Happy Sad Confused - Bryan Cranston

Episode Date: June 23, 2023

Bryan Cranston reflects on his career, from his humble beginnings to BREAKING BAD to Broadway, and now ASTEROID CITY. SUPPORT THE SHOW BY SUPPORTING OUR SPONSORS! HelloFresh -- Go to ⁠HelloFresh.com/HSC16⁠ for 16 free meals plus free shipping! To watch episodes of Happy Sad Confused, subscribe to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Josh's youtube channel here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! Check out the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Happy Sad Confused patreon here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! We've got discount codes to live events, merch, early access, exclusive episodes of GAME NIGHT, video versions of the podcast, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

D.C. high volume, Batman. The Dark Nights definitive DC comic stories adapted directly for audio for the very first time. Fear, I have to make them afraid. He's got a motorcycle. Get after him or have you shot. What do you mean blow up the building? From this moment on,

none of you are safe. New episodes every Wednesday, wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, it's official. We are very much in the final sprint to election day. And face it, between debates, polling releases, even court appearances, it can feel exhausting, even impossible to keep up with. I'm Brad Milkey. I'm the host of Start Here, the Daily Podcast from ABC News.

And every morning, my team and I get you caught up on the day's news in a quick, straightforward way that's easy to understand, with just enough context so you can listen, get it, and go on with your day. So, kickstart your morning. Start Smart with Start Here and ABC News because staying informed shouldn't feel overwhelming. I mean, how many tattoos have you seen of Walter White to this? I've seen several, and just on you, I've seen several. That was private backstage.

Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, sad, confused begins now. Today on Happy, Sad Confused, I'm Josh Horowitz, and we're live with the 92nd Street Live with Mr. Brian Cranston. Welcome, everybody. Thank you guys so much for coming out. In New York tonight, thanks for watching online. Thanks for watching in the distant past now on YouTube. However you're consuming this, I appreciate you guys.

And I appreciate our guest tonight. He's a first-time guest on the podcast. He's finally come to his senses. This might actually help his career, finally, because he needs all the help, obviously. Let me rattle off some stats because he's a big baseball fan, so he probably appreciates this kind of thing. Six Emmys, five Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Tonys, one truly impressive mustache. A second collaboration with the one and only Mr. Wes Anderson, as you just saw, Asteroid City is the new film. It is fantastic.

Please give a warm 92nd Street while welcome for Mr. Brian Cranston. Thank you. Nice to see you all. Hello, hello. And now we sit. And now we sit and have a civilized conversation. Yes, yes. Congratulations, Brian, on the new film.

Congratulations on the mustache. Is this, are you just warding this over me that I can't grow a mustache like that? You can't grow a mustache like that? Not a chance. I just, I did a film. in Canada recently with Alice and Janney and I grew

the mustache. I didn't really know exactly why or how I was going to use it but then I my character is a theatrical impresario and so I just started twisting it and put a little wax in it and it stood up and it was like

it curled and so I went with that and then I just let it keep growing and when we were in Cann with the film festival my mustache got an agent right oh congratulations it's amazing it was very happy um it does occur to me you've probably had the most variations of every kind of hair on the top of the head on their face yeah really dabbled with everything yeah when you're do most directors have a lot of say in that like for instance we're

going to get to mr west Anderson who is notoriously meticulous yes does he like want to know where every hair on your head is going to be before production starts he wants to know every detail about everything. But that's why it becomes a Wes Anderson movie because nothing is left at chance. He wants to know your input. And I said, I think you didn't see my character

in there for a specific reason. It's in black and white. My character is the host of a television show that is doing an expose on a theater piece. And what you're seeing there is

the theatrical presentation. So then you see us in black and white. I'm like a Rod Serling kind of guy that presents it. So you had worked with Wes on Isle of Dogs. I mean, that's a rewarding experience, but I would think your heart of hearts, you're like, this is my interest, I'm now in the troop. Now I get to, at some point he's going to hopefully go upon. I didn't think I was in the troop until he called me and said,

would you like to be an asteroid city? And before he can finish the sentence, I'm saying yes. He didn't even tell me what I was doing. It doesn't really matter. You're in the actor's company. And that's what was so great about it. There's two experiences when doing a Wes Anderson film. There's the difficulty and challenge

of doing that specificity of work. And he is very specific. The first day, when I finished my first monologue, which introduces a lot of what's going on in the show, he said, yes, Brian, yes, and he would push his hair behind his ear. Yes, that was quite good. Yes. Yes, good. Very good. Very good. Now I just need it much, much, much, much, much faster. At least it wasn't better. At least no, it wasn't. That's true. There's a blessing in it. You've talked about, and the actors have talked about,

and maybe Wes is not thrilled that the secret is out, but about these infamous atomatics, that he kind of does, almost like brought to life storyboards that he has voiced himself the entire film. And that must present something very interesting because, like, okay, you see the film. Not only do you have the script, but you kind of see a version of the film, but you also see the kind of performances he's looking for. Do you then find yourself emulating what he is doing with the character? Exactly right. When you do a Wes Anderson film, you have to look at your approach to the work in reverse order. Usually, you start out organically and you read a script

and it informs you of the ideas that you might start to begin to consider to build and you might start, yeah, oh that, no, not that one. And start, and you start to present something to your director.

