RJ Mitte, 22, played Walter and Skyler’s White’s teenage son, Walter White Jr, on Breaking Bad. This year he had a guest spot on ABC Family’s Switched at Birth, and he’s also working on a film, Who’s Driving Doug, with Daphne Zuniga. I’m looking forward to his next career move as he’s an excellent actor.

Mitte has cerebral palsy, and he’s become one of the few actors with a disability on television. In a new interview with the Huffington Post, he explained that the character was written with cerebral palsy, and that it wasn’t something that was added after he was found for the part. He said that the role was written by showrunner Vince Gillian “in memory of a friend he had in college,” and that the character “practically described me.” He also detailed how he was bullied as a child, but learned to pity the kids who hurt him. It was a fascinating interview and I’m glad I got the chance to see it. Here’s more, from The Huffington Post, and you can see the video on their site:

On if being on TV has raised awareness of CP
At the end of the day, there’s not a lot of characters on television with disabilities… About 4% of characters actually have a disability that are on television. I’m one of, I think like 7, that are actually working in this industry. I try to bring awareness not just to CP but to all disabilities. It’s just knowledge. My disability gave me so much knowledge that I was able to bring into Breaking Bad… this is real, people live with it and people should see it.

On what having CP taught him
It taught me what this world’s really like… When I’m walking, you’ll never know I have a disability. The only way is if I talk or if I do something with my hands, and someone notices… It taught me pain. I had to go through a lot of different procedures… all these types of things where they wanted to cut into me, put rods into tendons.

They showed a clip from BB where kids mocked him and asked if that happened to him IRL
In different ways. I had kids that would make fun of my braces… push me and shove me. I had my hand broken. But the thing about it is, it’s not uncommon. My disability just makes [me] me of a target, but at the end of the day everyone deals with this… this is everyone, this is life, this is what people deal with.

On how his friends and family looked out for him
Being from Louisiana and Texas my family and friends were very loud and were not shy to voice their opinion. I was lucky enough that I had those. I tried to set the example that everyone can stand up for themselves… it taught me to show pity to bullies… whatever they’re going through, I feel bad for them because they’ll never learn. People like that never grow. One day someone bigger is going to come around and they’ll learn but by then it’s too late.

I used that as motivation. [To get out of my crutches]

[From Video on Huffington Post]

Mitte described some of the procedures he had to go through as a kid to be able to walk on his feet instead of his toes and it sounded awful. He said “you learn to adapt.”

That was one of the better celebrity interviews I’ve heard. I don’t want to say it was “inspiring,” because I doubt Mitte wants anyone to see him that way. He said that everyone deals with crap in life, and he even said that everyone has a disability in some way. A while ago I saw a Ted Talk that changed my outlook on people with disabilities. The speaker, Stella Young, humorously mocked the tendency to make memes and inspirational images out of disabled people doing things, and said she didn’t see herself that way and didn’t want others to view her as an inspiration. I get the sense that Mitte is the same, and that he’s just doing his thing. He’s a skilled actor and I’d like to see him in another big role soon.

photo credit: WENN.com and FameFlynet