A version of this story about Bryan Cranston, “Your Honor” and “Better Call Saul” first ran in the Drama Series issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.
The last time Bryan Cranston was nominated for an Emmy for lead actor in a drama series, it was 2014, for the final season of AMC’s “Breaking Bad,” in which he starred as high school chemistry teacher turned crystal meth drug lord Walter White. He won that year (as well as three previous times) and now he’s back in contention with Showtime’s “Your Honor,” another series that explores human beings’ darker impulses. He plays Michael Desiato, an upstanding judge who falls into corruption and crime to protect his son from the mob, only to watch him die in his arms.
Cranston has been busy. He’s also in the race for his guest appearance on “Better Call Saul,” the critically beloved “Breaking Bad” prequel that tells the origin story of Walt’s crooked lawyer, Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk). To the delight of fans of both series, Cranston slipped back into Walt’s sensible Clarks and, alongside Aaron Paul as his partner Jesse, entered Saul’s world. (Yes, Cranston and Odenkirk will be competing in the same category, should they both land nominations.)
“Both Aaron and I felt the same,” Cranston said. “When [executive producers] Peter Gould and Vince Gilligan called, I said, ‘Look, guys, if you’re busy, you really don’t have to sell us on this. We’re in, whatever you want us to do.”
If I understand correctly, you weren’t sure you would do a second season of “Your Honor.” What made you decide to do it?
Well, to be fair, [executive producer] Peter Moffat always thought of it as a two-season story. He came to me and said, “Not to say you’re in Season 2, but what would you say would happen to the character?” And I said, “Well, it’s one of two things. After losing everything — his wife a year earlier, his son, his standing, his principles, his soul, his integrity, his friends — he’d kill himself. Or he would be imprisoned for the crimes that he committed. Peter came back to me and pitched that he is indeed in prison and there was a set of circumstances that got him out that led him on a road to redemption. And I thought, “OK, you sneaky bastard. You got me. That’s a good one.” [Laughs]
You undergo a pretty radical physical transformation in the second season: You lost a lot of weight, your hair is longer, you have a bushy beard.
Once I realized what had happened to the character and his lack of interest in life, well, the ripple effect of that is lack of interest in grooming, lack of interest in food, lack of interest in exercise, lack of interest in intellectual activity. His circuits started shutting down. Michael wanted his physical body to catch up with his spirit, which had died. So how does a person who feels emotionally dead and yet physically present face the new day?
Rosie Perez joined the cast in Season 2, playing a U.S. Attorney who wants Michael to help her take down the Baxter crime family. She’s a great addition to the mix.
We needed a character who was formidable, who go who can go toe-to-toe with anyone. When someone suggested her, I went, “Oh my God.” We hired her over a weekend. She had no time to [prepare]. And I told her, “I’ll be with you every step of the way.” It seems dramatically unfair because her character has to drive the scenes — my character, who doesn’t even want to live, is not going to be talkative. He’s uncooperative. So it requires that person to grind it out. And she has to keep grinding it out of him. She just came in and did a terrific job.
Michael Desiato and Walter White are both men whose lives have ended up in dark places, for different reasons. What would Michael make of Walt?
I think he would say that he would not have followed in those footsteps that Walter White knowingly, premeditatively chose. He became a criminal in order to accomplish a financial goal. Michael Desiato didn’t have the luxury of time to make his decision. It was impulsive; he had to make it right then in there. I can understand both men. Part of the reason that I signed onto them is because they’re very human decisions and originally very altruistic. Even Walter White made his decision for the betterment of his family after he’s gone. And then he got caught up in the ego of what it was. I guess I’m just attracted to damaged characters. [Laughs]
When you have a damaged character who is trying to do the right thing — or appears to be, at least at first — that’s when you get empathy from an audience and when you get empathy from an audience, it offers them the opportunity to invest in the character and invest in that story. Like with Walter White, once we had them on my side, then [“Breaking Bad” creator] Vince Gilligan took them on a ride to challenge that allegiance, saying, “Oh, OK, you think you’re in this character’s camp? Well, what if he did this?” But they are in it. We’ve got them. And that’s the purpose of good storytelling: to keep the audience engaged.
