Yahoo News Breaking Bad creator has no time for your Skyler hate
Skyler White might have ended up as Breaking Bad's biggest hate figure, but series creator Vince Gilligan says the character doesn't deserve your abuse.
Near the end of her time playing Skyler, actress Anna Gunn wrote an editorial for the New York Times in which she described how "the hatred of Skyler [had] blurred into loathing for [her] as a person".
Bryan Cranston's anti-hero lead Walter White was by this point a drug lord with a whole lot of blood of his hands, but it was his tortured wife Skyler who drew the ire of viewers.
"Because Walter is the show's protagonist, there is a natural tendency to empathise with and root for him, despite his moral failings," Gunn wrote.
But she drew the line when one 'fan' on a message board posted a death threat directed at her, not the character. "Besides being frightened (and taking steps to ensure my safety), I was also astonished: how had disliking a character spiralled into homicidal rage at the actress playing her?"
Speaking to Digital Spy and other press, Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan admitted he had also been upset and confused by the criticism levelled at Skyler, and at Gunn.
"I've given it a lot of thought," he said. "I know it troubled the actress who plays the role.
"Anna Gunn is a wonderful person, a kind and good person who's as smart as a whip. That's why I could never be an actor. A lot of that animus that was directed towards the character, Anna couldn't help but feel.
"It was tough on her, and undeservedly, because she couldn't be a sweeter person. And also, I never understood it, because Skyler's character, compared to Walt, she's the good guy.
"She's trying to do the right thing. He gives all this lip service: 'I'm trying to protect the family. My family's all that matters.' She says, at one point, 'Someone has to protect this family from the man who protects this family.' And she's right.
"I think it's a very complicated stew of things that led to her being so disliked as a character. But I don't quite understand it completely. I would say she was the most under-appreciated character on the show."
Gilligan also revealed that he's open to revisiting Aaron Paul's character of Jesse Pinkman in future, possibly in the 'present-day' scenes on Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul.
Breaking Bad airs Wednesdays at 9pm on AMC on BT TV.
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