With Wes, he makes this animatic of the entire movie, the entire one hour and 45 minutes. He voices all the characters and he presents it to you and he says this will give you an idea of what I'm looking for and so it's actually

you're working from the outside in it's inorganic so it's almost as if okay I saw what he wants me to do if I pull out this arrow and try to hit that moving target that's basically how you have to see if you can catch it

and then pull it into you because it's elusive and it's it's odd and it's wonderful and weird and all those things. So that's the approach to doing one of his films, is that, and you can imagine, if you're fans of Wes Anderson, you can understand, just imagine reading one of his scripts. It is dense, it is so specific on every little detail, both physical, oral, and music-wise, and think,

and you're, you often have to go back and go, wait, who said that and what's, and in this, the, so I'm the announcer, the host, and there's an acting troupe. So each one of the characters that you saw in the trailer is an actor playing a role of, in that, in that play. So each actor has two character names, which I have to, I have to rattle off, you know. It's like, it is like, look, I've seen the movie twice, and I love it. I also not sure I could explain in entirety, in all honesty, but it works, like emotionally and it's just gorgeous and the performances are fantastic. I'm curious though for you as an actor, do you necessarily have to understand the entirety of a movie, or do you just need to know the function that you're playing within a scene?

You know, with someone, a trueuteur, you have to just basically give in and realize it's a trust exercise that for those of us who perform a specific task, in this case an actor or a department head or a person who's in wardrobe or props or whatever, you

perform your task, you create your little piece of the jigsaw puzzle, and you don't have to know what that end result is going to look like and you present it to Wes he collects them all and you go, only he saw the

picture of the finished jigsaw puzzle. We didn't get a chance to see it. We just read it in script form and saw it in stick figure animation. And then he puts it all together. So in some ways, it relieves you of. Because you know the track record. I'm just doing my little thing.

Here it is. You like it? Good. Okay, great. Are you the type of actor that, for lack of a better term, chases filmmakers that you admire like or I mean you're in a rarefied position yes but it's gotten me in trouble I have some restraining order I didn't mean literally chasing them oh oh but is that fruitful to like you know oh hey let every Anderson PTA Wes know that I'm a fan do you send emails

do you have coffee does that bear fruit or is it best to just I do that to an extent I have conversations about that if I get to I met Paul Thomas Anderson as well and and mentioned I would love to work with, and I've worked with Spielberg before, and, you know, there's a lot of actors, a lot of directors out there that you'd love to work at, but I'm, I'm not so comfortable with the game, I guess, of targeting people and going after them and making sure they, they know who I am, or I'm, I don't know, it's a comfort level there, I guess. It strikes me, so Tom Hanks is in this film. And I notice on the resume, there's a lot of Tom Hanks on the Brian Cranston resume.

He's directed you a couple times. You've been in productions of his. Was he an early adopter on the Brian Cranston thing? Did he see it? I have so much dirt on Tom Hanks. He had to hire me. Right. Well, there's infamously a lot of dirt on Tom Hanks, so you're not alone there.

Lots, lots, and lots. He's a lovely guy. I've known him for 36 years or so. My wife and Rita Wilson are very good friends and have been since they were teenagers. And so my wife was in their wedding and that's when I got to know them. That's 35 years ago or so. And then Tom would just call and so I've been in a few films with him, Saving Private Ryan and that thing you do.

I was also, he called me one day. day I was doing a very, I was doing a television show, an episode of a television show, where I was playing an Isaac Mizrahi kind of character. Naturally, obviously. Naturally, you go for me. And Tom called the set, and there was a lot of buzz going on, and he said, are you still thin? And I said, how dare you? Yeah, exactly. Okay, yes. And he goes, this is 24. four years ago or so. And he said, I need you to get on a plane tomorrow and go to Orlando, Florida to start shooting from the Earth to the Moon, to play Buzz Aldrin. And it was, you know, it just happened so quickly like that. That was fun to do, though. So, okay, I want to, with the

luxury time, hit some of the amazing markers in your career, but also go all the way back. Growing up, both of your parents acted. We're in the business. From your vantage point growing up, did you get a sense of appreciation or weariness or see the tough life of an actor? What was your perspective on the business seeing it through the prism of your parents? You know, when you're a boy, you don't really have a clear idea of what life is really like. I do remember that one year we got a new car, and then the next year we got rid of that one-year-old car and got a really old car. One year, they put in a built-in swimming pool in our backyard. And I was amazing.

And the next year, my mother said we can't swim because we can't afford the chemicals. So. And it was that I don't think at the time I was able to really understand that, only in retrospect, what that meant. the hardship that they went through as a couple trying to live life as journeyman actors, you know, and it was really hard. Did they meet on a TV show? They met on a TV show called Life with Elizabeth. Betty White series?

