Aaron Paul cannot go out in public without hearing the “B” word. After five seasons on “Breaking Bad,” during which he won an unprecedented three Emmy awards for best supporting actor, the Idaho-born actor says he cannot go outdoors in Los Angeles, New York or any other major metropolitan area without a fan throwing a “Yeah, bitch!” at him.
“I’m not exaggerating here, if it’s like a block or two, I will hear multiple ’bitches,” Mr. Paul told The Washington Times of the most used line of his most famous role, Jesse Pinkman, whom he portrayed on the blockbuster AMC show from 2008-13. The show starred Bryan Cranston as a high school chemistry teacher, dying of cancer, who turns to cooking meth in order to help his family upon his passing.
“It could be worse,” Mr. Paul said with a laugh. “But I wouldn’t trade it for the world. So yeah, I take it with stride. I appreciate all these incredible, sometimes very aggressive, fans.”
The success of “Breaking Bad” shot Mr. Paul, now 36, into the enviable position of having Hollywood come knocking on his door to pitch projects. His latest, “Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV,” opens in the District Friday.
In the new animated film, based on the long-running video game series, Mr. Paul supplies the voice of Nyx Ulric, the hero of the piece. While he himself claims he was never a big gamer, Mr. Paul was always aware of the franchise, thanks largely to his own brother’s fandom.
When the 200-page script landed on his desk, Mr. Paul said his plan was to read just the first few to see “how this is.”
“I just couldn’t put it down,” the actor said. “Closer to 200 pages later, I’m like, oh my god, this is actually like a really fun, very well-thought-out story.”
“Kingsglaive,” directed by Takeshi Nozue, had Mr. Paul, used to appearing on stage and screen, put in his acting time instead in a recording booth in L.A. to commit his lines.
“You are acting against yourself,” Mr. Paul said. “Saying these lines over and over and over again rather than playing off of somebody, so it’s just a completely different high.”
Unlike other animated films, where the actors’ mouth movements are captured to later to be animated, “Final Fantasy” restricted Mr. Paul from improvising much. The script, he said, was the letter of the law in this case.
“All the motion capture actors did their own take on these particular lines, so I didn’t have that creative freedom to take my time with lines,” he said. “So that was a little different.”
Mr. Paul laughs recalling that in addition to reading his lines, he devoted half of a day in the recording booth to “just grunting noises,” making sword sounds and mimicking “getting hit in the face.”
“It was really living one of my childhood dreams,” he said of the experience.
In addition to his acting, Mr. Paul has also tried his hand at producing, with his company Lucid Road, including an animated series called “BoJack Horseman,” which featured the voices of Will Arnett and Amy Sedaris.
Mr. Paul likens producing to “getting your hands dirty.”
“As an actor you jump onscreen, you create a character, but [with producing] you’re part of a creative process from the very beginning,” he said. “You’re the one who’s actually creating it. So I love it.”
When Mr. Paul’s “Breaking Bad” co-star Mr. Cranston turned the big six-oh this spring, talk show host Jimmy Kimmel produced a skit for his show about Mr. Cranston’s fictional birthday party. Mr. Paul appeared as himself in the sketch, which he described as both amazing and “ridiculous.”
“Bryan Cranston is the hardest-working, most immature person I’ve ever met in my entire life,” Mr. Paul said of his former co-star and current friend. “I’ve learned so much from him onscreen and off.”
The sketch for Mr. Kimmel’s late-night show was Mr. Cranston’s idea, and Mr. Paul related that it was the most expensive bit ever done on Mr. Kimmel’s show.
“I’m like, ’What is your budget? This is ridiculous,’” he said of the bit, in which Mr. Paul wore a lion costume, which he said he has since added to his own personal wardrobe.
While the demands of his chosen profession require him to live in Southern California, Mr. Paul said he travels back home to Idaho as often as possible, where he and wife Lauren Parsekian own property near Boise.
“That’s really where my heart is,” he said of his home state. “I love Los Angeles; I love New York. But I grew up in the mountains, I grew up playing in the lakes and mountains. I miss it.”
Indeed, Mr. Paul’s father, Robert Sturtevant (Mr. Paul’s given name is Aaron Paul Sturtevant) was at one point a Baptist minister. One might assume that the values of Protestantism would conflict with the rather bleak worldview of “Breaking Bad,” but Mr. Paul claims that his parents were huge fans of the drama.
“Of course, he’s a little biased,” Mr. Paul, son of a preacher man, said of his father, “but it’s his favorite show of all time.”
Mr. Paul, who proudly claims he does not own a computer, will enjoy the premiere of “Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV” this weekend in New York along with the rest of the cast, crew and media. He has not yet seen the final product.
Of “Breaking Bad” creator Vincent Gilligan’s spin-off series, “Better Call Saul,” Mr. Paul says he is an obsessive fan. The show features treasured characters from the “Breaking Bad” universe passing in and out of the storyline of Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk, before he took on the name “Saul Goodman”).
Mr. Gilligan himself is from Richmond, Virginia, about two hours south of the capital.
“I absolutely am in love with it,” Mr. Paul said of the new series. “It’s such a good show.”
Whether or not Jesse Pinkman makes a return appearance to Mr. Gilligan’s fictional universe, Mr. Paul is enjoying the reality of Hollywood success the likes of which he might never have dared dream growing up in the Gem State.
• Eric Althoff can be reached at twt@washingtontimes.com.
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