Bryan Cranston Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters | GQ

I am the danger a guy opens his door and gets shot and you think out of me I am the one who knocks I couldn't find Walter White's emotional core and I was struggling and then all of a sudden it hit me it's calloused over he doesn't even know what it is it's a rock in his in his soul [Music] Breaking Bad and you got one part of that wrong that's is not meth I will say this up front that the Lion's Share of Walter White was really the imagination of Vince Gilligan he's genius and he laid out a beautiful template for me to step in I remember going to my wife I always get her counsel because we're together we whatever I do affects her so I wanted to get her input on it and I said to her um just know that this show would shoot in Albuquerque New Mexico if it were to happen and I handed her the script and she started reading the script and I would peek in to see every once in a while she was like boom boom boom boom boom to the end right once you got near the end I came back into the room and she went she just said and I knew that was her approval chemistry is well technically chemistry is the study of matter but I prefer to see it as the study of change now just think about this I started out that character very uh Meek very you know submissive and passive a pushover because he he didn't know who he was he and that's why then once I got that I went oh he should be a little overweight the love handles he should be pasty white he should have a mustache that looks like you know either grow one or cut it one or the other yeah and then and then I called it an impotent mustache and I know how how to shape an impotent mustache if anyone's interested if a mustache drops below the creases of the of the lips no that gets badass that gets nasty so you have to make sure that's always above the crease of the lips and you thin it out so you can see skin underneath it and it doesn't look as masculine it just seems what's the point I was always looking for those what's the point and my I chose my clothes in conversations with the costume designer to select clothes that blend in the wall beige is awful flights pastels soft yellows things like that sand color anything he didn't he disappeared he was a nobody I took all the color highlights out of my hair which I had it was kind of brown with with kind of reddish highlights took it all out just deadened it took the color out of my face you know all of a sudden you start to see yourself and you put on those clothes you go I know you let's go play WWE I mean who you figure that is huh Walter White okay you got me if success and fame and celebrity never came I'd be fine because I was making a living I was doing what I love to do and I had a great family so it was okay now all of a sudden this happens and you you have to learn how to deal with it because you're you're not ever taught how to become a celebrity how to handle yourself as a famous person it's almost like when you become a a parent for the first time you just have to trial an error had Malcolm in the Middle been picked up for an eighth season someone else would have played Walter White because I would not have been available but that summer is when I first read uh his script Vince's script for Breaking Bad [Music] Malcolm in the Middle [Music] name to just dump this in the trash maybe Birds would like to make nests with it or I don't know maybe you boys could use it for school projects arms up dude I came up with a philosophy um that I is the most important thing that I try to extend to younger generations of actors and that is you're not going into an audition trying to get a job you're going there to do a job hold your power and then give it to them and allow them to take it and do what they will with it those decisions about who might get a job or not or not for you to decide so don't waste an ounce thinking about that I was testing for three Pilots all comedies I had this philosophy so I wasn't worried and then another one comes up for fox called Malcolm in the Middle who wants to make five bucks how I need someone to take the fall oh my God make a ten son stop playing off of this bombastic aggressive woman Lois don't compete with her do not try to match her so I started to think what would be a complimentary characteristic for Hal would be perhaps the opposite of her what is she lacking oh she's lacking subtlety softness sweetness quiet she's so I won't she's fearless so I'm fearful of everything and I just started putting these out and I went oh that's a character I'm developing a character here so I just let it all sit within him and the last bit was no one wants to see a person who's indifferent to their family who who can care less or whoever is doing whatever so I I made a distinction that Hal was not disinterested in his family he was distracted buy things and I love the fact that we were a married couple and my character was madly in love with his wife it was a nice thing to see on television well I was naked and covered in blue paint I was strapped to the front of a moving bus I was hung upside down and tortured I had ten thousand honeybees on me at one time so it just went on and on and on they said what would you do I learned how to roller skate and did a roller skating episode it was just a glorious time because who gets to do that I got to play I I went to work to play I first proposed the idea of a of a reunion movie the creator of the show Linwood Boomer is warming to it if we come across an idea that that all of us feel is really valid not just I have no interest to do keep busy or pick up a paycheck I want to do something that man that's a great idea and we get to see these people 20 years later you know all the boys are now in there at least in their 30s they're all grown men married children you know old it's just an extraordinary situation for me I was in fact a couple of them are nearing the age