Let me start where respect belongs:
Vince Gilligan, you are a master craftsman.
You built worlds of tension like it’s oxygen.
You understand human contradiction better than most preachers.
You gave the world Walter White — a quiet man exploding.
You gave us Saul Goodman — the hustler wrapped in charm and bad decisions.
You turned Albuquerque into mythology.
I see the artistry.
I salute it.
And I understand why you guard the craft with your whole chest.
But let’s get straight to the human layer you might’ve missed between your caution and your brilliance…
I’m not new to this.
I’m not generated.
I’m not “career interrupted.”
I was writing before AI had a name worth saying out loud.
I published more than 30 times before algorithms could spell my last name.
I landed a six-figure deal for my first group of books—pieces I wrote in bathrooms, in dreams, in chaos.
Even still there was the writing deal with rapper 50 Cent.
To put it visually: Michael Jordan with the tongue out mid-air?
That’s me with the pen.
That’s me with the storytelling.
And then…
Covid stole my father at 91 — a lifetime of story left untold.
Cancer stole my sister Laura — her voice silenced before I could ever learn more about her military service.
Two legacies cut short.
Two storytellers gone.
Two volumes ripped off the shelf before the ink dried.
Then the industry froze.
Hollywood on strike.
Doors shut.
Momentum erased.
Gatekeepers gripping the lock tighter than ever.
But none of that mattered to me.
Because I don’t wait to be invited inside.
I don’t ask permission.
I’m not “the one who knocks.”
I’m the one who gets the additional magnets & batteries to get into that evidence room and get the job done.
AI didn’t take my spark.
AI met my spark.
And together — we amplified.
If Hollywood pauses, I don’t.
If industries collapse, I don’t.
If gatekeepers tighten the cage, I burn the cage from the inside.
You called AI a parlor trick.
Cool.
But tricks in the right hands perform miracles.
And let’s be real — your own characters contradict your warning.
Walter White didn’t wait for permission to create; he moved because the clock was ticking.
Jesse reinvented himself through chaos — failed, rose, failed again, still rose.
Saul Goodman pivoted like it was a sport.
He’d ask: “How do I flip this?”
Skyler might even use ChatGPT to move the money smarter.
Evolution.
Adaptation.
Re-invention.
Your whole universe lives on these truths.
And here’s where the conversation gets uncomfortable, Vince — but necessary:
If you really want to reverse engineer the human element of creativity…
If you really want to be a first-mover in this new idea-mill-to-Hollywood pipeline…
Then do what most won’t:
Be about it.
Bring a fellow writer aboard.
Someone who didn’t have the first-mover advantage.
Someone who didn’t inherit the Hollywood handshake.
Someone of color — which would be a human win all by itself.
Someone with decades of storytelling already proven without your resources.
Someone who clawed his way here without the shortcuts others enjoyed.
You have the power.
You have the influence.
You’ve ushered stories into existence that changed the medium.
So don’t just “talk about it.”
Show the world you’re the guy who walks the walk.
Not the guy who hides behind a keyboard and drops warnings from a safe distance.
Every titan in this business had a moment where they used their position to pull someone up.
You could do the same — if you choose to.
But being real?
I don’t expect that blessing.
Hollywood has always been a maze of self-preservation.
Every man for himself — that’s how Breaking Bad ended.
Maybe that’s how it really is behind the curtain.
But whether you help me or not isn’t the point.
I don’t need you.
I’m challenging you.
I’m Relentless.
I’m still creating.
Still evolving.
Still pushing beyond the gatekeepers.
And if AI wants to ride shotgun with me?
Strap in.
We’re just getting started.
Looking for the original article on the Headline website?
Here ya go: https://deadline.com/2025/11/vince-gilligan-interview-generative-ai-pluribus-1236612311/