With Betty White series. And they were playing husband and wife of Betty. And yeah, and I have a picture of them as husband and wife. I even have a video of them. Can you imagine, in 1952, I saw my parents who were still in their 20s at the time. Their voices were much higher. Their energy was completely different. Their posture was firm, and they were young.

And it's funny how we forget that our parents were once young. And I got to see that firsthand. It blows my mind to see that. And you've talked openly about the difficulties with your dad, who was out of your life for a period of time. Is this true? I mean, I feel like I was bringing the IMD incorrectly. Did he then later direct you in a film? Yeah, yeah. He was always working. And my brother and I reacquainted with him after, I haven't seen my father for about 11 years. And I got back to, in touch with him when I was 22 and said I was interested in being an actor and he was grateful to see us again. I don't know

that if we didn't reach out to him, if he would have contacted us, though. So it's kind of interesting how you reflect on disappointments. And when I look back on my parents now,

I just, the overwhelming unfortunate emotion is sadness. I just think they really wasted a great portion of their lives. You were talking about frozen and amber or celluloid images of them as young actors. There's a lot of tape on you on the internet.

I went down a YouTube rabbit hole. Is there? I mean, if you want to see some Baywatch clips, some air wolf clips, you could spend a whole afternoon with this man. You don't want to do that. But you were a staple. You were like guest star of the week, seemingly. for the 80s into some of the 90s, too.

Some of the worst television ever produced. Well, how dare you say that about Baywatch? No, but like, did you have a type? Were you typecast in those days? Were you a jack of all trades? Or what was your identity? Yeah, I think, you know, I think the Baywatch character was

like drunken boat captain. You know, is something. That was my name. Yeah, I mean. You know, when you first start out, I tell young actors this all the time, except every job. Don't look at the quality of it, accept every job and do the best you can. The hardest work that an actor will ever have to do as far as being proud of your work is on poorly written material. The easiest, it's not easy, but the easiest approach is when the material is so good that you just naturally, fall into it and you know exactly the guideposts of where you go and what you're supposed to

do and it's like, oh my God, Breaking Bad was like that. Right. So when you look back at like the 80s and 90s, what happened? They've seen Breaking Bad. That's crazy. We'll get to that. I'm thrilled to tell you guys about our sponsor this week on Happy Say I Confused. It's Hello Fresh. You know Hello With Hello Fresh, you get Farm Fresh, pre-portioned ingredients and seasonal recipes delivered right to your doorstep. You can skip the trips to the grocery store and count on HelloFresh to make home cooking easy, fun, and affordable. That's why it's, of course, America's number one meal kit.

HelloFresh is more convenient than grocery shopping, but did you know it's also cheaper? It's also 25% less expensive than takeout, and that is huge for me because I spend way too much eating out and spending money on takeout. Plus, it's your recipe for success. From foolproof instructions to high quality proteins and veggies, HelloFresh brings out your inner chef with every tasty, easy to prepare meal. Guys, we recently, this is a standout meal. We had some beef floutas. I have never made a flouta in my life. So if I can do it, if we can do it, and it's delicious and the price is right, what are you doing? Hello Fresh is there for you. This summer spend less time meal planning and pre-preting with HelloFresh's pre-portioned ingredients that make it easy

to get cooking quick. Go to hellafresh.com slash hSC16 and use the code HSC16 for 16 free meals plus free shipping. Again, that's hellofresh.com slash hSC16 and use that code HSC 16 for 16 free meals plus free shipping. Goodbye, summer movies, hello fall. I'm Anthony Devaney. And I'm his twin brother, James. We host Raiders of the Lost Podcast, the Ultimate Movie Podcast, and we are ecstatic to break down late summer and early fall releases.

We have Leonardo DiCaprio leading a revolution in one battle after another, Timothy Chalmay playing power ping pong in Marty Supreme. Let's not forget Emma Stone and Jorgos Lanthamos' Bugonia. Dwayne Johnson, he's coming for that Oscar. In The Smashing Machine, Spike Lee and Denzel teaming up again, plus Daniel DeLuess's return from retirement. There will be plenty of blockbusters to chat about two. Tron Ares looks exceptional, plus Mortal Kombat 2,

and Edgar writes, The Running Man, starring Glenn Powell. Search for Raiders of the Lost Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. Hey, Michael. Hey, Tom. A big news to share it, right? Yes, huge, monumental, earth shaking. Heartbeat, sound effect, big. Mate is back.

That's right. After a brief snack nap. We're coming back. We're picking snacks. We're eating snacks. We're raiding snacks. Like the snackologist we were born to be. Mates is back.

Mike and Tom, eat snacks. Wherever you get your podcast. Unless you get them from a snack machine, in which case, call us. Before Malcolm, which goes then into Breaking Bad, you were your jobbing actor, were you happy? Like, you were making a living seemingly. Okay, so parents are always teaching you about life. In the best of circumstances, I think it's how to behave yourself,

how to comport yourself with others. mutual respect, work hard, keep your nose clean, do well. And with some luck, you'll do fine. I looked at my father's career who did not succeed at acting, and he destroyed the family. He felt he needed to be a star, and that was an end result kind of thing. It wasn't about the work.

