Though Netflix subscribers are loving Penn Badgley on the hit thriller series You, the actor was almost cast in another fan-favorite drama, Breaking Bad. Speaking with Buzzfeed in a new interview, surrounded by puppies, the former Gossip Girl star was asked about roles he auditioned for that got away, revealing he was one of the final choices for Jesse Pinkman on the Emmy-Winning series. “One I got so close on was ‘Breaking Bad.’ It was between me and Aaron Paul,” Badgley revealed. “We tested. And actually that was the best television script I’d read, at that point. That was the one that got away.”
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Aaron Paul, who would book the part of Jesse Pinkman, would go on to win three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his performance in the series. Paul previously recalled to Entertainment Weekly how he and Badgley were finalists for the role.
“Penn Badgley was one of the guys that was testing,” Paul recalled. “It was so long ago I am blanking on two of the guys, I did not recognize them at the time but but this other guy just really brought…when he walked in I was like ‘Oh my god that guy looks like a meth addict,’ in a good way you know…he was just like in the role. This guy is gonna gonna steal it from me but after the test it took about two weeks for them to finally let me know.”
In the end things worked out for Badgley, since not landing the role in Breaking Bad almost certainly guaranteed he would continue to be a big part of Gossip Girl. While he would play his role of Dan Humphrey for over 120 episodes and six seasons on The CW series, Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan had considered killing off the Jesse Pinkman character at the end of the show’s first season. After Paul’s performance changed his mind, the rest is history. So had Badgley nabbed the role….who knows how different the series would have been in the end.
(H/T Indiewire)
