Aaron Paul

All Is VANITIES...Nothing Is Fair

JUNE

2011

AGE: 31. PROVENANCE: Emmett, Idaho, THAT OMINOUS GAZE ... made him a natural for protagonist roles in angsty, hard-rock music videos in the early oughts (see Korn, Everlast) and eventually helped him score the part of Jesse Pinkman, master chef of meth on AMC's critical and commercial hit Breaking Bad-for which he won a supporting-actor Emmy last year. (The show returns for its fourth season in July.) "It's funny" Paul says. "Now I'll get bombarded by people who, when they're breaking the ice, ask if I can hook them up with drugs " BUT IBTS SEPARATE TRUTH FROM AFFLICTION: Paul can also be seen as the deeply principled ex-Mormon Scott Quittman, opposite Amanda Seyfned, on HBO's Big Love, which just concluded its five-season run. "I think I'm kind of in between," he says, referring to his TV alter egos. "|'m not so straight and narrow like Scott, but I'm definitely not as messed up as Jesse." KEEPING IT DARK: Paul recently finished filming Michael Uppendahl's Right Angle, the "true story about a hotshot mortgage broker who dives drunk into a lake one night, shatters his neck, and becomes quadriplegic." It will be screening at festivals this fall.

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KRISTA SMITH