It was about getting to something past the work. and he taught me what not to do. In an odd way, I watched what happened to him and realized, oh, that's not what I'm going to do. So my goal, when I first started acting, was to make a living. If I could make a living as an actor, that's my, that's it.

That's everything. To this day, that is my most cherished, professional achievement is at the age of 25 I only worked as an actor from that point on one of the shows I didn't mention that you appeared on a few times in the 90s was Seinfeld so there's a little story behind that we were rehearsing that scene nurse may have the nitrous oxide she hands it to me I'm supposed to just put it right on Jerry and he goes out and the rest of the scene plays out.

We rehearsed the scene. Then Jerry goes to another scene to rehearse. I stayed on that set just to try to get comfortable with the instruments that I had to use and things like that. And I hear this voice saying, hey, you know what would be funny? I'm looking around. And on a ladder, adjusting a lamp is a guy. And I went, he goes, yeah, you know what would be

funny and I must say I sort of paused a little bit and went okay guy on a ladder what would be funny and he said if you took a hit first yourself and he was right and I waited I waited when you see Jerry in that scene it was that it was probably the 30th time we went through that scene with him Larry David was chastising him the entire fireway because the first time I said, may I have it, you know, and I took a hit, he bent over laughing and I looked to Larry and the audience cracked up and Larry said, keep it. We're going to keep it. We're going to keep it. Jerry, stop laughing. Jerry, stop laughing. Jerry, stop laughing. Shut up. Do it again. Do it again. Do it again. It's like, nurse may I? And I say, nurse may I? And he starts laughing. Stop. Jerry, stop laughing. And then got to the point after the 20th take or so where we couldn't even look at each other. It was like, nurse, may I have? And then, oh, my God. Yeah, so that was most of my experience on Seinfeld is having to stop every now and then because Jerry laughed. Right.

Are you treated to this day like royalty in a dentist office? I mean, that's an iconic. Don't be an anti-dentite job. I've been accused of many things. You're a rapid anti-dentai. Okay, I've been talking about. Time is flying by. Let's dig into Breaking Bad for a few, shall we?

I mean, of course we can talk about Malcolm in the middle. That alone is an amazing accomplishment. But again, one of the series you did in the 90s, X-Files, a writer named Vince Gilligan. And he has you, I mean, the war is that there were some big names that AMC wanted. Is there? Yeah, this is the war. Who knows what to believe at this point? What are the names?

John Cusack, Matthew Broderick. In the vein, I think, in your kind of like vein, I think, Steve Zahn was somebody that was mentioned. Were you aware of you being in contention with other folks, of what the background was? Well, I thought, I mean, growing up as an actor, you know you're always auditioning and you know there's other people on that sign-in list.

But I didn't really want to pay too much attention to it. I was very lucky to have met Vince on X-Files because I had just finished writing and directing my own little movie. And in the California desert, and I was just back into Los Angeles, maybe four days when this call came in, do you want to audition for X-Files? And I thought, oh, God, yeah, man, if I can get that, that'd be great because I'm broke. So I did get it.

And he liked what it was. He wrote this character on X-Files that was despicable, an ugly, venomous person filled with anger and hate. And yet he wanted the audience to still care for him from a basic human standpoint. And that was the seed of Walter White, is that he knew he wanted to turn that character as he says from Mr. Chips to Scarface. And in order to do that, he needed someone who felt he could still carry empathy with him

as he's making this ugly turn. And it was, he's brilliant. I mean, that's Vince Gilligan. Well, it is, I mean, from the pilot. The pilot is genius, and it's one thing to make a great pilot. Many people have made great pilots, but to sustain it through 62 hours and through a finale, that's one of the all-time grades.

It's an astounding. achievement. Were you always in lockstep with Vince on the turns on the descent of Walter White? Did you ever feel like he went too far or there was a choice that you questioned? No, no. I just wanted to make sure that it was not just a, that it was an egotistical change as well, that we allowed the character to, to embrace his ego. and have his chest pumped out. So when he was Walter White,

I actually thought of my dad a lot in his rounded shoulders, his age. And Walter felt like he was much older than he really was. He was 50, but he felt like he was 70. You know, he was kind of a little chubby and soft, and he had this what I called an impotent mustache. I wanted a mustache that you look at it and you go either grow it out or shave it. And so the way to do that, if any of you guys, or women, want to find out how to get an impotent mustache, is you thin it out so that you can see the skin underneath it and never, ever let it grow past the creases of the mouth.

So that this becomes too, you know, it's kind of nasty. But if you want that infinite mustache, you thin it out completely and then make sure you cut it off right there. And I took all the color out of my face. I put a wash through my hair so that it was like a dirty brown, no highlights. I wanted him to feel invisible to himself in the world because I knew that transition was coming. Right. And when that transition came to become Heisenberg, the chest came back, the colors changed, his mood changed for the first time. He felt that he can intimidate others. He felt aggressive and manly, for lack of a better term. And that's where his downfall was. His ego went along with that. So we explored all of that person and his voyage. You never could have imagined what it became. I mean, like, I mean, the writing was there, but for what it became in the pop culture.

