- Interviewer: One of the criticisms of Breaking Bad that keeps coming up is over the female characters. Skyler White is seen by some as this henpecking woman who stands in the way of all of Walt’s fun.
- Vince Gilligan: Man, I don’t see it that way at all. We’ve been at events and had all our actors up onstage, and people ask Anna Gunn, “Why is your character such a bitch?” And with the risk of painting with too broad a brush, I think the people who have these issues with the wives being too bitchy on Breaking Bad are misogynists, plain and simple. I like Skyler a little less now that she’s succumbed to Walt’s machinations, but in the early days she was the voice of morality on the show. She was the one telling him, “You can’t cook crystal meth.” She’s got a tough job being married to this asshole. And this, by the way, is why I should avoid the Internet at all costs. People are griping about Skyler White being too much of a killjoy to her meth-cooking, murdering husband? She’s telling him not to be a murderer and a guy who cooks drugs for kids. How could you have a problem with that?
“When your hero is not a nice person, and he's doing bad things, because he's your protagonist, if you're along for the ride, then you start to view things through his eyes. It's the nature of storytelling. You'll root for that person to succeed. And right now, Skyler gets in the way, on a purely mechanical level, of Walt's success and happiness and therefore we see her as an obstacle and we don't like for what she's doing. The funny thing is, I see Skyler as the hero and Walt as the bad guy. I love Walt! He's a great guy to write for, but he's kind of a monster when you think about it. He shouldn't be breaking into the house, trying to get back into her good graces when the things he's done and the lies he told really make him not the good guy. She's being heroic when she doesn't tell the police on him.”
—Vince Gilligan, answering a question about viewers not liking Skyler White
- Vulture: One of the criticisms of Breaking Bad that keeps coming up is over the female characters. Skyler White is seen by some as this henpecking woman who stands in the way of all of Walt’s fun.
- Vince Gilligan: Man, I don’t see it that way at all. We’ve been at events and had all our actors up onstage, and people ask Anna Gunn, “Why is your character such a bitch?” And with the risk of painting with too broad a brush, I think the people who have these issues with the wives being too bitchy on Breaking Bad are misogynists, plain and simple. I like Skyler a little less now that she’s succumbed to Walt’s machinations, but in the early days she was the voice of morality on the show. She was the one telling him, “You can’t cook crystal meth.” She’s got a tough job being married to this asshole. And this, by the way, is why I should avoid the Internet at all costs. People are griping about Skyler White being too much of a killjoy to her meth-cooking, murdering husband? She’s telling him not to be a murderer and a guy who cooks drugs for kids. How could you have a problem with that?
