RJ Mitte shared a final Instagram Story promoting his new film just hours before he was found dead at age 34.
The ‘Breaking Bad’ actor, who played Walter White Jr. Across all five seasons of the AMC drama, died Monday, October 12, at a Brownsville, Texas address believed to be his residence. He was discovered unresponsive around 1:30 p.m. That afternoon, according to reports.
In his last social media post, Mitte had shared promotional material for ‘One Eye Open,’ an independent thriller in which he starred. The film, which follows a recent college graduate stalked by burglars who are themselves hunted by a supernatural entity, is scheduled to premiere in U.S. Cinemas Friday, October 16.
Mitte’s final grid post on the platform was a clip from his last recorded interview, conducted just two weeks before his death. He sat down with the Joe Vulpis Podcast on October 5 to reflect on his time in ‘Breaking Bad’ alongside Bryan Cranston and the show’s lasting impact on his life.
“You know, back then we really didn’t realize how impactful the show was going to be,” Mitte said during the interview. “And you know, I spent my teenage life in Breaking Bad.”
The actor also spoke candidly about the difficulty of watching his own performances, admitting that self-criticism would send him into a spiral.
“I find for me it doesn’t help me,” he said. “I dwell in it. I’m someone that when I mess up or like something happens, I dwell and I spiral. Where it’s like, what could I have done differently? How could I have done that differently?”
Mitte singled out one scene as particularly challenging: Walter Jr.’s final phone call with his father, the last time the two characters speak in the series.
“I really think for me one of the most complicated scenes that I’ve had to do was that final phone call… It’s the last time he talks to him. In reality, I didn’t understand it as much as I do now,” he said.
“But I still had a lot of pressure and felt a lot of pressure in trying to make sure that was right. And where it set, and the tones, and the confusion, and the different levels of that.”
He continued, breaking down the emotional layers he aimed to capture in the performance.
“Because he’s now hearing this in his school. He’s hearing it from people. He’s been stained by this reputation of Heisenberg. And it’s like, I don’t know who Heisenberg is.”
“Wait, that’s my dad. That’s my father, and he killed my uncle. Like he’s a murderer.”
“And so that realization for him was something that I really wanted to make sure that I met those criteria. And you know, listening to the directors, listening to Vince [Gilligan], and really Bryan [Cranston] was there that day as well.”
Looking beyond the series finale, Mitte offered a bleak assessment of what likely awaited Walter Jr., Skyler White, and baby Holly after the cameras stopped rolling. He pushed back against fan hopes for any kind of happy ending for the family.
“I really don’t see Skyler, Walt Jr and Holly are in the best position now,” he said. “I would like to think what everyone wants: Walt Jr got the money and Walt Jr is following in the footsteps and all these things.”
“In reality, I see it more like a sadness and a despair, and that they don’t get the money.”
He elaborated on the legal reality he imagined for the characters.
“Because you know when DEA comes in, especially to a man like Walter White, like Heisenberg, who isn’t just some small nobody but a global distributor destroying millions of lives, they don’t just let the family go.”
“They don’t just go, ‘Okay, well he’s dead, or he’s gone. Y’all have a great life now’. It’s like, no, you’re under lock and key. They’re watching you. They’re making sure that none of his aliases come back.”
Despite the darkness of the material, Mitte maintained that his involvement in the series was fundamentally transformative.
“Truly a life-changing” experience, he called it.
‘One Eye Open’ arrives in theaters October 16.