Did Jesse Plemons (Todd) Gain Weight for ‘El Camino’?

Netflix

Jesse Plemons played Todd on El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie. Fans are noticing that the actor gained some weight since Breaking Bad ended and El Camino premiered. Plemons has explained that he had to gain weight for a movie role. Most fans say it doesn’t matter and they think Plemons did a phenomenal job on El Camino. This article will have some minor spoilers for El Camino and spoilers for Breaking Bad. 

He Had to Gain Weight for His Roll on ‘Black Mass’

In 2016, Plemons spoke with GQ and talked about his weight gain. He had to gain weight for his role on Black Mass and then had to talk about the weight gain in interviews. He said the weight then carried over onto his role on Fargo and he got even more questions. He said it gave him a lot of empathy for what women deal with when they constantly get questions about their bodies.

He told GQ: “Yeah, talking about it, if anything, makes me a little more empathetic— sympathetic?—to what women have to go through. My God! Men in general are just not held under the same microscope in that way. It’s bizarre that that’s all people wanted to talk about. Why is that some sort of a badge or some sort of accomplishment? Like, anyone can do that. You just have to eat sh**.”

Here’s the scene where Jesse killed Todd, in case you need a refresher:

He said he had actually lost some weight before the Fargo premiere and he said his secret was simply that he “stopped eating terrible food.”

But still, his character Ed on Fargo was described by Noah Hawley as being a “cow.” So Plemons said his weight gain also informed his Fargo character better, Hollywood Reporter shared. Fargo is still filming. In fact, Season 4 is set to air on Netflix in 2020.

Plemons recently played Chuckie O’Brien on The Irishman, a movie debuting soon. Chuckie O’Brien was overweight in real life, so it’s very possible that Plemons needed to keep the weight on for that role too.

Fans Say Plemons Was Amazing on ‘El Camino’

Despite the weight gain creating a bit of a continuity error in the movie, many fans are decidedly unhappy with some of the Internet shaming that has happened around Plemons’ weight. And they’re making a point to defend him and point to his impressive acting skills.

On Reddit, u/CheesyObserver wrote: “He was really good in El Camino, despite the obvious continuity error…  Why is everybody letting this (the mean comments) slide? It’s truly an unlawful act and will no doubt affect his self esteem and his mental health, and I haven’t seen a lot of people call anyone out all of this. Plus we don’t know if it’s related to a real life incident, he may be going through some sh** and keeping it private, we don’t know but leave it to the internet to judge a man on his weight gain. Leave this guy alone.”

Redditor u/melskithegreat wrote about Plemons’ role in the movie: “He was amazing. I had such anxiety watching his scenes! Chilling character.”

Some fans didn’t even notice the weight gain. U/tumblrmustbedown wrote: “I also haven’t watched since the finale and didn’t notice at all that he’d gained weight. Anyone for that matter honestly. Am I just very unobservant? Probably.”

Other fans pointed out that Jesse was held prisoner for about six months. Maybe Todd simply weighed more in the beginning, when those flashbacks with Jesse occurred, and then lost weight thanks to taking the meth product that Jesse was producing.

But whatever the case, Jesse Plemons was one of the best highlights in the movie. He did a phenomenal job of portraying a chilling character who acted like he was Jesse’s best friend, while simultaneously holding him captive for a time that was so horrific, Jesse was left with major PTSD.

READ NEXT: POLL: Is Better Call Saul Better than Breaking Bad?