Britt Jones
A Breaking Bad actor has revealed the dark underbelly of being a celebrity.
RJ Mitte featured as Walter White Jr. in the hit TV show that starred Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston.
Throughout Breaking Bad, he played the teenage son of meth dealing Walter White (Cranston), from 2008 to 2013 and was just 14 years old when filming began.
As an adult now, he’s reflected on what it meant to be a kid in the entertainment industry and warned others about its realities.
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Mitte recently appeared on The Iced Coffee Hour podcast, where he was asked about his time in Hollywood.
Unfortunately, the 33-year-old experienced two major challenges, which he’s gone on to turn into a life lesson others can use to steer clear of.
In the interview, he was asked about being a child actor, earning money, and the steps you have to take to handle your finances.
That’s when Mitte explained he was 'scammed' as a teenager, leaving him in serious trouble.
He said: “Everyone's kind of pushing me to make sure that I have a proper accountant, dude. I got eaten.”
Mitte explained he was 'around 17' in 2011, where he was able to secure a female accountant who took care of '14 other actors'.
“I was like one of this big group that she was targeting, primarily people with disabilities, elderly, older actors in the industry,” he said.
Apparently, she worked at the sheriff's department and had her office in the building.
Despite being surrounded by cops, she apparently robbed Mitte blind.
He said: “She was just siphoning. She was siphoning funds, like, literally I would write a check to go pay my taxes and instead of her using it to pay my taxes, she would send me a fake filing of taxes and take that money.”
Despite allegedly stealing from him, Mitte says the onus fell on him to protect his assets, meaning the woman is still free from jail.
On the topic of money, Mitte went on to say there is plenty of corruption in Hollywood, when it comes to seeing how people change because of money aspirations.
Calling money a ‘tool’, he said 'it's sadly a necessity in life’ that we need to ‘survive’.
But things can go too far.
Mitte explained: “What someone is willing to do for the right number never ceases to amaze me, and people will sacrifice who they are for money, for clout, for whatever.”
He added: “When you have someone that desperately needs it, that's willing to do anything, that's where you get into a very dangerous scenario of power and, you know, what that person is willing to give up; who they are willing to be to get that power.”
Explaining he sees it all the time on social media, Mitte said people ‘hurt themselves sometimes to get the sensationalism’ which can be a ‘dangerous game’ to play.