Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.

After working many smaller acting gigs, RJ Mitte read the casting call for a show that needed a teenager with “dark hair, big eyebrows and mild cerebral palsy.”

“I think I’m good,” Mitte said with a laugh, gesturing toward himself.

The casting call would lead to his big break on AMC’s “Breaking Bad,” where Mitte played Walter White Jr. for all five seasons.

Syracuse University’s Disability Cultural Center, in partnership with University Union, hosted Mitte on Zoom for a discussion Thursday night about acceptance, determination and his experiences as an actor with disabilities. Mitte also shared stories from his childhood and auditions. Throughout the discussion, Mitte reminded the audience of two important mantras in his life: “Can’t is a decision,” and “Trust in yourself.”

The evening started with a brief remark from SU sophomore Luke Berninger, a UU production coordinator, who welcomed Mitte to the event. When the actor entered the discussion – wearing a marble teal button-down shirt and a gamer-style headset – he thanked the sophomore for introducing him and SU for hosting the event.

Mitte opened the dialogue by discussing his life and how he got to his current role as an actor and activist for people with disabilities.

“But, really, growing up to this position,” Mitte said. “I was not looking for this role.”

The actor has cerebral palsy, but he was not diagnosed at birth. It took years for his family to learn about his disability. He and his parents remembered going to doctor appointments where the doctors would say, “We know you have something; we don’t know what.”

But Mitte considers himself lucky to have grown up in a family that was all about building confidence and self-esteem, he said. The actor said he always tried to put himself in situations where people might see a person with a disability and say they shouldn’t be there.

Growing up, Mitte was involved in soccer and martial arts – which he considers having helped him build confidence, self-esteem and team building.

“I was very lucky because the resources that I did have, when I had them growing up, were adequate enough,” Mitte said. “I had my community behind me, supporting my health and wellness.”

Before ending his introduction, Mitte offered the audience advice that he lives by: to never forget to be who you are or what you believe in, and to put yourself out there.

“That’s something I’ve seen work. I’ve seen it happen,” Mitte said.

Everyone holds something special about themselves, which might be tiny or hidden to most people, but it could help another person change their life, he said. “Don’t squander or disvalue it,” he reminded the audience.

When moderator Kate Corbett Pollack, a program coordinator for the Disability Cultural Center, entered the chat, she asked Mitte about the advice he gives to kids being bullied, his favorite memories from “Breaking Bad” and how he sees the acting industry changing to accept more actors with disabilities.

Mitte said the best advice anyone ever gave him was “can’t is a decision,” and it’s something he wants to pass on to people who will listen. If he “can’t” do something, it means to him that it’s something he doesn’t want to do in the first place.

So, Mitte finds the things he can do –– even if he’s never done it before – because trying them will hopefully lead to bigger and better opportunities. To this day, the actor has to put himself in vulnerable situations, including going on 50 to 100 acting auditions a year and maybe getting “three, or two or only one,” he said.

One of the funniest audition moments Mitte encountered in his acting career came right before he auditioned for “Breaking Bad.” Mitte — who would play the son of Walter White, a terminally-ill high school chemistry teacher who begins selling meth to support his family — initially auditioned for an anti-meth video campaign. He found the timing of the two auditions ironic and is glad he got cast for the show over the campaign.

“If it weren’t for Breaking Bad,” Mitte said. “I wouldn’t be here. You wouldn’t give two sh*t about me.”

Fame is not what drives Mitte to continue auditioning for roles. It’s the impact he hopes to continue to make in the acting industry for actors with disabilities. Over the last decade, Mitte believes he’s seen the number of actors with disabilities rise from about three to hundreds or thousands.

Mitte takes his life experiences and brings them into all characters he plays. Despite sensing that Hollywood has become formulaic in how actors with disabilities are cast and written for roles, he believes it’s important that they have the platform to normalize their disabilities, he said.

“The most crucial thing I think about having a disability is the knowledge of one’s self,” Mitte said. “The knowledge of what you’ve been through with a disability. See the world from a different perspective from your normality.”

Published on March 5, 2021 at 12:24 am

Contact Louis: louis@dailyorange.com | @JBL__98