BREAKING Bad star RJ Mitte made his final public appearance just days before he tragically passed away.
The actor, 34, smiled on the red carpet at the premiere of his new movie, Talking to Strangers, on September 30 in California.
RJ Mitte at the screening of “Talking To Strangers” at Fine Arts Theatre on September 30Credit: GettyRJ Mitte stared in Breaking Bad and died on MondayCredit: Getty
RJ, who played Walter White Jr. in the Emmy Award-winning show, died on Monday in Brownsville, Texas.
Announcing his passing, the actor’s representative told Deadline: “It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of beloved actor, philanthropist, and passionate disability rights advocate RJ Mitte.
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“Drawing from his own experience living with cerebral palsy, RJ brought authenticity to the role and built a platform on disability awareness and inclusion.”
RJ’s cause of death was not immediately disclosed, however, TMZ reported that he died by suicide.
RJ at the Beverly Hills event in late SeptemberCredit: GettyRJ photographed for Breaking Bad Season 5Credit: Alamy
His new movie tells the story of introvert with cerebral palsy who meets a vibrant force of nature who he goes on to form an unlikely and complicated friendship with.
Talking to Strangers is available to stream on Prime Video.
Just four days before his death, RJ posted to Facebook about the movie.
He wrote: “Had the pleasure of attending the LA premier for a film I made, Talking to Strangers The Movie, now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
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“It’s got a little love, some comedy, and maybe even some drama.”
Speaking on a podcast, RJ praised the film for “pushing social norms” and “stepping out of the realm of comfort”, pagesix reports.
He served as a proud celebrity ambassador for several organizations, including United Cerebral Palsy and Shriners Children’s.
Giving advice to young people with disabilities, he told Future of Personal Health: “My hope is to inspire a ‘never give up’ mentality.
“If there is something you want in life, pursue it no matter how hard it may be.
“Keep your dreams alive. Don’t lose sight of who you want to become.”
In Breaking Bad, his character also had cerebral palsy, although the actor’s real-life condition was milder compared to his character.
RJ played the son of Bryan Cranston and Anna Gunn’s characters on the hit crime drama.
He appeared in 56 episodes.
Last year the late actor got engaged to his girlfriend Kennedy Suarez after years of dating.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text Crisis Text Line at 741741.
How to get help
EVERY 90 minutes in the UK a life is lost to suicide It doesn’t discriminate, touching the lives of people in every corner of society – from the homeless and unemployed to builders and doctors, reality stars and footballers. It’s the biggest killer of people under the age of 35, more deadly than cancer and car crashes. And men are three times more likely to take their own life than women. Yet it’s rarely spoken of, a taboo that threatens to continue its deadly rampage unless we all stop and take notice, now. If you, or anyone you know, needs help dealing with mental health problems, the following organisations provide support: CALM, www.thecalmzone.net, 0800 585 858 Heads Together,www.headstogether.org.uk HUMEN www.wearehumen.org Mind, www.mind.org.uk, 0300 123 3393 Papyrus,www.papyrus-uk.org, 0800 068 41 41
And there have been, of course, prizes, including a Netflix movie, the Spanish maximalist melodrama “La Bola Negra,” winning Toronto’s People’s Choice Award. That’s a first for the streamer, which means we will again be asking the question: Can a Netflix film finally win the best picture Oscar?
If you’ve seen “The Odyssey,” you probably know the answer to that question. But with more than five months (!) until the 99th Academy Awards, it’s a bit early for ironclad guarantees, even if it feels like it would take the winds of Poseidon to blow “The Odyssey’s” best picture campaign off course.
But it’s not too soon to roll out a first set of Oscar power rankings for best picture. With apologies to “Obsession,” “Fjord,” “Possible Love,” “You Can See Everything,” “Elsinore,” and whatever other movies you love (or look forward to loving), let’s start counting.
10. ‘Tender Loving Care’
(Joseph Lynn / Thin Man Films / Bleecker Street)
Because of ongoing health issues, Mike Leigh has said that this warm and wrenching drama will be his last movie. If so, it’d be quite the capper to a career that has netted him seven Oscar nominations, five for his screenplays and two for direction. Yes, only one of his movies, “Secrets & Lies,” has been nominated for best picture. But “Tender Loving Care,” centered on two social service workers navigating the fraying social safety net and, in one case, anxiety about aging parents, possesses a bracing humanity full of compassion and urgency. It’s also quite funny. And it boasts a great cast, including newly minted Emmy winner Kate O’Flynn, as charming here as she is on “Widow’s Bay.” Leigh has more than earned a final curtain call with this one.
