Perhaps better known as the "purple queen" Marie Schrader, "Breaking Bad" actress Betsy Brandt felt "sick" and "physically affected" filming the final eight episodes of AMC's intense, Emmy award-winning show.
"There were days shooting - these last eight episodes especially - I just felt sick. My chest would get all tight and I just felt awful," Brandt told the Associated Press in a recent interview. "After we'd get a take then I'd just sort of start sobbing because you gotta get it out before you go home."
And it's no wonder, as with the hit show's series finale airing this Sunday, fans have warned they are in for quite a wild ride, a shocking and hopefully satisfying conclusion to the story of a brilliant chemistry teacher turned methamphetamine cook and drug lord.
Brandt, who plays said drug lord's sister-in-law, was so close with her "Breaking Bad" cast that some scenes were physically difficult for her to film, including the one in which her character had to tell Walter White (Bryan Cranston) to "just kill himself."
"We were in a restaurant, and we did my coverage, and then I said, 'Did we get it?'" Brandt recalled to Entertainment Weekly earlier this month. "And I was noticing while we're shooting it that my chest was starting to hurt and I just felt awful. And [director of photography] Michael Slovis] said 'Yes' and... this is hard to talk about ... and I started crying. And then I said to Bryan 'Can I hug you? I hate looking you in the eye and saying that to you and meaning it when I say it.' And Bryan hugged me and he was very sweet, and I just said, 'I'm ready to go do a comedy.' And we all had margaritas at the restaurant and that was the last shot."
Luckily for Brandt, her days of heavy drama are behind her - for now - as she's currently starring in NBC's new sitcom, "The Michael J. Fox Show," though her fans are far more interested in how things will end for Walter, Marie and the rest of the characters on "Breaking Bad."
"It's funny. They want me to tell but they really don't want me to tell," Brandt said to the AP. "People are crazy, 'Tell me. Don't tell me. Tell me. Don't. No. Please stop.' That's kind of what it is."
Though she can't reveal exactly what will happen, Brandt did echo's Vince Gilligan's promise that the ending would satisfy fans, as she told the show's creator that it was "the perfect ending for this show."
