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Aaron Paul Talks Breaking Bad, Need For Speed On Toucher & Rich

BOSTON (CBS) - Actor Aaron Paul's days of cooking with the mighty "Heisenberg" are over, but don't worry, he's found his way onto the big screen.

Paul, best known as Breaking Bad's Jesse Pinkman, was in Boston on Wednesday night for the premiere of his new movie Need For Speed, which opens March 14. He joined 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher & Rich on Thursday, and said he's enjoying his time in Boston.

"I am in Boston and am loving it. We had a screening of the film last night and I invited everyone to join me in 'Cheers,' and it was awesome," he said.

Paul didn't pick up the tab, but said he poured plenty of beers for fans, which he does in many of the cities he visits.

Paul moved to Los Angeles to begin his acting career when he was just 17, but didn't get his big break until Breaking Bad, which will go down as one of the best television shows of all-time. He knew it was going to be good as soon as he read the pilot, but he wasn't sure if a show about a high school chemistry teacher cooking meth would be a big hit with the network.

"Honestly when I read it it was the best thing I had ever read, but I wasn't confident AMC would pick up a show about a guy dying of cancer, so he decides cooking and selling crystal meth," he explained. "I thought the pilot was brilliant so I went for it. Bryan Cranston killed it."

The show went on to win 10 Primetime Emmys, including Best Drama in 2013, during its five-season run, and Paul won Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2010 and 2012.

Pretty impressive, considering Pinkman wasn't supposed to survive the first season.

"He was to die, but they changed that after we shot the pilot and before we started to shoot the series. They loved the dynamic between Walt and Jesse -- the chemistry that Bryan and I had," he explained. "So they decided to keep me around."

"I didn't even know that was the plan. Vince (Gilligan) called me over during a lunch during the first season, and told me the plan. I still hadn't read the final episode, so my heart started racing," he said. "I thought I was going to die, if not at the end of the first season the start of the second season for sure. But they decided to keep me around."

While he didn't reveal too much about the ending of Breaking Bad, Paul did admit that fans of the show had some pretty wild ideas on how the show would end. Many thought it would end with Cranston waking up as his character of Hal from Malcolm In The Middle, a clip that was actually made and is making its rounds on the internet.

Paul said that was one of the two wildest endings that fans of the show predicted.

"Some people thought Walt Jr. would go on a rampage and kill everyone, which is crazy," he said. "I would say those were the top two for sure."

Before he was famous for such simple phrases like "Yeah!," "Magnets," and "BITCH!," Paul was a contestant on The Price Is Right, which went viral when Jesse Pinkman became a household name.

"It looks like I'm on some serious crack," he joked. "I downed about six cans of red bull because I knew they wanted people with energy. It worked, but I could not sit still. It was not healthy."

Paul made it all the way to the Showcase Showdown, but didn't have much success.

"I bid on a Camaro and some other prizes, and was $132 over," he said.

As for Need For Speed, Paul is excited for a potential franchise of films.

"After I read the script it was such a fun, crazy ride," he said. "The director's vision was to do a throwback to the 60's, 70's car films -- the Steve McQueen era. A lot of people are going to compare it to Fast And Furious, but the only comparison is we have cars. I thought it was just a fun ride to jump around this country of ours in these exciting cars."

Paul also shared a touching story about a sick Breaking Bad fan, and talked about his early appearance on the original 90210:

Aaron Paul

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