9. ‘Club Kid’
Jordan Firstman’s sincere, funny and genuinely moving debut feature has him playing a queer New York underground party promoter blindsided by the arrival of the 10-year-old son previously unknown to him. You could take issue with the uncomplicated perfection of the child, who has exquisite taste in music (Cocteau Twins, really?) and barely a trace of trauma despite the harrowing event that landed him in New York. But “Club Kid” is so assured and heartwarming that you can’t muster the energy to object. There’s probably going to be one feel-good movie nominated, and if it’s between this and “I Play Rocky,” I’ll cast my lot with the one that doesn’t rely so heavily on re-creating the familiar.
8. ‘All of a Sudden’
This 196-minute movie unfolds at, let’s just say, a leisurely pace, and includes a near-20-minute scene in which a character lays out the flaws of late-stage capitalism using a whiteboard. And it’s riveting. Or at least engaging. It’s certainly audacious, this drama about a hardworking director of a Parisian nursing home and the way a chance friendship changes her life. The Oscars’ best picture field now routinely includes two international movies, and Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s dreamlike meditation on mortality and human connection feels like a sure bet to make the cut. Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto shared the best actress prize at Cannes and merit attention from Oscar voters as well.
7. ‘The Debut’
Spoiler alert: One awards-season shoo-in is Julianne Moore winning every lead actress prize for her bravura work in this delightful Jesse Eisenberg comedy. Moore plays Mona, a meek, thoroughly unseen wife and mother who impulsively decides to audition for a community theater musical despite having no experience. The movie earned a huge response at its Telluride premiere, though there were some quibbles about the surprising, surreal turns the story takes. C’mon. Isn’t that precisely what we want from a film? With Moore, co-star Paul Giamatti, Eisenberg’s screenplay and original song (Eisenberg wrote several numbers for the film’s fictional musical) assured spots, a best picture nod feels undeniable.
6. ‘The Invite’
(Atsushi Nishijima / A24)
Olivia Wilde’s dinner-party dramedy boasts a killer quartet — Wilde and Seth Rogen as longtime marrieds nursing resentments, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton playing their upstairs neighbors — and expert direction from Wilde, who navigates the movie’s tonal shifts with authority. It’s wickedly funny and unsentimental and pulls off a bittersweet ending that’s ambiguous enough to keep you talking long after the film ends. One of the year’s most satisfying pleasures.
5. ‘Project Hail Mary’
(Jonathan Olley / Amazon MGM Studios)
Speaking of endings, how many did “Project Hail Mary” have? Two? Three? I lost count. And it doesn’t matter. This was the upbeat end-of-the-world movie that audiences needed at a time when the possibility of human extinction feels uncomfortably real. In a year full of Spielberg knockoffs (and an uneven movie from the man himself), this will be the one left standing.
4. ‘Wild Horse Nine’
(Diego Araya Corvalan / Searchlight Pictures)
Martin McDonagh’s melancholy irreverence plays well with Oscar voters. His last two movies, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” and “The Banshees of Inisherin,” earned best picture nominations and a combined 16 nods. “Wild Horse Nine,” a biting buddy dramedy about two mismatched CIA assassins (John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell), should continue the filmmaker’s success and may even catapult Malkovich to a long-overdue Oscar. At the very least, it gave him his best role in decades.
3. ‘La Bola Negra’
The filmmakers, Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, are talented and charismatic, former romantic partners who still work together because that’s how Europeans roll. Los Javis (they even have a fun nickname) won the directing prize at Cannes, the first of several festivals that their movie conquered, culminating in that audience award at Toronto. With its three interconnected stories that follow queer men through nearly a century of Spanish history, “La Bola Negra” has an epic feel and emotional payoff that could carry it far. Netflix is all in, opening it in select theaters Oct. 16 and giving it an exclusive 46-day theatrical window, the longest it has afforded any movie. We’ll see if that puts it into the cultural conversation in a way that has eluded other Netflix contenders.