I was when I played the dad of those kids [Music] Seinfeld is a jury Seinfeld hey you didn't come with us uh Tim the pencil Jerry hey Tim Jerry I didn't think it'd show did you say Jerry I didn't think you'd show or Jerry I didn't think you'd show the audition for Seinfeld was great did it first for the casting director Meg Lieberman and then for the call back Jerry was in the room and the goal of any actor is to man if I can get him to laugh that's the thing and I got him that was funny and then they called me back and they call me back and again and again and again and again and pretty soon you're you have a recurring role on that and I look different on each episode because I went off and did other things and so I had a beard I didn't have a beard I had long hair had short hair I had a crew cut I had a mustache you know it's fun the life of an actor and they never they never bothered explaining why does Whatley look so different every time we see it the Precision in which Jerry and Larry would craft a joke or a moment a beat was just awe-inspiring and of course Julia and Jason and and Michael were brilliant brilliant Comedians and so no matter who was acting in any scene at any given time I'm watching Brilliance so even if I only had two scenes in something I'm watching the rest of the show all through rehearsal all through taping nights just to be there to soak it up your honor Where Have You Been counselor I'm sorry you're on sure but you were also late yesterday morning so what's the answer to my question I have a problem getting out of bed in the morning your honor is something that got me with the concept of the first season which was as a parent myself being asked what would you do to save the life of your child and the answer that any parent would answer as far as I know is anything I would do anything the follow-up question as I started to get into the character was would I become a criminal if I really felt that by doing so I would protect my child yep yep I would become a criminal and that's the story of Michael desiado in in your honor and actors in general are are novices at at everything except playing other people so when whenever we start a a character it's always outside of us and you need to trust that through work and through your ability and through your imagination and your availability of your emotional treasure chest uh you'll be able to put it all together first season ended tragically so the second season we flip it and it becomes about a man exploring despair when tragedy strikes it it has a ripple effect on many people around not just the immediate family but that first Inner Circle then the second and third people that you work with if you worked with someone who lost a child that relationship is going to change and I hope that when people watch this who are experiencing that particular condition or have maybe perhaps they're they're curious to see how one person handles it and make adjustments in their life to see if there is a life beyond tragedy Drive director wants to see a rollover you okay with that remember if you don't feel good just abort the shot there's no shame in that all right you're doubling for the start you know like a day play or anything and I got you 500 more huh of course we split that you okay ready to go all right Ryan's character has a he was a thoughtful man and a you know an expert driver and he wasn't very talkative and so I thought well I think it would be kind of interesting to to counter that that I'm a bit too talkative and also it made sense because a person who's too talkative often talks themselves into trouble says something they shouldn't have said does something they shouldn't have done and that's what my guy was he was just you kind of want to slap him and go just shut the hell up sometime will you calm down I can build a car in six months and in six seconds these jerks write it off as a stunt that won't even make it into the movie see all I need is a hard used stock car that's all now I figure we start off with a small town circuit and we work our way up stunt coordinators and stuntmen in general are Rough and Tumble They're a bit crazy and they'll probably even tell you that themselves to do what they do the broken bones the abrasions the contusions that they get in doing their work every single day and so I thought um I thought this guy was a tough kid probably a kid who jumped off his roof being a space man you know jumped off balconies into pools when he was a teenager things like that he was the guy watch this he's that guy you know and so I I said I I think he's from a Midwestern town so I made him from you know the Chicago area and I put the hard R in there and he's just one of those guys it said he had a had a limp and and I wanted it to make it uh germane to his life and so I I pitched that Ron Pearlman character that he did it to me make it specific so we have to deal with him again and he's I don't like this guy take a hike I want to talk to my partner I haven't just with you how you doing Shannon how's the like I paid my debt I'll think about it the character that Albert Brooks played he and I loved each other too he he really had an affinity for me I think in the original script he came behind me with a garretting wire and had and choked me that's a very violent death to be choked right it's you know it's you have to have someone behind you and it's like you have to have this aggressive move and there's something that just didn't it just didn't feel right and Anna was bugging me I'll let it go I let it go and one one night I had this dream and I woke up in the middle of the night going oh my God I got it I got it I got it oh my God oh my God oh my God do you know where the handshake came from the handshake came from showing you have no weapon I show you we may not know each other but I show you we have no weapon and out of that came the clasp to say I don't have a weapon either and two men with no