RJ Mitte’s messages about his struggles as a disabled actor have shed light on the barriers he said he faced in Hollywood, shortly after his death in Texas at the age of 34.
The Breaking Bad star exchanged years of messages with a friend about casting, representation and the impact of cerebral palsy on his career. He was reported to have died by suicide on Monday.
In one message from April 2017, Mitte described being told that roles were not written as disabled characters. “When I go for a part, they sometimes tell me that it’s not a character with a disability, and I’m like why can’t the character be disabled?” he wrote.
He added: “They get real uncomfortable when I say that.”
Despite his success in Breaking Bad, Mitte said he was still struggling to secure work. “I can do any role, but some of [the casting agents and directors] are a**holes who won’t even look at me,” he wrote in another message that month.
He said he had considered publicly naming the agents and directors involved, but ultimately decided not to do so. Later that year, he told his friend that a television pilot he had been working on had gone nowhere, describing the industry as “brutal”.
RJ Mitte’s fight for disabled representation
In February 2019, Mitte said working on a film in Australia had raised concerns about maintaining his health insurance if he took on too many international projects.
“I hope I can find stuff here. I would like to work enough to keep my [health] insurance. Pain in the ass lol,” he wrote.
After production was halted by the Covid pandemic in 2020, Mitte said he needed to “figure out more work”. He added: “I just need to remind people to book me.”
By March 2021, he said the pandemic had made the obstacles facing disabled performers even more difficult. “Gotta convince people that I’m not going to die of Covid,” he wrote.
He continued: “There’s a backlash about people with disabilities, they think that we can’t be insured or that we are going to die in the middle of a scene, its bulls***.”
In April 2022, Mitte said he had started writing because he was receiving scripts in which disabled characters lacked depth. “I would be a prop and they don’t want to give any depth, 3 lines if that,” he wrote.
Later that year, he said he had been working mainly in animation because “no one wants me on screen”, describing the situation as “annoying as f***”.
In July 2025, Mitte said he was considering reality television, including Dancing with the Stars, as a way to demonstrate what people with cerebral palsy could do.
He also stressed that he wanted any appearance to preserve his dignity. “I would have to make sure that any reality would be dignity, I don’t want to be laughed at, but would consider something that could give me a platform,” he wrote.
Mitte had been a longstanding advocate for greater representation of disabled actors in Hollywood.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available by calling or texting 988.
