Breaking Bad Creator Vince Gilligan on AMC's 'Big Balls' and a Potential Fifth Season

Over the course of three seasons, Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan has transformed his protagonist from a spineless husband and chemistry teacher into a cold-hearted meth chemist who neglects his family in order to churn out hundreds of pounds of lethal crystal for cash. The role, born somewhere deep in Gilligan's subconscious, won star Bryan Cranston back-to-back Emmys, and tied together three seasons of one of the best (and darkest) dramas on television today. Gilligan himself, though, could not be any more different than the grim world and characters he created.

In anticipation of this Sunday's season finale, the native Virginian -- who also wrote and produced over 30 episodes of The X Files and penned the Will Smith blockbuster Hancock -- phoned Movieline to cheerfully talk about the nuttiest scene he ever wrote for Walt (that never made it to air), the encouragement of AMC, and the possibility of renewing Breaking Bad for a fifth season.

After watching three seasons of Breaking Bad , I'm a little concerned for your mental health. How do you possibly decompress after writing such dark episodes?

[Laughs] There is a great quote from the French writer Flaubert -- and I am going to show my ignorance by trying to paraphrase him -- about being neat and orderly in your life so that you can be extravagant and crazy in your work. (Ed: The quote is "Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.") I can't speak for my other writers but I live a pretty boring life, and I think the short answer to your question is that all of this crazy crap that may be deep inside my brain is something I kind of exorcise by writing it instead of living it. I think it is actually kind of therapeutic to write this kind of dark stuff.

We hear a lot about method acting. Do you find that as you write each episode, you are in effect method writing -- assuming each role as you figure out their arc for that hour?

I think you're somewhat accurate. You have to go deep inside your brain for some of that stuff. When I am sitting there writing, I get into a pretty dark mood but luckily, unlike an actor, I don't have to physically act it out. The most I'll do is say dialogue before I write it.

You do kind of try to get into the mind of whatever character you are writing about. If it's a dark scene with dark characters who are up to no good, you do your best to live it -- at least in your mind -- and it can put you in a weird place in your head, but usually it doesn't last too long. You get a sandwich or have a beer or watch a little TV and it kind of fades away.

While writing the second season of the show, you said your ethos was "go big or go home." What was your ethos for writing the third season?

Maybe, "go bigger or go home." We didn't really come up with one for the third season. We just kept the old one in place.

When Breaking Bad first premiered, it was lumped together with Weeds because both projects centered on desperate characters who resort to making money off of drugs. I think it's impressive, though, that even though your series is working within cable parameters, Breaking Bad is so much grittier and darker than Showtime's series. Your show makes Weeds look like Gossip Girl. Had you seen Weeds when you were pitching your show?

I hate to admit it, but I don't have Showtime, so I don't regularly see Weeds. I watch the screeners when they come around Emmy time every year and I think it is a very good show. I have to admit, though, that the first time I even heard about Weeds was at a pitch meeting. Before AMC was involved, I was at a different network about halfway through the pitch and one of the executives said,"This sounds a little like the world of Weeds." I said, "What is Weeds?" After the meeting, I educated myself as much as I could. I got a copy of the pilot and I made every effort I could to make our show as different as possible.

The worlds of marijuana and crystal meth are so different already, though...

Right, I think that you can be a little lighter with a show about selling marijuana because it is probably more palatable to a larger audience. It could be argued that there are good things about marijuana: it makes you feel better if you are going through chemotherapy, it can help out with your glaucoma. There is really nothing good to be said about crystal meth. I mean, it makes you feel pretty great, I suppose, when you first take it, but the consequences are far too high. There is no medical reason to be taking it. It is an awful drug, and to be as honest and realistic as possible about that world, you have to go pretty dark.

I haven't really seen Weeds for awhile, though, because as I said, I don't have Showtime. I should probably go ahead and upgrade to the premium cable package.

When AMC picked up your pilot, Mad Men was in pre-production but the network was still showing movies pretty much 24/7. Were you worried that they might not be able to make that leap into original programming successfully?

That was a huge concern and I am so happy that all of my concerns turned out to be ill-founded. When we started, AMC was just prepping Mad Men for its first season and they were just starting to push into scripted television. Honestly, at first I thought the show would simply never happen. I had had so many meetings in my 20 years in the business at that point to know that sometimes people kind of shine you on and tell you they have big plans for your project and then you never hear from them again. I was used to those kinds of meetings in the movie business, anyway, but AMC was as good as their word and better.

They even let you direct the pilot.

They did, which was kind of unheard of. Luckily, I didn't botch it. I learned so much from directing that, though, and being able to make sure it looked and sounded and felt like I wanted it to. It was a good template for the other directors who followed. To answer the other half of your question from before, I was also concerned that the network would wimp out after shooting the pilot when they realized how dark the show was. I thought they would think, "Jesus, we have to make this less edgy," but AMC has never wimped out on us. There was only one time in season two when the executives called me up after reading a script and said, "Gee, this one is dark. Are you sure you want to do this?"

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