The Gossip Girl Star Who Almost Played Breaking Bad's Jesse Pinkman

It's difficult to imagine anyone besides Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman, but it's not impossible: At one point, Penn Badgley was able to imagine himself as the staple "Breaking Bad" character.

The "Gossip Girl" and "You" star reportedly came pretty close to usurping Paul during the casting process, which could've permanently associated Badgley's career with the unlikely moral center of "Breaking Bad" and his signature overuse of the B-word.

Badgley told THR in 2023 that Jesse was "the one that got away" and reflected on his "Breaking Bad" audition during a 2025 appearance on the "Not Skinny Not Fat" podcast with Amanda Hirsch. "To that day, it was far and away the best and most compelling television script I ever read," he said. According to Badgley, he and Paul were the two actors who tested, and Badgley felt quite confident about landing the role, calling it "one of three auditions ever that I thought, 'I'm gonna get this.' And I didn't."

After missing out on the "Breaking Bad" pilot, Badgley turned down "Gossip Girl" before changing his mind. He acknowledged that the network TV teen drama raised his profile, but he also recalled his initial reluctance. "What you do is you sign your life away for six years, possibly more," he told Hirsch. "A television contract is a big commitment. ... It's hard to get on a show like that; it's harder to get on a show and then get off a show like that."