mentioned that Penn Badgley was one of the actors auditioning to play Jesse Pinkman in Breaking Bad.
One of Badgley’s costars in Gossip Girl, Chase Crawford, who played Deep in The Boys, also confirmed that Badgley auditioned for the role of Jesse Pinkman, ‘If you want an interesting story, Penn screen-tested for Jesse. He didn’t even test for Gossip Girl; they offered it to him – but I remember him telling me he screen-tested for Jesse.’
