Breaking Bad’s Anna Gunn says that people’s opinions on Skyler White have changed over the years.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Gunn reflected on how the public opinion of Skyler has changed as the years go on.
What did Anna Gunn say about Skyler White?
“For a while, I really wasn’t aware of what was going on online until people started letting me know. And then, of course, I thought, ‘Well, what is this that they’re saying? I will look into that,’ which was probably a mistake. But it’s a mistake that led to a great deal of soul searching and me thinking, ‘Well, is it me?’ And I think the writers went through the same thing: ‘Is it the way we’ve written her?’ Vince would sometimes say, ‘My gosh, no matter what we do with Walt, no matter how bad he breaks, people are still going, ‘Yay!’ They’re still in his corner and they’re still behind him.’ So I really just had to go through that ring of fire, for lack of a better phrase, to understand that a lot of it was, frankly, misogynistic. A lot of it was the way that female characters were treated, and I think we’ve come a long way since then.”
She continued, “Sometimes, the comments could turn threatening or violent, and that concerned me. So I just didn’t want to feel bullied by all that, and I felt that it was my responsibility to stand up and answer to it, which is what I did. And now, when people come up to me, it’s incredibly different because of all the seismic changes that have happened. There’s still a long way to go, but we really have made seismic changes since then. So people come up to me now and say, ‘You were the linchpin for me. You were the conscience of the show. You were what pulled me into the show.’ Or they say, ‘The first time I watched it, I hated that character. But the second time I watched it, I realized, ‘Oh my God, that poor woman.’”
Gunn played Skyler, the wife of Walter White (Bryan Cranston), for all five seasons of Breaking Bad, which premiered in 2008 and concluded its run in 2013.
All five seasons of Breaking Bad are currently streaming on Netflix.
