Aaron Paul Posts RJ Mitte's Mental Health Video After Co-Star's Death

By Daniel Okafor

RJ Mitte died by suicide on Oct. 12 at 34, and Aaron Paul has answered with the one thing Mitte left behind: a video of him talking about mental health.

Paul posted the clip to Instagram on Tuesday. In it, Mitte — who played Walt Jr. on the Emmy-winning AMC drama "Breaking Bad" — speaks straight to camera about the gap between how we look and how we feel. It plays now like evidence of a man making his own case.

"It's very important to take care of one's physical health, but it's equally as important to take care of one's mental health," Mitte says in the video. "More often than not, we hide that. We hide how we're truly feeling, of what we're truly thinking — the 'OKs' and 'I'm fine' and 'I'm good.'"

Mitte doesn't stop at diagnosis. He pushes on the question.

"But is that what you really are? Are you OK? Are you good?" he asks. "Not always, but it's OK to be not always good. It's not OK to harbor that feeling, harbor those emotions. So I'm hoping to inspire each and every one that sees this video today."

What did Aaron Paul write?

Paul's caption is a eulogy with a bruise in it.

"You have always been an inspiration for so many. I am so sorry you were hurting my friend. I wish we knew," Paul wrote. "You constantly had a smile on your face and you took every single challenge that was given to you with such confidence and grace."

Paul met Mitte when Mitte was, in his words, "a little boy" — Mitte was cast at 14 — and watched him grow up on set. The last time they saw each other, Paul kept calling him Superman.

"You reminded me of him because you always led with kindness and strength," Paul wrote.

Paul closed the tribute with a request aimed at anyone reading: "I hope whoever is reading this note that feels lost or sad or uncertain about the future please say something. Life is so damn special."

How has the Breaking Bad cast responded?

Paul isn't alone. Bryan Cranston, who played Walter White — the father of Mitte's character — wrote that he was in "despair" after the news.

"I met him when he was only 14 years old when he was cast as Walter White Jr., a part he played with such joy and enthusiasm," Cranston wrote. "Born with Cerebral Palsy, he never – ever – allowed that challenge to be an excuse for anything. He met the demanding shooting schedule head on with great determination."

Cranston's grief carries the particular sting of the almost. "We were texting each other just a few weeks ago – figuring out when we could meet for lunch," he wrote. "I don't know if that lunch would have changed his future… But I do know that I loved him, and thoroughly enjoyed being with him throughout the years on the series… I'll miss you, son."

Mitte's death is the second loss to circle the "Breaking Bad" family's public mourning in recent memory, and the cast's response has followed a pattern: grief posted openly, with phone numbers attached.

What remains is Mitte's own instruction, recorded before anyone needed it. Ask the question. Don't accept the "I'm fine."

If you or anyone you know is having thoughts of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.