And to this day, the residence 10 years after you last played in for that series, at least. I mean, how many tattoos have you seen of Walter White to this? I've seen several, and just on you, I've seen several. That was private backstage. Yeah, I've seen several people come with tattoos all over their bodies, backs, arms, shoulders, upper thighs, lower thighs, lower thighs, butts. Sure. I saw one where it was I saw my face on someone's butt. Right. Several things went to mine. First of all, this man had a nice butt. I must admit. Got to call it out when you see it. A nice butt. Yeah. I was also there. If you look closely, then it's like not just my face,

but Larry and Moe of the three stooges. And all of a sudden I got a little insight. I said, I'm a stooge. A man of infinite taste. It became such a thing that people at Comic-Con were dressing as Walter White, including this man himself. Can we see the photo of Brian Cranston as Walter White at Comic-Con? Oh, yeah. So you decided to go incognito on the convention floor. A very talented artist made this plastic or rubber face.

And so I thought, well, this is the only chance I can get to put that on because other people are in costume. So I put it on and I walked the floor, but I couldn't use my own voice because it's fairly recognizable now. And so I went up higher like that. And I said, oh, I'm just a fan. I sound like Michael Jackson a little bit. I'm a lover, not a fighter. Right. Yeah.

It's kind of spooky. It is kind of spooky. Let's take it off the screen before we all get it. before we all get. This is gonna get a little intense, a little trigger warning, because the scene we're gonna play from Breaking Bad is a really intense one.

This is from season two, Jane's death. And this is, so yeah, so. Oh, don't do that. Yeah, if you need to take a minute or whatever, you know, you understand, but this is a very powerful scene. I know you've talked about connecting with that scene through thinking about your own daughter. Yeah.

Did that happen prior to doing the scene? does that happen in the moment? No, I often, intense or emotional scenes, I often write out the possibilities of what could happen, just so that I process it and put it out there, so I write it down. And in this case, it was like, as we saw, the conflict of humanity and pragmatism.

and control and all those things are rushing through him. The first impulse was human when he heard her choking. He was like, oh, my God, help her. By the time he goes around to the bed, wait a minute, don't do it. Now that time sets in. If I let her die, then my partner won't be influenced by her anymore. and maybe he'll live because she got him on heroin. She's a bad influence, clearly,

and it's also she's impeding our process and our progress in our enterprise. So all these things are going through, and I'm writing all these things, why I should save her, why I should let her go, and one of them was, I should save her, she's young enough to be my own daughter. And while Kristen Ritter was going through that

and off-screen choking on her own vomit, for an instant, her face went away and I saw the face of my own daughter choking to that. And that's when it's like, ooh! And you have to process yourself through it because I do believe that the body doesn't know what you've manufactured and what came naturally.

I put that in the universe to possibly happen, and it happened. And that's what the emotional risk that actors go through. You have to put yourself in that vulnerability because when you do, really wonderful things can happen. And vulnerability is the key component to drawing empathy from an audience.

And so at that moment, when they can see that I'm torn up about this, and yet I'm battling internally, and then the final moment I thought was, get over it. And we're starting to see Walter White change, harden. we're starting to see him become more of a of a of a of a domineering force and and that was those steps toward that it's all there it's all on your face you know what else what's interesting yeah is that this was season two episode 10 or 12 I think yeah yeah yeah um Vince Gilligan first wrote that I see her and I'm so angry at her that I push her on her back. I'm Amy Nicholson, the film critic for the LA Times. And I'm Paul Shear, an actor, writer, and director.

You might know me from The League, Veep, or my non-eligible for Academy Award role in Twisters. We come together to host Unspooled, a podcast where you talk about good movies, critical hits. Fan favorites, must-season, and case you missed them. We're talking Parasite the Home Alone. From Greece to the Dark Night. So if you love movies like we do, come along on our cinematic adventure. to unschooled wherever you get your podcasts. And don't forget to hit the follow button.

How does love work exactly? What makes something funny? How does noise affect your health? These are just a sample of the fascinating topics we discuss on my podcast, Something You Should Know. We bring you leading experts on topics important to you, things you can use in your life and that will fascinate you. We deliver three episodes a week and,

have over a thousand episodes available to listen. So get listening to something you should know, wherever you get your podcasts. So that she would choke to death. And the network went, No, it's too soon! Right. And Vince, to his credit, listened and said,

and maybe it is too soon. So we talked about it, and he came up with another scenario, and this one I thought was the best, because it was indirect. Yes, my jostling of Jesse forced her, but I didn't notice what happened to her. I was focused on Jesse, and that movement jostled her back on her back. And so I'm indirectly responsible for it. Okay, it's official. We are very much in the final sprint to election day.

And face it, between debates, polling releases, even court appearances, it can feel exhausting, even impossible to keep up with. I'm Brad Milkey. I'm the host of Start Here, the daily podcast from ABC News. And every morning my team and I get you caught up on the day's news in a quick, straightforward way that's easy to understand with just enough context so you can listen, get it, and go on with your day. So, kickstart your morning, start smart with Start Here and ABC News, because staying informed, shouldn't feel overwhelming.

