Breaking Bad's Intervention Scene Holds A Big Place In Betsy Brandt's Memory
Few shows have had the enduring influence and legacy that "Breaking Bad" has. Like "The Sopranos" and "The Shield" before it, and dozens of shows since, the series anchored itself in following the moral descent of its main characters and how they reckoned with their transformation.
One of the few characters who was lucky enough to come out relatively unscathed at the tail end of "Breaking Bad" was Marie Schrader (Betsy Brandt). Though she lost her husband, DEA Agent Hank Schrader (Dean Norris), to the ravages of the drug world, she lived to fight another day, even showing up in the final episode of the prequel/sequel series, "Better Call Saul."
Still, to hear it from Brandt herself, she felt the magic behind "Breaking Bad" long before any of those key moments in the show's timeline. In fact, Brandt points all the way back to a scene from Season 1 of the series when she talks about first feeling that magic.
Brandt loved the synergy between the actors in the scene
Betsy Brandt joined Collider for one of its Ladies Nights conversations. The actor recalled the first time she realized what an incredible cast she was working with in Season 1 of "Breaking Bad." "The first time I felt like, 'Oh my God, I could live with them forever' was the intervention scene, the talking pillow," Brandt recalled.
Fans will remember the scene as the moment when Walt's (Bryan Cranston) family tries to talk him into getting chemotherapy following his lung cancer diagnosis. The scene is an early example of how masterfully the writers of the AMC crime drama were able to weave back and forth between comedy and drama.
"It was like it was contagious, and it just worked so well. It was as if we'd been working together for years and had rehearsed this," Brandt went on. "There was just such a rhythm we had, and it was so special. You felt the crew feel it, and everyone was just so excited."
It definitely sounds like this early moment from "Breaking Bad" gave a lot of the members of the cast and crew behind the series their first indication of the lightning in a bottle that they'd captured with the AMC hit. Of course, for fans, this was just the beginning of the incredible ride that the series would take them on.