‘Breaking Bad’ Star Dean Norris Asked Vince Gilligan To Kill Hank

There will come a time — late summer 2013, actually — when Breaking Bad will be no more, and all our questions will be answered. Is the show a prequel to Malcolm in the Middle? (No.) Did the baby do it? (Maybe.) Is meth good for you? (Yes.) The show’s actors and actresses have already started looking for their next gigs, assuming there is a next after Walter White bombs the world in the finale, and not just the BB world, but the REAL world.

Aaron Paul wants to be attached to The Dark Tower; Anna Gunn has been tapped as the lead in a Bravo show, Rita, about a private school teacher; Skinny Pete’s got a nice stack of heroin with his name on it waiting for him back home; RJ Mitte, future Denny’s spokesperson, obviously; and Dean Norris, well, Dean Norris had a comedy pilot, until Vince Gilligan, or Spanish for “asshole,” cruelly didn’t kill him off Breaking Bad.

According to actor Dean Norris, who plays Hank Schrader on the AMC series, when the writers set off to write Breaking Bad’s final season, he specifically requested his character be killed off in the first half.

“I called [creator] Vince [Gilligan] and I said, ‘Hey man, maybe Hank should die in the first eight. Wouldn’t that be a great ending?’” Norris recalled during an interview at Breaking Bad’s Albuquerque set this week.

As Norris explained, when AMC announced they were going to renew Breaking Bad for fifth and final season, the forward-thinking actor landed a leading role in a comedy pilot, but was forced to pull out when Season 5’s 16 episode order was split into a pair of eight-episode runs to air over two years.

Asked if, in retrospect, Norris regrets his request, especially considering the series’ upcoming final episodes will be, in his words, the most “Hank-centric“ yet, the 51-year-old Harvard grad explained that he was only being rational.

“It was either do eight episodes or do 24 and I’ve got five kids, man.” (Via)

If this is the face of a slightly unhappy Hank…

…I’d hate to see what a mad Hank looks like.

(Via O Canada)

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