Prior to his death, Breaking Bad actor RJ Mitte advocated for disability rights and representation in the media. During various interviews, he spoke about the importance of people with disabilities having more opportunities in the entertainment industry. Some of his messages reveal that, at times, he was frustrated by the opportunities (or lack thereof) that were available to him as an actor with cerebral palsy.
Mitte died by suicide on October 12. He was 34 years old.
His private messages suggest that he struggled to find work at times.
Mitte started portraying Walter White Jr. on Breaking Bad when he was a teenager. He was on the show for all five seasons. In the years that followed, however, it seems that he struggled to find the kinds of roles he wanted.
In a message allegedly sent in 2017, he wrote, “When I go for a part, they sometimes tell me that it’s not a character with a disability, and I’m like why can’t the character be disabled? They get real uncomfortable when I say that.”
He expressed similar frustrations years later, in 2022, when he vented about the lack of meaningful roles offered to him. “Looking for interesting stuff to do, getting a lot of scripts where I would be a prop and they don’t want to give any depth, 3 lines if that,” he wrote at the time. “I’m writing my own s— now.”
A few months after that, he mentioned doing more animation work because “no one wants me on screen.”
During a 2015 interview, he addressed concerns about getting “stereotyped.”
He admitted that this was a concern he had, but he also described being selective about the roles he took on. “I find a lot of people always ask, ‘Are you afraid of being stereotyped?'” he said during an interview with ABC News (Australia). “… And yes, you do get stereotyped.”
“But you choose to accept roles that people are trying to stereotype you in further,” he explained. “I don’t accept those roles. I accept the roles that I believe can affect change of the mindset of what we are able to do.”
He also spoke about able-bodied actors playing disabled characters.
The interviewer then asked Mitte about disability representation and how he felt about able-bodied actors portraying characters who are disabled. Mitte said it was a “gray area” for him.
“I want people with disabilities to have more opportunity to be able to go into roles that represent them,” Mitte responded at the time. “But when it comes to an able-bodied (actor) playing a disabled character, I think it’s an amazing opportunity for that actor to be someone and see something that they won’t normally get to be a part of.”
He added that actors who portray disabled characters “have to study…learn that character and you have to understand that pain.” At the same time, he acknowledged that this level of research would never be enough for them to “fully understand” what it’s like.
“You’ll never fully understand what it’s like to have a disability,” he continued. “And not just physical or mental, but dealing with the surrounding environment of growing up with that disability. That’s almost impossible to describe unless you’ve been through it.”
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