On Saturday, the best and most creative minds in film, television, and radio writing were honoured at the 77th Writers Guild of America Awards. Among the winners was Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan, who was honoured with the Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Writing Achievement, presented to him by his Better Call Saul collaborator, actress Rhea Seehorn.
While receiving the award, Gilligan, immensely acclaimed for his writing and showrunning duties on Breaking Bad and its spin-off Better Call Saul, made an interesting speech, as reported by Deadline. For someone who created one of the most popular "bad" guys in television history — Walter White, played by Bryan Cranston — Gilligan's shift in perspective on writing morally grey or 'bad' characters would make for an interesting topic of debate.
He said: “We are living in an era where bad guys, the real-life kind, are running the market. Bad guys who make their own rules. Bad guys who, no matter what they tell you, are only out for themselves. Who am I talking about? Well, this is Hollywood, so guess. But here’s the weird irony in our profoundly divided country, everybody seems to agree on one thing; there are too many real-life bad guys. We’re living in different realities, so we’ve all got different lists.”
A winner of multiple Emmy and WGA awards, Gilligan now wants writers to "write more good guys", adding that for decades, creators have been making villains "too sexy" and that people tend to idolise them. “I really think that when we create characters as indelible as Michael Corleone, Hannibal Lecter, Darth Vader or Tony Soprano, viewers everywhere, all over the world, they pay attention and say, ‘Those dudes are badass, I want to be that cool’. When that happens, that’s when bad guys stop being the cautionary tales that they were intended to be. They [instead] become aspirational. So maybe what the world needs now are some good old fashioned, greatest generation types who give more than they take.”
Gilligan seems to be hinting that he, too, has changed gears in his eagerly anticipated new series for Apple TV+, described as "psychological sci-fi". The show, presumably one along the lines of the original The Twilight Zone or The X-Files, has Rhea Seehorn playing, according to Gilligan, a "good guy."
The territory is not new for Gilligan as he previously dabbled in sci-fi and fantasy in shows such as The X-Files and the Will Smith movie Hancock.
Seehorn expressed excitement about bringing the show to viewers worldwide. “Some of the stuff that audiences have loved about his writing where it’s really rich characters but also him playing with the idea of tropes and genres and tone, and switching, like injected humour in a very dark moment — in this new show, he pushes that to a limit that was both very thought-provoking and upsetting sometimes, and other times, so, so funny. It really swings for the fences. I had so much fun,” she said.