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A version of this story first appeared in the May 24 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.
Will the real Heisinger please stand up? If there ever was anybody badass Walter White shouldn’t tangle with – it’s Warren Buffett.
But thanks to CAA’s Michael Kives, who represents Buffett, the 82-year-old financier appears in actual clip from the AMC series with stars Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, shot in Albuquerque, N.M., as a surprise to Buffett’s 18,000 shareholders who saw it at the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting in Omaha.
“My assistant Gordon Smith wrote it,” series creator Vince Gilligan tells THR exclusively. “I was prepping the last episode of the series — and one of our directors, Michelle MacLaren, directed. We’ve had some interesting requests like this over the years — but one coming from one of the world’s richest men is a new one on me.”
PHOTOS: ‘Breaking Bad’ Principals Strike a Pose for THR’s Cover Shoot
The premise? Walter and Jesse decide to make a new highly addictive but legal substance — peanut brittle — till Buffett (in Heisinger hat) strides in and announces, “Call me the Candy Man” — as the desert’s brittle kingpin. Let’s just say the clip ends with the words: “Brittle, bitches!”
Gilligan might have been shooting the very end of Breaking Bad — “but I took that afternoon off to hang out with Mr. Buffett and his family. Then he made a donation to Aaron’s fiancee’s charity that’s anti-bullying. Trust me, I was far more starstruck than he had any need to be of me!”
Meanwhile, Breaking Bad‘s final episode actually has been edited (it returns Aug. 11), and Gilligan thinks fans will appreciate it — no doubt now the most-guarded secret in television. “Let’s hope it stays that way till fall,” laughed Gilligan.
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