Teen, spiders break into Breaking Bad

RIO RANCHO, N.M. (KRQE) - The latest episode of the cable crime series Breaking Bad is trending in a huge way in the cyber world for a lot of reasons.

It's shocking, disturbing and going viral, and the episode's big stars are a young boy and a trio of tarantulas, all of them local.

Sam Webb, 15, is from Rio Rancho and plays a kid riding his bike around the mesa collecting tarantulas in scenes shot south of Santa Fe.  He also witnesses some shenanigans involving the stars of the show about a high school chemistry teacher turned methamphetamine kingpin.

We won't reveal the outcome, but it's getting a lot of chatter online.

Webb is no newcomer to show business. He's also had roles in Terminator, Adventures of a Teenage Dragon Slayer and Bird in the Air, to name a few. In addition, he has been riding motocross for years.

Webb says working with Breaking Bad cast and crew was great.

"It was amazing," he told KRQE News 13. "It was for sure the best job I've ever had.

"Nothing compares to it, nothing else I ever worked on."

What was new for him was acting with a trio of female Chilean rose hair tarantulas named Dierdre, Patty and Pepper.

The spiders were trained by Chris Lim from Clark's Pet Emporium

Lim says the Breaking Bad directors originally wanted the classic big black tarantulas. But he convinced them to use the Chilean spiders because they are more docile and look more like the types of tarantulas found in New Mexico.

Lim says he spent 10 minutes a day for three months training the tarantula trio. The most important thing, he says, is to show the spiders that you are there to feed them and not to eat them.

He also had to get them used to having a big, black camera lens pointed at them.

One of the arachnid actors--Pepper--actually went home with Webb as a gift.

But is Sam getting a call back from Breaking Bad?

"I can't discuss that," he says.

So tune in.