Aaron Paul survived off gum commercial

Actor Aaron Paul. Photo / AFP

Aaron Paul realised he needed to find an acting job when money stopped rolling in from a bizarre chewing gum commercial.

In the years before he found fame as Jesse Pinkman on Breaking Bad, Paul was earning a living through commercials and thought he didn't have to worry about money once he had scored an advert for Juicy Fruit gum in 2000.

The commercial was a big hit for him financially, but he realised he had got too comfortable relying on the regular income once the cheques stopped rolling in.

"That paid all my bills for almost two years," Paul told US talk show host Conan O'Brien.

"It's one commercial but there's no dialogue in it so they were able to sell the commercial to multiple countries... so I would get residuals every 13 weeks... When they stopped playing that commercial, it was such a loud reality check, 'oh my God, I need to get a job'."

Paul agreed with O'Brien when he jokes the actor thought he was "set for life" after the commercial, which features him as a young man with telekinetic abilities. He tries to steal the Juicy Fruit gum from the pocket of a man's shirt but rips the shirt off at the same time. Paul places the stolen gum into his trouser pocket but the man uses his own mind tricks to get the gum back, ripping Paul's trousers off in the process.

Before a clip of the advert was shown Paul told Conan, "My pants fly off... it's very weird."

The 36-year-old also starred in commercials for Corn Pops cereal, Tombstone Pizza, Vanilla Coke and the US 1-800-COLLECT phone service, alongside Mr T.

- WENN