RJ Mitte walked into the Warwick Center Ballroom and stepped behind the lectern to a roar of applause coming from all the die-hard “Breaking Bad fans” that attend UNC Wilmington. He smiled and waved until the cheers subsided into star-struck silence and awe. Everyone was waiting for him to speak, to hear what he sounded like in real life and see what he had to say without a script in front of him. He looked up and his brow wrinkled. 

“Well I’m glad you decided to make it,” he said to a latecomer trying to sneak into a seat at the last minute. Everyone turned to look and broke out in laughter. 

Many of us know Mitte by one role. He played the son of the greatest meth dealer the country has ever seen. RJ Mitte was Walter Jr. on AMC’s critically acclaimed series “Breaking Bad,” a show many of us have heard of, conceived from the idea that a high-school chemistry teacher could turn into a meth dealer overnight. On the show, Walter Jr.’s father, Walter White (Bryan Cranston), is an overeducated chemistry teacher who gets diagnosed with cancer. To help pay his medical bills, Walter turns to meth production and quickly attracts a strong following of meth users to his high quality product. 

While Mitte could’ve spoken about the show and his opinions of how it was made and his relationship with the cast, he didn’t. Instead, he touched on a much more important issue. RJ Mitte, like his character in the show, has cerebral palsy, also known as CP. CP is a neurological disorder caused by abnormalities in the brain which affect body movement and muscle coordination. In the show, Walter Jr. is confined to crutches and has a noticeable speech impediment. Mitte suffers from a more mild case, but still has a very slight speech impediment.

Mitte was diagnosed with CP when he was 3 years old. His family had to drive five hours to the nearest hospital to get him the therapy he needed to help get him through his daily routines. Things like putting a straw in a juice box or buttoning a shirt are things most people take for granted, but for someone with CP, they are skills that need to be practiced over and over until they are possible. CP cannot be treated, but with the right types of therapy its symptoms can be reduced. Mitte’s mother used to force him to fold towels and napkins all day to help him with his hand-eye coordination. 

“I hated it, I absolutely hated it,” Mitte said. “And I would almost be done, and she would knock them all over. I’d get so mad.” 

The crowd laughed as he smiled at his mother sitting in the front row. 

When he was younger, Mitte was confined to casts on his legs, which made it so he couldn’t move his feet. Later he graduated to leg braces, which he hated as well. He would take every opportunity he got to remove the braces and run around the house without them. 

Mitte’s family moved around a lot, and one day while they were living in Houston, his family decided to go to a water park. They were sitting at the edge of the pool when a man approached them. He introduced himself as an acting agent and pointed at Mitte’s little sister. 

“She would be perfect for television,” he said. 

Mitte’s sister was only one-and-a-half at the time, but she already had a full head of fiery red hair that was perfect for television. So Mitte and his family packed up their things and moved to Los Angeles to support his little sister’s acting career. One day while on set, another acting agent came up to Mitte and asked if he would like to give acting a shot. 

“My mom was like ‘Oh no, he doesn’t act you see, he has CP,’” Mitte said.

 Luckily, the agent still wanted to give Mitte a shot and asked him if he would still want to give acting a chance. At the age of 14, Mitte answered for himself: Yes. He had his first job as an extra on the Disney Channel hit show “Hannah Montana.” It was only a year later that he was offered a position as a supporting actor on “Breaking Bad.” Mitte auditioned for the show five times. The last few auditions were held in New Mexico where the show was being shot, and one night Mitte got a call.

“They said that I was already late, and that they already started filming, and that I needed to hurry up and get there,” Mitte said. 

Since the end of the show, Mitte has been traveling around the country to spread the word to college students about having a disability and, more specifically, being an actor with a disability. 

Mitte is a lifetime board member of his grandfather’s company, The Mitte Foundation. The Mitte Foundation was created in 1994 and is aimed towards helping people with disabilities. Beyond that, Mitte has made a lot of effort to spread the word about disabilities through social media, to grab the attention of people with disabilities and let them know that they can achieve anything they set their minds to.

Ironically, Mitte told The Seahawk that he hates motivational speaking, but he has a drive  to tell people with disabilities that they can achieve anything they want. He wants to inspire people not only via social media or through press conferences; he wants to get out and be personal with people. When Mitte took questions from the crowd, he took his time answering each question, showing that he truly cared about each person. In fact, Mitte took so much time answering each question that his mother was often seen making the “speed-it-up” hand gestures. Much like any kid with their mom, Mitte called her out in the middle of answering one of his questions and told her to stop and “I got it,” which elicited more laugher from the crowd. 

Despite his lack of affection for social media, Mitte believes that it is the key to gaining understanding for people with CP or other disabilities. Mitte uses his social media platforms solely to transmit positive messages to the public and to inspire those around him. 

“Messages are amplified through the media,” Mitte said. 

Finally, The Seahawk asked him if he’s seen a difference in the way people treat him since his popularity on Breaking Bad. 

After watching Mitte speak to the audience and one-on-one when answering questions, it became clear that actors are just regular people trying to live their lives like the rest of us. Luckily, there are people in the world like Mitte who will use their fame and influence to make this a better world, not only for people with disabilities, but for everyone. 

“No matter what you do or where you are, you can always surpass any obstacles in front of you no matter what everyone else is telling you,” Mitte said.