When Dean Norris auditioned for the show 'Breaking Bad', he thought it was a comedy. When he read the audition script he thought it was rather funny. When speaking about his role as Hank to Conan, he referred to it as being a "black comedy."
When he went for the audition, he wasn't sure how to play it. He says: "I was like, conflicted. I was like, well this is funny to me, but I could tell… well, my agents and whoever said it is a drama. So I said no, I'm gonna go with my gut and I'm gonna make it funny. So that's what we did."
Despite the fact that the writers did not have comedy in mind when developing the character of Hank Schrader, Norris' comedy angle actually led him to portray a deeper and more multi-faceted version of the character.
Fans responded really well to this complex character and one fan writes: "Hank really strikes me as one of the most tragic characters. He's similar to Walt/Heisenberg in that he has a facade he puts on with all of his bravado, but deep down, he's really not such a big bad ass."
It seems that Dean's initial confusion about which genre the show fell under was, in fact, a blessing in disguise.