Since Breaking Bad, I mean, again, we could go into so many different things. I've seen you on Broadway. You've won the two Tonys for All the Way, yes, and Network. You've been in such a varied film. Oscar nominated for Trumbo. Godzilla. What you're doing, Godzilla, in the opening act, is fantastic.

Has it been, I mean, this is what any actor, when you were talking backstage, any actor wants these opportunities. And it came to you, like in your 50s. Yeah. Are you in a way, I don't know, just happy it came when it did that maybe those opportunities in your 20s would have been wasted on you.

Are you philosophical about sort of where... I don't really dwell on that. Every time I talk to actors, I say, you've got to be in it for your entire life. It's a relationship. It is a long-term marriage. if you're any any actor who says i'm going to give i'm going to give it two or three years to see i said hey i got good news what i go i can save you two or three years how i go go back to

iowa right and find something else that you can do this is not a this is not a career where you put one foot in you you have to dive in this is your life whatever happens how happens, and I will say that no career has ever been made in the arts without a healthy dose of luck, and luck is the X factor that will come on its own. You can't will it to happen, you can't arrange it to happen, it'll happen or it won't on its own. But you have to be happy of itself. So I was a working actor from 25 to 50, or 25 to 40, really, for 15 years, making a living.

My wife was an actor too, and we had a little house and a little baby and we're like going. We're like any middle class family saving our money. And then Malcolm in the middle hit. And it's like, well, that was a lucky break. That was a lucky break. And I have very specific advice for actors on auditioning and things, and I do want to tell that, but I don't want to occupy this moment with that. Okay.

Maybe you guys have Googled what's up with Mr. Brian Cranston lately. I'm happy to report that the rumors, the reports of his retirement are greatly exaggerated, correct? Okay, so I'm now 67, and I've been working nonstop for. 25 years and I realized recently that I'm starting to run low of originality of freshness maybe is a good word and I need to reset. I need to have more life experiences. For 25 years I've been going from one set to another to Broadway to London and working in a bubble

on a television or movie set is not life experience and we were talking backstage about well what is life experience and I go well working on asteroid city in Spain with all these movie stars I could ask myself

I said well a life experience then the definition should be would anyone else experience what just did and it's no no you're not going to be sitting at a table with with the scarlet johansen and tom hanks and margot robbie and i mean it's this is unusual a little bit a little bit unusual yeah especially with margot rabbi's eating habits unbelievable oh yeah just it's awful it's gross i mean all over her face is a utensil margot it's like it's disgusting you you've mentioned you've mentioned that in 2025, there's something on the horizon that scares you that you are going to be

tackling. Are you playing Wolverine? Are you in a musical? What's happening, Brian? I'm coming back to Broadway in 2025. And part of what I was saying is that I have to step into something else. I have to step out of my my wheelhouse, things that, you know, the troubled, angst-ridden character actor, you know, it's like that guy who weeps? I've done that guy. I know that guy. Okay, so I don't want to play that guy right now. I want to play a character and I want to be in a situation that quite frankly scares me. So I'm, I don't think, I'm not allowed to mention the name, but I'm going to do a musical. I'm going, I'm going to do it very badly.

No, I don't know. I don't know how, I honestly don't know how it'll come up, but it's dangerous and it scares me. And that's an indicator for me that, that I'm, oh, I need to touch the flame. Oh, the flame, you know, you know what I mean, that you, things that scare you aren't always something. you should avoid, it's something that you may be addressed to dive into. And this is one of those things where I've always thought about it and it's always challenged me and I'm going to be singing and dancing on a Broadway stage. I will, yes. Yeah. I will be first in line for Breaking Bad the musical. I can't believe you're doing this. It seems like a crazy idea,

But weirder things have happened. I wasn't supposed to mention it. I said it. You didn't say it. You know, you see the glasses. You see the face. I'm a big old geek. You haven't done a ton of franchisee stuff.

You did Godzilla. I mentioned that one. Are you like into any of like the film series? Are you a bond guy? Are you secretly wanting to be in a fast and furious movie? What's your jam, Brian? I saw that face. We all saw that face.

Don't worry, Brian. We have the answers. We finally have the answer. Is this the answer? It's a wife, yes. It has to interest me. Okay. So I can look at an action film, and I can appreciate what went into it, the difficulty, the amazing effects of something.

Oh, wow, look how they did that. Wow, that was amazing, amazing, amazing. and still not want to do it because I have to be moved emotionally in order for me to want to do something. Was it all just the laziness of fancasting that they either saw this great mustache or the bald head back in the Heisenberg days

that you were always fancasted as Lex Luthor or Jim Gordon? Was there ever any real conversations about playing those live action characters? Not that I know of. I did Jim Gordon in the animated Batman thing. Yeah, okay.

And that was fun. But they wasted the must, I mean, you have the mustache. You know, I think it was, I think you're right. I think it was like lazy casting. Yeah. There should be at like lazycasting.com. And I was like, whatever. It's because I had a bald head.

