Anna Gunn once had to ask the police’s help after receiving death threats from a fan.
The Breaking Bad actor revealed that she’d been threatened online by a viewer, after they’d become infuriated with her on-screen character: Skyler White.
Luckily, the 54-year-old never had a physical encounter with the enraged fan – who went on asking others to help them track down the TV star.
Advert
Gunn played the iconic Breaking Bad character, Skyler White, through the show’s five seasons – often being the nemesis to her husband, drug dealer Walter White.
Whilst Skyler was usually concerned about her kids’ welfare, the bookkeeper became one of the AMC series' biggest villains, with fans loving to hate her.
However, things soon escalated with one furious fan tweeting threats against Gunn, which made the actor seriously concerned for her safety.
As she spoke about her ordeal, Gunn told The Evening Standard: "There was this college student who had just watched an episode where Skyler makes Walt take (son) Walt Jr.'s car back, and she was very upset about that,"
"So she tweeted: 'Can somebody tell me where I can find Anna Gunn so I can kill her?' Which to me sounds like a death threat. So the police checked it out."
Concerned for her safety, Gunn sought help from law enforcement.
Shockingly though, the fan failed to understand how threatening their actions were.
Gunn explained: "She said, 'Oh, I just saw the episode, you know.' And they [police bosses] said, 'Well, you did use her actual name.' And she said, 'Oh, I know but... I guess there's not free speech'."
Despite the shocking experience, the Breaking Bad actor bravely wrote an article about the incident.
In the lengthy piece, published in The New York Times, Gunn said that she felt she’d been aware of a possible backlash since the show’s inception.
“Skyler is, in a sense, his [Walter White’s] antagonist,” she wrote, adding: “So from the beginning, I was aware that she might not be the show’s most popular character.
The actor also felt she’d been subjected to ‘extreme sexism’, which caused a lot of resentment towards her character.
"The idea of gender roles being so deeply ingrained - it was shocking to me,” she confessed, saying that she was surprised that such comments went unchecked.
She admitted that she was eager to defend herself, Gunn told readers: "…I felt compelled to say something, not necessarily for myself, but for my daughters and other women. The vehemence of it, and the fact that it was just allowed…”
Topics: TV and Film, Breaking Bad, Crime, US News
Katherine Sidnell