Although Dean Norris had a long career before Breaking Bad, and a long career after it, it’s clear he knows what he’s most likely to be remembered for: ASAC Hank Schrader, a character who spent five seasons on the Vince Gilligan series making a long transition from a parody of the world’s most obnoxious brother-in-law into a complex, often tragic figure. And if he ever forgets about ol’ Hank, Norris can apparently just look around his house and get many heavy, shiny reminders, because, holy crap, Breaking Bad fans will simply not stop gifting this poor man minerals.
This is per a recent AMA Norris did on Reddit, in which he addressed many questions about various aspects of his career—but most especially about Breaking Bad. That includes some tidbits about the audition process—including remembering reflecting with co-star Betsy Brandt that their initial audition pages felt much more like a comedy than a drama—as well as thoughts on his time with late co-star RJ Mitte. (“He was so sweet, and innocent, just new to the business, and he just remained that sweet, innocent, kind kid, and I’m so sorry that he’s gone.”)
But the AMA also contains quite a bit of conversation about minerals, which are not rocks, and which people will not stop gifting to Dean Norris at conventions. “I get handed minerals all the time at every convention and I save them all,” Norris revealed in one answer. “It’s kind of a big collection now,” he reveals in another. “I imagine I’ll continue to get them but I don’t go out and collect them myself.”
Given how many people Norris has worked with over the years—he shares his impressions of Total Recall-era Arnold Schwarzenegger (“really funny”) and Hard To Kill-era Steven Seagal (“I thought he wasn’t that great of a karate guy”)—it’s understandable that Norris couldn’t get to every query tossed his way during the AMA. That being said, we did think it was kind of sad to see that the second-most-upvoted question in the mix somehow got missed by Norris and his team.
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