Paul

Calm down it's just a TV show

Vince Gilligan has said numerous times that Bryan Cranston was his choice for Walter White because he needed an actor that could play a bad guy but yet remain at least a little sympathetic to the audience.

Here's what he said:

"That's interesting. It's super important to me that people stay interested in Walt. It's not quite as important to me that people continue to root for him. That may sound kind of like splitting hairs, but this show is something of an experiment in that we're taking our good guy and turning him into a bad guy throughout the course of the series. To that end, if we're going to be truthful to that mandate ... and we're going to be courageous about it, then what we need to do is continue to travel that path regardless of the outcome, regardless of the consequences.

"It seems to me that our fans are not monolithic; they don't think with one group mind. They all have different thresholds of tolerance for Walt's bad behavior. And probably a few folks here and there -- knock on wood, I hope not too many -- but a few have probably tuned out already. They say, 'I can't get behind this guy anymore, I can't root for him.' But other folks hopefully still can root for him, and still others I hope would say, 'You know what? He's kind of a real bastard now, and he threatens to get worse still, but he's still interesting.' All that really matters to me at the end of the day is that he remains interesting, remains an interesting character study. So that's what I'm hoping."