Quotes

[2013: Excerpts from column about her Breaking Bad (2008) character] I was unprepared for the vitriolic response she inspired. Thousands of people have 'liked' the Facebook page 'I Hate Skyler White'. Tens of thousands have 'liked' a similar Facebook page with a name that cannot be printed here. When people started telling me about the 'hate boards' for Skyler on the Web site for AMC, the network that broadcasts the show, I knew it was probably best not to look, but I wanted to understand what was happening. A typical online post complained that Skyler was a 'shrieking, hypocritical harpy' and didn't 'deserve the great life she has'. 'I have never hated a TV-show character as much as I hate her', one poster wrote. The consensus among the haters was clear: Skyler was a ball-and-chain, a drag, a shrew, an 'annoying bitch wife'...

As an actress, I realize that viewers are entitled to have whatever feelings they want about the characters they watch. But as a human being, I'm concerned that so many people react to Skyler with such venom. Could it be that they can't stand a woman who won't suffer silently or 'stand by her man'? That they despise her because she won't back down or give up? Or because she is, in fact, Walter's equal?...

At some point on the message boards, the character of Skyler seemed to drop out of the conversation, and people transferred their negative feelings directly to me. The already harsh online comments became outright personal attacks. One such post read: 'Could somebody tell me where I can find 'Anna Gunn' so I can kill her?' Besides being frightened (and taking steps to ensure my safety), I was also astonished: how had disliking a character spiraled into homicidal rage at the actress playing her?

But I finally realized that most people's hatred of Skyler had little to do with me and a lot to do with their own perception of women and wives. Because Skyler didn't conform to a comfortable ideal of the archetypical female, she had become a kind of Rorschach test for society, a measure of our attitudes toward gender. I can't say that I have enjoyed being the center of the storm of Skyler hate. But in the end, I'm glad that this discussion has happened, that it has taken place in public and that it has illuminated some of the dark and murky corners that we often ignore or pretend aren't still there in our everyday lives.