Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul nearly starred in two of the best Christopher Nolan movies

Aaron Paul made his name as Jesse Pinkman in Breaking Bad, but he almost starred in two of the best Christopher Nolan movies.

The actor won three Emmy awards over a decade ago for playing drug dealer Pinkman in Vince Gilligan’s crime drama, which has been widely praised as one of the best TV shows of all time.

The show, which ran for five seasons and a movie, propelled Paul’s career and led to further roles in Need For Speed, BoJack Horseman, Black Mirror, and Westworld.

But he nearly landed roles in two movies for Nolan, which is a tantalizing idea.

Aaron Paul nearly appeared in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy and Interstellar

When Breaking Bad was still airing and at the peak of its fame, Paul nearly starred in both the Dark Knight trilogy and Interstellar, but missed out due to scheduling conflicts.

“I sat down with Christopher Nolan on another project. This was years ago,” he told ScreenRant, “I think it was for Interstellar, but I was offered a very small role – you’re literally just reminding me of this – in one of the Batman movies he was doing.”

“I was literally shooting another project, and I couldn’t do it. It was a tiny, tiny, tiny role – but I don’t care.”

Scheduling was to blame, but it’s clear that Paul was honored to even be considered to work with Nolan, particularly on one of the Batman movies.

He added: “I love Batman. I think Batman’s probably my favorite, because he’s kind of a real guy, right? He’s just the guy with a lot of money and a lot of toys, and he’s not messing around.”

The star didn’t reveal which character he was in line for, but it sounds like one of the supporting cast rather than as a main player. He also joked that rewatching The Dark Knight recently made him reminisce about that time. “I was like, ‘Ah, it would have just been so cool to just be in 30 seconds of one of those movies.'”