Rian Johnson Looks Back on Directing 'Ozymandias'

[JamesG]

Years before you made "Poker Face", you directed a few hours of TV as a hired gun, including a "Terriers" episode, and three "Breaking Bad" episodes, one of which — “Ozymandias,” the one that begins with Walt, Jesse, and Hank in the desert with the neo-Nazis — is considered by many to be the best episode of dramatic TV ever made.

What was that like?

It was bliss. To not have to write? To just be handed a great script by Moira Walley-Beckett, or Sam Catlin? Leslye Headland wrote the "Terriers" episode I did. I genuinely loved it, but I was also being handed some of the best scripts ever written for television.





What was your reaction when you first read the “Ozymandias” script?

“Holy ****!” Both in terms of what happens in the script, but also, “Are you sure Vince [Gilligan, creator and sometime director] doesn’t want to do this one?” I was very shocked. I felt like I had been handed a massive amount of responsibility. I knew what this was in terms of the series, and I really wanted to get it right for them.





We could talk all day about all the things that happen in that one, so let’s stick to one sequence. What do you remember about the scenes at Walt’s house — both the fight with Skylar and then him driving away with the baby?

I planned it out very, very carefully, because of the stunt work, and blocked it out with everybody. We had talked it out with Moira, the big emotional beats that we wanted to hit. The big moment for me is when Skylar says, “No.” The moment of getting the blocking right so she’s stopping Walter Jr. and putting her hand out, or reaching for the knife instead of the phone. They were born out of things on the page that jumped out as, “Those are big things, and I want to carve them out.”

On a TV schedule, you have to really pick your battles. So there aren’t things you can find on the day you have to show up thinking, “We’re going to take the time to set the camera to 48 frames a second and get this little moment.”



But I remember having a lot of fun with the stunt stuff, I remember a lot of laughter and fun when we were shooting that. You kind of have to, when you’re doing something that heavy. But the opposite of that is, when you’re outside, there were some logistics with the car. The big thing was the moment with Anna [Gunn, Skylar] when she comes out and has her breakdown. That, for me, was just incredible to see Anna get to that place, and accomplish it.

There was a freak hailstorm when we were shooting that, and we had to wait for the hail to end before we could shoot this thing. And Anna was in a holding room, on ice, which is hard for an actor. And she had to build herself back up. It’s one of those rare things where, as a director, to witness an artist do that, and see the finished result of it, it was amazing.

https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movi...ut-1235379849/