SCRANTON -- Fans of the hit AMC television series "Breaking Bad" will no doubt be familiar with R.J. Mitte. He portrayed Walter White Jr. on the show.
He was in Scranton Thursday speaking at the University of Scranton's 16th annual U.S. Conference on Disability. Geisinger Medical Center is a co-sponsor of that talk.
In the popular and critically acclaimed AMC series "Breaking Bad," actor R.J. Mitte often stole the show. Mitte played Walter White Jr., the teenage son of teacher-turned-meth-maker Walter White.
His character had cerebral palsy and so does Mitte, which might be why he was invited to speak at the University of Scranton's 16th annual U.S. Conference on Disability, but that's not all he's talking about.
"When I'm not filming, probably 60 percent of my time goes into the philanthropic community," Mitte said.
Newswatch 16 got the chance to talk with R.J. Mitte at "the U" before he took the stage at the conference.
Organizer Rebecca Spirito Dalgin says they were thrilled to bring him in and that he proves the point that a disability doesn't have to stop you from succeeding.
"We try to bring in someone who has lived with a disability so students understand more about what the lived experience is. He's pretty famous, so we wanted to find someone our students would connect with," Spirito Dalgin explained.
And connecting is exactly what Mitte says he wants to speak about. He's thankful his career has given him a platform but wants to remind everyone we all have the same power to make an impact.
"It just requires you to be aware, to see your surrounding environment, be able to go, 'oh, I recognize that person's in pain. Let me reach out to him and see what I can do to help,'" Mitte said.