New York Journalist Cindy Mich Interviews RJ Mitte III: Actor, Producer, Philanthropist, Disability Rights Advocate

See below for the complete second interview by Cindy Mich, award-winning New York journalist, and RJ Mitte, an actor who played in several well-known television shows and has starred in and produced independent films on the indie film circuit: 

 

 

RJ Mitte is best known for his role in Breaking Bad, where he was cast as a person with severe Cerebral Palsy, a condition which he has in a more mild form.  Unlike the character he plays, he is able to walk.  He is also very well-spoken and has had a varied life experience, a fact which is shared by Cindy Mich as well.  Hehas been featured as a keynote speaker, he works for the charity formed by his grandparents, and he is also an actor on television and a producer of films as well.  His latest role, which they were discussing in the interview, was Westhampton.  This was released on the independent film circuit in 2025, and is still available in one or two theaters across the country.  It is also available on Prime Video, for those who might want to watch the film.

 

According to Wikipedia, while he was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy at the age of three, he was able to overcome the vast majority of limitations imposed by that disease through sports and exercise.

 

He also is the creator of an award that is named after him, the RJ Mitte Diversity Award, which has been presented to actors and others in the film industry.  Specifically, the award is “for an actor with a physical or emotional disability with limitations that would make an acting career seem implausible.”  According to Wikipedia, “The Screen Actors Guild named Mitte as the spokesman for actors with disabilities and he is the representative of Inclusion in the Arts and Media of Performers with Disabilities, which employs artists with disabilities.”

 

When he first arrived in Hollywood in 2006, where his sister had been awarded a movie role, he was able to secure several roles as an extra in some well-known television series, including Hannah Montana, Seventh Heaven, and others.  By getting these parts, he was then cast in a part as a person with a more severe form of Cerebral Palsey.  When Cindy asked about how he had managed to make his condition more severe, from social media questions she had received, he discussed how it was mostly a result of the props: the crutches.  People see the crutches / i.e. disability first, before they see the person.  He had also accentuated his mild halting speech into a stutter.  But as anyone familiar with acting can tell you, he formed the role with excellent acting, and he displayed great skill in doing so, creating a beloved character that continues to endure, with fans also asking to know if we will ever know what became of the character on the show, which apparently was never fully explained – because it is art and we don’t usually every detail of the backstory, even if it is written down somewhere or shared by a producer or director during an interview when asked about it.  Nothing will ever be fully known about every character and motivation in every story.

 

The interview covers many important topics, including explanation of the disease and how it tends to manifest.  It is, essentially, the result of low oxygen in the brain.  For whatever reason, he was being given for adoption, but likely because of the lack of health insurance by his mother – which can often lead to healthcare providers experiencing or participating in the stigma of poverty (as well as the stigma of illness and particularly mental illness – which can also be a factor in some of the actors with disabilities that a varied group of charities and non-governmental organizations support).

 

On a somewhat related side note about why this might have happened, especially since his mother was allowed to remain in labor without intervention for five days, and as mentioned previously that he was being adopted by a new family.  His family life wasn’t really discussed  during this interview, but in relation to topics we have covered before (and will be covering this weekend, as New York’s Senator Schumer recently co-hosted an unofficial Senate Committee meeting/ hearing featuring several witnesses, including two who were going to be new moms but received devastating news (they both live in Texas).

However, how this relates to RJ Mitte, is that he was born in Mississippi, in fact, Jackson, Mississippi.  How is that relevant?  Well, everyone knows the Dobbs abortion decision by its shorthand (just that – ‘Dobbs’).  But, this is Jackson Mississippi, which is the home of Jackson Women’s Health Organization, who was the defendant in this landmark Supreme Court case that banned abortion.  It should be noted, however, that nearly EVERY state in which there are abortion bans, these bans have actually had the effect of banning maternal healthcare.  Maternal healthcare means prenatal visits, exams about fetal health and abnormalities, as well as other services for moms.  These are also the states which, for the most part, refused Medicaid expansion programs, which usually result in better maternal health.  Mississippi before the bans had among the highest maternal mortality rates in the nation, and the bans have made that worsen in every state where this metric was already an issue.  Infant mortality and maternal mortality are on the rise in those states, which already had among the highest.  In other words, mothers have a greater risk of dying in those states, and that is before the looming changes to Medicaid reimbursement, which will shift the burden of costs to the states, which will result in a reduction in Medicaid eligibility and services provided, since many of the more rural states don’t have the tax base needed to support these kinds of increases.

 

One of the very interesting things about RJ Mitte is that, in addition to being very positive about life in general, he is also very involved in philanthropy.  The following are the organizations he is

 

 

 

See the video above for more details and more questions asked of the actor/producer in this very engaging and well-researched interview, Cindy’s second interview with RJ.

 

 

 

Banner Image: Video still.  Image Credit – Cindy Mich 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Banner Image: Interview still.  Image Credit – Cindy Mich