Ah, Lex Luther. It's like, come on. Let's think about this a little bit. We have some questions from our lovely audience. Sure. From James, I think it's James, my eyesight's going. If you could play any other role in one of your previous films, TV theater productions, which would it be and why?

Any of the other roles in something I've done? Jesse Pinkman, you want to be, you know, what do you want to play? Wow, wow. I got to say, I was able to pick the plums. I don't know that I would want to do. I really would love to answer that question, but I can't think of. That's okay. We can come back.

Maybe it'll come to me. Maybe someone would have. have an idea. Yeah, feel free to scream. No, don't do that, please. How long did you consider before accepting the role of Walter White after reading the script? Is that even a consideration or is it? Okay, first of all, I wasn't offered it. Okay, what is that? I went in to talk to Vince Gilligan, and it was a 20-minute meeting, and I knew that I had to really lift my leg on him. I wanted to leave my scent. I wanted him to think. This is metaphorical, correct? No, this is literal. Wow. The stories

are true. The stories are true. And I told him those things of what I imagined him how he looked and things. I wanted to do that, but he was my champion to get it. Without Vince Gilligan, Matthew

Broderk is sitting in this chair right now talking to you about his days on Breaking Bad. Right. Talking about Asteroid City, what was your reaction to seeing the desert scenery was it filmed on location or on a lot? Oh, it's so amazing. Well, Wes Anderson lives in Europe,

and he doesn't like to fly. So he shoots almost everything he does on that continent. And we shot the California desert, where this story takes place, in a farmland in Spain. In a little city called Chinchon, which is about an hour south of Madrid, and it was a watermelon farm, a watermelon patch,

and they just leased the entire acres and acres and acres, and they built asteroid city. I have my own pictures of walking around. It's insane. There's forced perspective. So when you look at it, it looks like it goes for miles and miles and miles, but it doesn't. Those cactus that you see actually just get smaller

as you walk up, and they come down about this size, And you can actually walk from one end to the mountains in about four minutes. And it's just amazing what he's done. The attention to detail in a 360-degree avenue, it's just insane the way it is. I mean, it's beautiful. What surprised you most about Asteroid City upon seeing it as a finished film? I mean, you'd seen the animatics. You'd been there, but seeing the final.

I think what was so charming about it is that I didn't realize that Wes is such a sweet, kind, human being. That's why everybody wants to work with him, not just because of his ability to tell a story. But if he was an arrogant, horrible person, there'd be a lot of defectors, including me. But he's such a lovely guy, and you want to work with him. What I was amazed about Asteroid City is that it is a,

a movie about a television show that is doing an expose on a theater piece. It's his, it's an homage to performance art. He loves and adores and respects actors, and I think it was his homage to that. Plus, what else I love in it, there is, there are existential questions. Is there life on other planets? Literally, are there aliens? to questions of a more pragmatic sense, and that's life. And some of the questions we will have answered

over the course of our lifetime, and many we won't. Many questions we have, we will never know the answer to. And that's life. And one of the characters, Adrian Brody plays the director of the play in this, and Jason Swartzman comes to him and says, I just don't understand.

I don't understand why my character did this. I don't get it. I don't understand it. And he says, you don't need to understand everything. Just keep putting your story ahead of you. Keep moving. And it was like, oh, yeah. That's really life itself, isn't it?

We don't always understand what or why something is happening to us. Just keep moving forward. You know, keep telling your story. Keep trying to be respectful and, you know, spread some love. the happy second fuse profoundly random questionnaire for you mr brian Cranston what do you collect if anything belly button lint that's darker than the breaking bad I have watched that's I made an afghan out of it once I don't I'm not really I collect memories basically I don't I'm not a

collector of things. I don't find that as rewarding. And the older I get, the less things I want in my possession. It feels more like ballast. And I want to start keep shedding that less and less and less. What's your favorite adult beverage? Oh, this is a perfect segue to pimp out Mr. I'm drinking dos hombres from Mr. Brian Cranston and our... Yes, you are. I made that cocktail for you. He made this. The greatest honor of my life. What do we call this? It's the Cranstonian. That's embarrassing.

This has to be your favorite adult beverage and what goes into the Cranstonian? Well, it's my, Aaron Paul and I created this mescal called Des Hombres. It's now the fourth most popular mescal in the world. And it's a beautiful, beautiful spirit.

It's hundreds and hundreds. of years old really mescal this cranstonian is made with with dos hombres and cranberry juice and apparel and fresh lime juice and shake it up it's delicious great summer drink but we can make I most people they don't really know what mescal is right and I say oh mescal though I don't know if I go do you like a margarita oh I love a margarita let me make a margarita a little smoky margarita basically it's a little smoky delicious i vouch for it um last actor you were mistaken for uh the the the uh um let's see who would that be um i can't remember have you ever signed

a photo of someone else just out of like i actually did i was um i was nominated for a golden globe one year from Malcolm in the middle it was all very new to me to be in that arena and they said we're going right from the from the ballroom to the after party and we have so all of us are all in a row and we're going right in there's going to be all kinds of fans and people waiting on the outside please don't sign anything for them please don't because if you do and someone else doesn't it's like they get a bad just say hello and wave and move in. Just moving. Keep moving. All right. That's what they want me to do.

