‘Yeah Bitch!’ Aaron Paul on His Breaking Bad Legacy
Mia Horton The final eight episodes of Breaking Bad premiere in August, and fans need to prepare themselves to say good-bye to many things, including the word bitch. Aaron Paul estimates he’s sworn, spat, screamed, stammered, muttered, cheered, and cried Jesse’s favorite expletive “at least a few hundred times.” (See also: “Yo.”) And he’s always found Jesse’s overuse of it kinda cute. “It was very endearing,” Paul told Vulture. “He says it in so many different ways, and it has so many different meanings, you know? It’s not always a bad thing!” The Internet has compiled and catalogued but a fraction of the actor’s often hilarious, dead-on line readings. Take for example Jesse’s voice-mail greeting: “Whaddup, bee-yotch? Leave it at the tone.” “I definitely remember that day,” Paul laughed. “We probably did it six or seven times. They wanted me to play with it, and it was just super fun. I think I got more comfortable with saying it and just being in Jesse’s skin over the years. In the beginning, I was still trying to feel out who this guy was.”
Paul teased that his favorite “bitch” hasn’t even aired yet. “Aw, man, there is one coming up in the final set of episodes that is just perfect. You haven’t seen it yet, but you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about when you do. It’s amazing.” A close second is from the beginning of season five, after Jesse devised a clever way to erase incriminating footage of himself from Gus’s laptop. (“Yeah, bitch! Magnets!”) “When I read that scene, I laughed out loud for a long time. It was a little while before I could stop,” he said. “But this one coming up, I’m telling you, it’s another special bitch line.”
It’s why fans would rather have Paul curse them out than give them his autograph. “So many people come up to me and say, ‘Please, just call me a bitch.’ Or on Twitter they’ll go, ‘It’s my wife’s birthday,’ or, ‘It’s our anniversary, will you please call my wife a bitch?’” Ever the gracious actor, he obliges. “I’ll send all these direct messages to random people with just the word bitch. People love it. It’s so funny.” Is it weirder to do it in person? “No, I just roll with it. I think it’s great. I mean, it can depend on the setting. If I’m at dinner that can be odd, but if I’m just running around … The most classic one was a few months ago when I was walking in London. I had just picked up a Gatorade at a little market and this guy screams out, ‘Gatorade me, bitch!’ and I turned and threw him the Gatorade. I went, ‘Yeah!’ threw it to him, and walked off. It was pretty great.”
But those still hoping to get their own Jesse-style bitch-ing should act fast; Paul plans on retiring the word once the show is over. “I’m going to leave ‘bitch’ behind with Jesse. He’s where the word lives,” Paul said. On the other hand, the actor wouldn’t mind popping up on the planned Saul Goodman spinoff, should it ever become a real thing. “It’ll depend on the structure of the show. If it’s gonna be pre-Walt-and-Jess or after, I’m not sure. Jesse did know Saul before,” Paul said. “Oh my God, I hope it does [happen]. I would love, love, love that.”
Aaron Paul on His Breaking Bad ‘Bitch’ Legacy