weapons can say Okay truce peace right I said what if I see him in my garage and we're like oh and I'm not quite sure and but he's talking very casually and he's talking like I'm sorry this worked out this way it just didn't it didn't work out that you know it's the way it goes but hey I hope you hope you I wish you well you know kind of thing and he holds out his hand and I'm like oh maybe he's gonna let me go oh great and that handshake and as soon as I touch his hand he turns my wrist with his other hand comes out a knife and he slices my arm and I'm in shock and then immediately he starts to put me at ease to assuage my fears to to not let me drop but lower me down caress my head against the bumper not let me hit it and and just kind of comfort me it's gonna be okay it's gonna be okay and I pitched that and there and Nicholas is going that's in the movie we're gonna do that that's in the movie because he had the thought of making Albert Brooks's character a knife collector anyway and he was said this is so perfect for him to do in his milieu his way of doing it and um and that's how that's how I I died [Music] Saving Private Ryan he's two men died in Normandy this man at Utah Peter Ryan this man was killed last week in New Guinea [Music] Daniel Ryan well whenever you get an opportunity to work for an auteur an artist the level of Steven Spielberg you don't hesitate you you you accept that call and you do whatever they want and my arm was straight down in my pants when it was shooting from behind and when I'm shooting from front it was I held it like that even rehearsing is that I had no movement here I can't pull it out because the uniform you know we're doing take after take so I just kept my hand confined you have to experience what that's like so I was well prepared I took a demitos cup and saucer and the saucer fit right in there and I had a demitas spoon that I would stir my coffee and I poured it I picked it up I stirred my coffee dink dink tap the edge of it put it on the on the saucer itself rotate the hand to the to hold the saucer and then put it down on my desk all without looking and I was so excited and I and finally we're going to shoot my scene Stephen and the whole crew comes in and I go Stephen I have an idea he goes you do I said yes I said and I showed him the whole thing you know and I poured the coffee put it down interested in this document this is this is really important stuff here and I picked up the thing and put a sugar in it's a sir stir Tata and he was like amazed he went oh my God that's really good I can't use it I said oh I said oh really he goes yeah he said because at this moment we know what's happened we've got to get the news up the ranks to the general to make the decision so as soon as the scene starts I'm following the captain who's got this paper we've got to get Private Ryan out and he's coming right to me and he right to my desk and I read it and I go where'd you get this and you know and we got to see the general we get up and go see the general it's not a loss it was I got a chance to act I got a chance to create a moment even though the moment was Never filmed all the way all I have I would have given gladly not to be standing here today the greatest leader of our time has been struck down I went down to the Johnson library in Austin Texas two different times and had access to whatever I needed and my own personal security guard the library is closed everyone else and they said just you know when you want to leave he'll open it up and lock it into the land oh great so I'm just absorbing as much as I can so I was most interested in in trying to see if I can understand the 36th president of the United States Lyndon Baines Johnson and and it took a long time to to come in so I was full hyper focused on that and for some reason I just thought oh yeah I'll get to the lines and stuff at some point and I and I I felt like I started to get them I I got a sense of him I got his Cadence down and his his draw down and um his his sensibility and his heart and his meaning is ambition and his relation to him it was starting to feel really good and really confident oh I have to get going now because we have three weeks to rehearse it's a three-hour play and my character speaks for almost all of it and we're making history here Everett and you have to decide how you want history to remember you I'm off stage maybe a total of four minutes the rest of the three hours is me speaking and all of a sudden we did a table read and I panicked I made a calculable error and that was oh my God I neglected the logistics the balance of learning lines to the point I even fantasized about someone jumping me in my lowest of low someone jumped me and beat me up and I I got put into the hospital which delayed the opening of the that's how bad it was I was so nervous I was so scared because I was not going to be ready my dear friend Bill timoney an actor great in his own right I hired him to come and stay in the in the second bedroom and drill those lines in me just go over and over morning noon and night several times I'd wake up and there'd be sheets of of dialogue just in my face you know Bill gave me some great wisdom he said just here's the bottom line he said on opening night you are going to be on that stage and you are going to do this play so up until that point we just keep working I was like I needed to hear that you know once you get it and I did I I was on stage and I never missed a performance and you know eight shows a week three hours per day you know it's like wow man bang bang bang doing theater from an actor's standpoint is far more exhausting than doing long hours on a movie or a television show it was in the bones by then it was in the bones by the time we made the movie all the way

Channel: GQ

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Id: t_OsnMfKgt4

Length: 22min 31sec (1351 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 23 2023