I'll abide by that. And so my wife and I we're walking, we're walking, and oh, hello, hi, hi, why are you going to? And all of a sudden it came to a stop. The line stopped. People in front of us. Nothing's moving. So we're stopped there. And there's two girls probably

12 or 13, you know, with their autographed books. They're going, oh, would you please, please, please, please? Would you sign this, please? Please. I go, I'm not so. I'm not supposed to. Oh, please, please, please, please, please sign this. Please sign her, please. I'm like, okay.

And I kind of, okay, give me the book, give me the book. I don't want anybody to see, give me the book. And I take the book and I take her pen. And just before I write, she goes, who are you? Tom Cruz. Yeah. Oh. Worst note a director has ever given you.

I did a, I did a, I don't know if a worst, worst note. But I will tell this story of a, I was doing a movie where I was playing a very suppressed, angry man who takes it out on his wife in a sexual nature. And it was a very delicate thing. And my acting partner and I were very good together, and I wanted to, how much, how can we do this? and we talked and talked and talked and this is even before intimate coordinators were a thing. And so we did it ourselves and we just figured this all out. And it was a very rough thing to do to start from neutral and get to this point where I'm basically taking advantage of her against her will. And our director was this very strange British guy.

And so he was very, very, very odd. We did this scene. We did this scene. And the makeup and the hair and wardrobe people come in because now we're both perspiring. It's that aggressive. And they're mopping us up. And I'm checking with her. And I go, do you want to wait a little bit?

She goes, no, I want to do it right away. Let's do it again right away. Because you have to do these things over and over. She goes, I would rather do it right away. Okay, good. And I tell the first AD, we want to do it right away. Okay, got it. And we're doing this and we're getting made up.

All the while I'm hearing this really kind of nice melodic guitar music in the distance. It's like, I don't know what that was. And so we're mopped up. My suit is back on. I'm back together again. We're going, okay, we're going? Yeah. First 80 is going.

Okay. So I'll wait outside and then we're waiting, waiting. And I'm going, what's happening? Why don't we go? you go. And he said, he's in the other room still, the director. And I go, what's happening? We want to go. This is a very serious scene. So, well, he's in the other room. I went into the other room. He's playing the guitar. He's like, and I go, what are you doing? And so that was the worst direction I ever got.

Yeah. No. I'll accept that. Finally, in the spirit of happy, second, fused, an actor that makes you happy. You see them on screen. You're in your happy place. You know you're in for a good time. Tom Hanks. I think he makes me happy.

Okay. Movie that makes you sad. Ooh. Movie that makes me sad. Have you thought one? You thought of one? Can I borrow one? It's a lot. Space Jam, Shindler's List. We've got a wide variety of things to choose from. We're going to talk to the Space Jam gentlemen later. I'm not sure. It's a space jam. It's like, it's sad.

Finding Nemo. Finding Nemo. I can't. What about food that makes you confuse? Food. You sit on the menu. You see it presented to you. I don't get it. Okay.

Fish tacos? These tacos are delicious. I love fish tacos. Confusing. What's confusing to you, sir? I think, you know, when they use, like, awful and anything that has to do with organs, brains and things like it, I'm kind of... Sweet breads and all. breads and, yeah, I'm kind of confused at why someone would want to cut open an animal's

liver and soak that up and put it. Yeah, that's kind of confusing to me. Well, we found a great way to end it in the conversation. It's my fault, not yours. I can't express to you enough how much I admire your work and how, obviously, a wise, decent gentlemen and one of our truly finest actors. Everybody should check out, Asteroid City. It's another fantastic Wes Anderson Enterprise, and this man is exceptional in it, as always. I vouch for it, Dos Humbres, and this man's integrity. Take a rest, but not too long a rest.

I'll take a rest. Okay. Brian Cranston, everybody. Give it up. Thanks. And so ends another edition of happy, sad, confused. Remember to review, rate, and subscribe to this show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm a big podcast person. I'm Daisy Ridley, and I definitely wasn't pressure to do this by Josh. American history is full of infamous tales that continue to captivate audiences,

decades or even hundreds of years after they happened. On the infamous America podcast, you'll hear the true stories of the Salem Witch Trials and the escape attempts from Alcatraz, of bank robbers like John Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd, of killers like Lizzie Borden and Charles Starkweather, of mysteries like the Black Dahlia and D.B. Cooper, and of events that inspired movies like Goodfellas, killers of the flower moon, Zodiac, Eight Men Out, and many more. I'm Chris Wimmer. Join me as we crisscrossed the country from the Miami Drug Wars and Dixie Mafia. in the South, to mobsters in Chicago and New York, to arsonists, kidnappers, and killers in California, to unsolved mysteries in the heartland and in remote corners of Alaska. Every episode features narrative writing and cinematic music, and there are hundreds of episodes available to binge. Find infamous America, wherever you get your podcasts.