Sharon Bialy, Casting Director of 'Breaking Bad', Remembers RJ Mitte

Bialy reflects on the audition, charisma and legacy of the actor with cerebral palsy whom she and her life partner, Shari Thomas, brought to Vince Gilligan's attention. He died on October 12 at age 34.

Sharon Bialy of Bialy/Thomas & Associates is a respected and Emmy Award-winning casting director, perhaps best known for Breaking Bad, but has also helmed many other high-profile projects, including The Walking Dead, The Handmaid's Tale, Barry, Dead to Me and Pluribus. Below, he pays tribute to actor RJ Mitte, who died on October 12 at the age of 34.

The first time I met RJ Mitte was when he auditioned for the role of Walt Jr. on Breaking Bad.

Vince Gilligan wrote the character as having cerebral palsy because his college roommate had the condition and wanted to pay tribute to him. My partner, Sherry Thomas, and I, and Vince and his producers, Melissa Bernstein and Mark Johnson, were very adamant that we only cast the role with someone who had CP.

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We had never searched for an actor with cerebral palsy and knew we had to search the entire country. We couldn't just do the standard posts because we wanted to explain what we were doing in the segment and the show—that a couple had a son who had cerebral palsy, but it hadn't really been talked about. We reached out to cerebral palsy organizations across the country, as well as local schools and nonprofits that support people with disabilities.

I've been taking notes on my sessions with the cast for everything I've done, and I just found my notes for Breaking Bad. It was February 23, 2007 when RJ auditioned. He was 14 at the time, so he came with his mother. At that time, he was recruited by a small agency. He might have done one or two commercial auditions, but he was very green, so we spent a lot of time working together on stage because he hadn't gotten a chance to do a role this big.

It didn't matter that he hadn't done anything before, because he was so happy and content to be there. He was fully prepared for the stage and after the audition he was willing to talk about the difficulties he has had to deal with as a person with cerebral palsy. He has had years of physical therapy to be able to walk without crutches and years of speech therapy to be understood. We filled Vince in on his personal history.

We ended up seeing almost 20 actors and whittled it down to two. We took both RJ and the other actor to New Mexico because Vince was already there in pre-production, so they both sang with Bryan Cranston and Anna Gunn. After that, there was a lot of discussion because it wasn't a question of one actor being better than the other - they were completely different from each other and a lot was taken into account.

I felt strongly about RJ for several reasons. One advantage was that he was very good-looking. I remember saying to Vince, "How great would it be if he was on the cover of Teen Beat magazine, a young actor with cerebral palsy?" Maybe the other actor is a little harder to understand. Vince's writing was beautiful and we wanted to make sure the audience would be able to hear all the dialogue. Finally, Vince told RJ straight up that the part was his. But we also called RJ and his mom to celebrate.

Over the years, we stayed in touch with RJ as much as we could. Because Breaking Bad was filmed on location in New Mexico, we didn't spend a lot of time on set. I would see him when we went to New Mexico, but most of our interactions were at Amy's parties and things like that. And during a hiatus from the show, we picked him up for a guest spot on the Vegas TV show. When Sherry and I were honored with the Media Access Award for Fostering Opportunities for Actors with Disabilities in 2011, and RJ presented it to us, it was incredibly meaningful.

We didn't get to spend as much time with him as the rest of the newly heartbroken Breaking Bad family, but we did get to know him and love him enough. The fact that he died came as a surprise to many of us. But given how hard life is for all actors today, I can only imagine how much harder it must have been for an actor with a disability, especially one who went from being a regular on an amazing show with amazing people, to having to go back out there and fight. And nail it again so you can do what you love.

When people think of RJ, I hope they remember how talented he was, how he overcame so many struggles, how he approached everything with joy and fearlessness, and how he advocated for people with disabilities to be considered for a variety of roles. I know I will remember all of this and her million megawatt smile.

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