2. ‘Dune: Part Three’
Can Denis Villeneuve’s third and final “Dune” movie, which hasn’t screened widely for press, take the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy path to a best picture victory? If there’s resistance to giving Christopher Nolan back-to-back best picture winners, the greatest threat might come from a movie occupying the same lane, an auteur-driven epic lauded by critics and embraced by audiences. The second (and superior) “Dune” won just two Oscars, compared to the six taken by 2021’s “Dune: Part One.” Perhaps voters were playing the long game.
1. ‘The Odyssey’
(Melinda Sue Gordon / Universal Pictures)
Maybe you saw it when it opened in July, contributing to its $1.75-billion box office. Maybe you’re still trying to see it in Imax 70 mm, the way God (i.e., Christopher Nolan) intended. Maybe you agree with translator Emily Wilson, who thinks Nolan’s movie “lacks psychological, emotional, political and ethical depth” and that its writing is “abysmal.” Whichever side you’re on, “The Odyssey” is probably going to sweep through the Oscars, owing to its craft and thrilling showmanship, its stellar acting and that moment when Odysseus’ dog recognizes his long-absent master and wags his tail before heading off to Elysian Fields.
YOU’LL be able to travel to 34 more destinations with Jet2 from the UK soon.
The airline is launching a number of new routes for Winter 26/27, with destinations including winter sun spots, city breaks and pretty Christmas markets.
Jet2 is launching 34 new routes including winter sun spots with 25C weather in DecemberCredit: GettyOther destinations will be across Europe, such as Spain and DenmarkCredit: Alamy
It marks the airline’s biggest winter programme as well as its first winter season from London Gatwick Airport.
Destinations in Europe include La Palma in Spain, Copenhagen in Denmark and Vienna in Austria.
The Egyptian resort city sits on the Red Sea and is the ideal spot to head off scuba diving to see colourful coral reefs.
And there is sunshine year-round.
You’ll get the best of both worlds too as after exploring the water you can head to the desert, for a quad biking or camel riding experience.
Another destination getting Jet2 flights is a city that feels more like stepping into a Disney movie.
Often referred to as a fairytale city due to its winding medieval streets, Tallinn in Estonia takes just three hours to get to from the UK.
You could also head to a number of destinations with great Christmas markets – such as TallinnCredit: Mark Hannah
The old town of the city is full of interesting shops as well as grand medieval churches and walls.
For a city centre, it is very quiet as well.
And if you happen to visit in December, go the Christmas market, full of chalets selling handmade Estonian gifts as well as glögi – which is essentially Estonian mulled wine.
At the centre of the market is the world’s oldest recorded public Christmas tree as well, which dates back to 1441.
Steve Heapy, CEO of Jet2, said: “We are seeing strong demand from customers and independent travel agents for all kinds of winter holidays, so we have responded by putting a fantastic selection of brand-new routes on sale for Winter 26/27.
“Whether holidaymakers want winter sun, a festive Christmas market break, a ski holiday to the Alps or a city break, this expanded programme gives them more choice and flexibility than ever before.
“The addition of 34 new winter routes, three new destinations and our first winter season from London Gatwick Airport shows how we are continuing to grow in direct response to demand.
“This is about giving customers more of what they want for winter, with an exciting mix of destinations that caters for every type of getaway.”
Flights for the new routes cost from as little as £30 per way.
And if you don’t want to wait, the airline currently has 6.3 million seats on sale to 42 destinations for this winter.
Full list of the 34 new destinations
From Birmingham Airport: Copenhagen (Denmark); Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada (Egypt)
From Bristol Airport: Cologne (Germany)
From East Midlands Airport: Agadir (Morocco); Gdansk (Poland); Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada (Egypt)
From Edinburgh Airport: Strasbourg (France)
From Glasgow Airport: Hurghada (Egypt)
From Leeds Bradford Airport: Tallinn (Estonia); Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada (Egypt)
From London Gatwick Airport: Agadir (Morocco); Funchal (Portugal); Tallinn (Estonia); Vienna (Austria); Cologne (Germany); Gdansk (Poland); Grenoble (France); Turin (Italy); Geneva (Switzerland); Salzburg (Austria); Chambery (France); Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada (Egypt)
From Manchester Airport: Strasbourg (France); Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada (Egypt)
From London Stansted Airport: La Palma (Spain); Strasbourg (France); Innsbruck (Austria); Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada (Egypt)