Vince Gilligan created one of the most iconic antiheroes of all time: “Breaking Bad” baddie Walter White, as played by Bryan Cranston. But Gilligan created the chemistry teacher-turned-meth-dealing-Heisenberg as a cautionary tale, not someone to aspire to. With so many bad actors now in power in real life, Gilligan says it’s perhaps time to shine the light once again on the good guys.
Accepting the Writers Guild Award’s top writing honor, the Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Writing Achievement, Gilligan told the audience that he really hopes that the next generation of hit TV shows returns to a bit more of an aspirational world where the heroes are good.
“Walter White is one of the all time great bad guys,” Gilligan said. “But all things being equal, I think we I’d rather be celebrated for creating someone a bit more inspiring. In 2025 it’s time to say that out loud, because we are living in an era where bad guys, the real life kind, are running amok. Bad guys who make their own rules, bad guys who, no matter what they tell you, are really out for themselves. Who am I talking about? Well, this is Hollywood, so guess.”
Gilligan admits that the “bad guys” in pop culture have become too appealing — and that has perhaps been sending the wrong message. “I really think that, when we create characters as indelible as Michael Corleone or Hannibal Lecter or Darth Vader or Tony Soprano, viewers everywhere, all around the world, they pay attention,” he said. “They say, ‘Man, those dudes are badass. I want to be that cool.’ When that happens, fictional bad guys stop being the cautionary player that they were created to be. God help us, they’ve become aspirational. So maybe what the world needs now are some good, old fashioned, Greatest Generation types who give more than they take. Who think that kindness, tolerance and sacrifice aren’t strictly for chumps.”
On stage, Gilligan also let slip that in his upcoming Apple TV+ series — which is wrapping production in Albuquerque, the lead character (played by “Better Call Saul” star Rhea Seehorn) is indeed a “good guy.” Gilligan and Seehorn have been tightlipped about the sci-fi series. “Rhea is such a good person, it’s hard to picture her as a villain,” Gilligan said.
Later, Gilligan told Variety that he decided to take a stand during his speech despite members of his family suggesting that he not go political. “I don’t go political,” Gilligan said. “I’ve never done it in my life at one of these things.”
But, he said he couldn’t resist speaking out after seeing what has been happening in the country, and how it’s been happening so quickly.
“I had to talk about the idea of we have to start celebrating heroes again, good people again,” he said. The idea of “Breaking Bad” was inspired by the white hat/black hat stories he saw on TV as a kid — and what it might be like to do a story about a gray hat, “something that would more mirror reality. People are not always good, nor are they always bad.
“But as the years have gone on, we’ve got more and more shows and movies and novels and stories of all kinds where the point got missed somewhere,” he said. “The bad guys should be more of a cautionary tale than aspirational. It’s just starting to feel that way. If you have enough stories with bad guys in it, who are we supposed to root for? I really think we have a lot of power as writers and as actors, as storytellers, artists, to show the world in a way that it either is like that, or it could be like that. What kind of world you want to live in? The closer I get to mortality, I think, as much as I’m proud of Walter White, is that the thing you want first on your tombstone?”
Here is a portion of Gilligan’s WGA speech:
Tonight, I’d like to thank a whole bunch of people by name, people who made me who I am, people who made my life better, hundreds of people, especially the ones I worked with on ‘Breaking Bad,’ ‘Better Call Saul,’ ‘The X-Files.’ However, that’d be the worst kind of speech an award winning writer could give. So instead, I’ll go political, thereby upping my game over the second kind of worst speech.
Obviously, I’m here because of ‘Breaking Bad’ and Walter White. I’m proud of that character, and I’m proud of that show. Walter White was brilliantly played by Brian Cranston. It was brilliantly written by Peter Gould, George Mastras, Moira Wally-Beckett, Sam Catlin, Tom Schnauz and Gennifer Hutchinson — I think I left out one or two people.
Walter White, because of the work they did, he’s one of the all time great bad guys. But all things being equal, I think we I’d rather be celebrated for creating someone a bit more inspiring. In 2025 it’s time to say that out loud, because we are living in an era where bad guys, the real life kind, are running amok.
Bad guys who make their own rules, bad guys who, no matter what they tell you, are really 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. It’s just that we’re living in different realities. There’s no simple answer for how we might change that. Though, if it were, I bet it would have something to do with climbing up out of the cess pool of social media and actually listening to each other.
But I don’t know how to make that happen, so I’ll stick to my wheelhouse. As a writer, speaking to a room full of writers, I have a proposal. It certainly won’t fix everything, but it’s needed to start. I say we write more good guys.
For decades, we made the villains too sexy. I really think that. When we create characters as indelible as Michael Corleone or Hannibal Lecter or Darth Vader or Tony Soprano, viewers everywhere, all around the world, they pay attention. They say, ‘Man, those dudes are badass. I want to be that cool.’ When that happens, fictional bad guys stop being the cautionary player that they were created to be. God help us, they become aspirational. So maybe what the world needs now are some good, old fashioned, Greatest Generation types who give more than they take.Who think that kindness, tolerance and sacrifice aren’t strictly for chumps.
By way of example, I look at the men and women who risked their lives putting out the recent fires in Southern California. Or the ones who gave so much of themselves feeding and sheltering the victims of those fires. Wasn’t it nice hearing about actual heroes for a change?
Now I’m not telling you how to do your business. All you folks in this room, write what you believe in always. Write what excites you. But if you have been casting about trying to figure out your next project, maybe give this some thought. Bad guys are fun, I will grant you, and they’re easier to write well. But we could use a few George Baileys and Andy Taylors. I think characters like that made our country a little bit better than some other tough times in our history. If I had created them, I’d be proud indeed.
[Gives thanks to cast and crew from his shows]
Finally, I’d like to dedicate this award to my dad, George Gilligan, and to my uncle Gary Lambert, both of whom passed away last month. One of them hated his guts. And none of that matters. Now, if ever even, did I miss them both equally. Thank you.
