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Aaron Paul On His Immersive Audible Project ‘The Coldest Case’ And Whether He’d Return To ‘Breaking Bad’

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You can take the crime drama out of the man, but you can’t take the man out of the crime drama. Breaking Bad vet Aaron Paul returns to the seedy underworld of felonious acts in The Coldest Case, an immersive audio experience from Audible.

Serving as a prequel to James Patterson and David Ellis’s 2017 novel, The Black Book, The Coldest Case (on sale tomorrow) stars Paul as Detective Billy Harney, a Chicago cop investigating a drug ring alongside his sister, Detective Patti Harney (Jessica Jones’ Krysten Ritter).

“When I initially started working in this business, I was always the guy they thought was the bad guy in those hour crime dramas who ended up not being the bad guy,” Paul says during a phone interview with Forbes Entertainment. “And so, when I read this, it was kind of nice to be on the other side of the interrogation table.”

He explains that Audible’s initial pitch was: “‘Look, this is gonna be an immersive experience for the listener. We’re really gonna take these people on a journey, on a ride, and tell a crazy, messed up story.’”

For months, Billy’s partner, Kate (Game of Thrones’ Nathalie Emmanuel), has been infiltrating the cartel, but things go sideways when several of its members turn up dead, Kate’s cover is blown, and a key informant goes missing. This chain of events kicks off a deadly race to recover an incriminating ledger known as a “black book,” which plunges Billy and Patti into a dangerous web of conspiracy.

The project marks a joyous reunion for Paul and Ritter, who previously played girlfriend and boyfriend in Season 2 of Breaking Bad. The two have stayed in touch over the years, but weren’t able to record their Coldest Case lines together due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It was obviously very sad that we weren’t able to play off of one another, but I’m excited to hear how it all comes together,” Paul says. “That’s what we did with BoJack Horseman — we never recorded together, but it always turned out pretty good, so I’m excited to dive in [as a listener].”

When asked if he finds it ironic that he and Ritter went from lovers to siblings, the actor quips: “I think that’s kind of like the natural progression.”

“Yeah, it is pretty funny,” he continues. “I had a similar thing with Michelle Monaghan, who is a dear friend of mine. We started out as brother and sister in Mission: Impossible [III] and then we became husband and wife in The Path. It’s nice to mix things up.”

While Ritter is now synonymous with another famous detective, Marvel’s Jessica Jones, Paul didn’t ask her for any crime-solving tips.

“She just kept everything very close to her chest. She didn’t wanna let me know any of her secrets,” he jokes again. “No, I’m kidding. I didn’t ask her much about that, but we did have such a great time doing this thing.”

Despite not getting any advice from one of the Defenders, Paul was still able to crack the character of Billy, describing him as someone who “trusts his instincts.”

“Sometimes, maybe he’s slapped in the face and proven wrong a little bit, but he tends to lean into his instincts and just runs with it,” the actor continues. “He likes to play around with it. Obviously, he takes himself super serious, but he enjoys doing it. He just loves it and that’s how I tackled it. I wanted to make sure that he was professional, but [also] likes to f*** around with it a little bit.”

Harney is pretty much the polar opposite of Paul’s BoJack character, slacker roommate Todd.

“Usually, the voiceover stuff that I do is playful and light. This was a lot of screaming and running and yelling,” Paul says. “There’s also some humor in it as well, so I would say that this was a lot more exhausting than some of the other voiceover stuff that I had been a part of, emotionally ... Any time that you’re in a room by yourself and you have to jog in place and act out of breath or you’re screaming at the void, is hilarious. You can’t help but stop and laugh at yourself during it ...  They really wanted to be creative with it and utilize that sound design and, again, really take people on a journey.”

Over the last 5-6 years, the field of immersive, audio-based storytelling has exploded via platforms like Serial Box and Audible.

Their original, high-end productions harken back to the pre-television days of radio dramas when everything was given to the audience, except the visuals. That most crucial part of the experience was left up to one’s imagination. Paul counts himself a fan of the sonic space ever since getting into Sarah Koenig’s Serial podcast.

“When I dove into that, I was like, ‘Oh my God, I didn’t realize that audio storytelling could really take you on such an insane ride,’” he says. “You could do it while you’re driving, you could it while you’re hiking, you could do it while you’re running. That’s what’s really exciting ... I think Audible gives the public an opportunity to plug and play. Like, ‘You know what? I’ve always wanted to read a book, but it’s a little scary. So, let me just go on a hike and press play and just be taken on a journey.’”

Of course, no interview with Aaron Paul would be complete without a quick discussion on Breaking Bad. The actor reprised the role of Jesse Pinkman one last time in 2019’s El Camino, a Netflix film that served as a direct follow-up to the series finale. The movie ended with Jesse wrapping up his unfinished business in Albuquerque and heading for a new life in Alaska (courtesy of Robert Forster’s vacuum salesman).

“I think it’s done. I really do,” Paul says when asked if he’d return to the show’s iconic universe. “I think the one unanswered question from Breaking Bad was, ‘What happened to Jesse?’ And you get all of those answers in El Camino. So, I can’t imagine him coming back. Maybe [it’ll happen] in [Better Call] Saul, but to be totally honest, I love that show, I’m obsessed with it, and I don’t understand a world [where] he would come back. I don’t know.”

A prequel companion to Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul is set to conclude with its sixth season, which starts shooting this month. As Bob Odenkirk’s Jimmy McGill inches ever closer to the sleazy lawyer we know and love in the flagship series, there is a chance that he could somehow brush shoulders with his future, meth-cooking clients.

“I know they’re not gonna just throw in Walt and Jesse just to do it,” Paul says of Saul masterminds, Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould. “It has to make sense and it’s gotta be honest. It can’t be gimmicky and out of left field and seem cheesy at all. But if anyone’s gonna figure out a way to do it, it’s them, so if they came knocking on my door, of course. Vince gave me my career and everything I have, so I would follow him into a burning bush, that’s for sure.”

The Coldest Case goes on sale from Audible tomorrow — Thursday, March 11. Beau Bridges (Mr. Mayor) and Mark-Paul Gosselaar (Saved by the Bell) round out the voice cast.

“If you’re a James Patterson fan, you’re expecting a high adrenaline rush, twists and turns at every corner, and you’re definitely gonna get that,” finishes Paul. “Not to give anything away, but I think that the listener’s gonna be convinced that they’ve solved the case themselves multiple times, but they really have no idea what the hell is going on, which is really exciting any audience member.”

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