Breaking Badalum Anna Gunn says Skyler backlash was 'important for me to go through'

It is a story of transformation, hubris, ego, and of the underdog.

For the record, Gunn says that she has extremely fond memories of herBadexperience.

“It was transformative and incredible,” she tells EW.

All those years, we really stayed in that gift and were present in it."

“It shook me.

As an actor, my job is not to always play characters who make everybody happy.

That’s not interesting.

In fact, characters that are more difficult in a way are more interesting.

And that Skyler skunking was as puzzling as it was hurtful.

“It was very bizarre and confusing to us all,” she says.

Gunn recalls first coming face-to-face with this criticism at Q&A panels that the cast participated in.

I mean, Walt is working and he’s doing this for his family.'

He was so clearly firmly with Walt and thought Skyler was just this awful, nagging person.

That was one of the first moments where it came right to me and it was shocking.

I think we were all kind of shocked.

I think what I said at that time was, ‘Let me get this straight.

And because she’s telling him to stop doing that, you have a problem with her?

That makes her a bitch?’

It drew a round of applause from the audience.

But there it was.

I thought, ‘That’s so interesting.'”

“There was a lot of questioning: ‘Am I doing something wrong?

Am I not serving the character?

Am I not serving the story?'”

Gunn’s co-stars were surprised and dismayed by such fan response.

“Why did our audience not sympathize with this poor woman?

“Aaron Paul(Jesse) says to EW.

“We didn’t see this happening,” seconds Cranston.

It baffled me from an objective standpoint.”

(And Cranston remembers that hostility taking its toll on Gunn.

“It affected her deeply,” he says.

“Suddenly, lo and behold, we’re hearing this animus toward Skyler White.

To this day, it confounds me.

Anna Gunn gave such a brilliant performance.

We never tried for sympathy or lack of sympathy, we let the chips fall where they may.

I would change that if I had a magic wand.”

“It created a seismic shift and change in my life.

This is not about me, Anna Gunn, and it’s really not about Skyler.

It’s about the way people are connecting to him.

I was good at it.”

“When he makes that admission, I think that really did shift things enormously,” says Gunn.

That’s the brilliance of his journey.”

The passing of timenot to mention, general wokenesshas also deepened and evolved perspective.

That’s incredibly gratifying.

It’s men and women who connect with that.