Speaking of Vince Gilligan, how did he and [executive producer] Peter Gould ask you and Aaron to appear on “Better Call Saul”?
Aaron Paul and I, we went off [after “Breaking Bad” ended] and we started our own business, Dos Hombres mezcal and we’re focused on that. But we told Vince and Peter Gould right away, “Listen, if you ever want us to come on the show? Absolutely. We’ll definitely do it.” And then both Aaron and I became fans of [“Better Call Saul”]. And I never really asked him [about a guest appearance] because I knew that if he was going to do it, it would be for some specific reason down the road, perhaps. There were other “Breaking Bad” guest stars that came on the show. Some became important parts of of the show and others didn’t. And so it was like, whatever happens happens.
When you were getting back into character as Walt, did you need a refresher on the plot and where he was in all of it?
Yeah. [Aaron and I] both had two scenes. One was us together with Bob in the RV. So we had to refresh ourselves on what were the conditions and situations that led up to that moment. And then the other one was in the last episode, when Saul and Walter White are going off in their separate directions, [helped] by Robert Forster, may he rest in peace. Walt was going to New Hampshire, Saul was going to Nebraska. It was such a great way to reunite for that little moment. We saw the frustration that Walter was living with because by then he was so irritated by everyone. [Laughs]
The camerawork is so interesting in that scene between Walter and Saul in the basement. After Saul tells Walter about an early slip-and-fall scam, there is a shot where the camera is looking up at Walt, who looks down at Saul and says, “So you were always like this?” Which is the question that threads through both series: Are we innately the way we are or do we become something over time? And this was Walter telling Saul he was always corrupt, unlike himself.
You know, we internalize so many thoughts and feelings, but we are subjected to the way we were raised, the level of education, the amount of nurturing that we receive from adults, what’s right and what’s wrong. And I think that if Walter White never got the cancer diagnosis, he would not have ever become who he became. Vince Gilligan made him a chemist. But I contend that if Walter White was a mathematician, he would have figured out a way to do card counting or to game the situation so he can accomplish the same goal. It was circumstantial that he went into the drug business because he knew how to make that drug. But he was not that way. It lit a fire and it changed who he was internally. It also exposed his fragility to ego, which he then allowed to be on full display, especially in the last episode, when Skyler says, “Please don’t tell me that you did it for the family,” and he goes, “No. I did it for me. And I was good at it.” And he he finally faced up to what this whole journey came down to.
Seeing Walt and Jesse in the RV again, bickering like always, really meant a lot to fans. What was it like being back?
It tickled us. We knew that we would be protected. Peter and Vince are very protective of the universe, of the characters. It wouldn’t be some salacious kind of stunt. And I knew that whatever they were going to write for this guest appearance was going to have some bite and have some meaning to it, not just in a reflection of the Walter White character, but also, more importantly, to illuminate the Saul Goodman character.
We’ve been talking about serious stuff, but you’re also in the new Wes Anderson movie, “Asteroid City.” Was it fun to go back to something lighter?
Yeah. It is very Wes Anderson: quirky, sentimental, sweet, odd. It’s just so him. In all the best ways.
I look at it like a meal. I’ve been very, very fortunate to be able to do television, film and theater, comedies, dramas, superhero stuff — “Argyle” a little later on this year. And that’s what I like. I like to keep not eating the same food. I want to try different things, and part of that is trying something that you’re not familiar with. Like, OK, I am singing and dancing and good luck to me! [Laughs] I may fail miserably, but at least then you know.
There has been talk of a “Malcolm in the Middle” reboot. You’d be up for it?
Yeah, yeah. You know, I’m 67 now and sentimentality and nostalgia has is more common. I still am in touch with the boys and Jane [Kaczmarek] and [creator] Linwood Boomer and several other writers. I started this conversation maybe five years ago. They said, “Would you ever be interested?” And it’s like, well, I don’t know. It was kind of a small swirl that actually started to pick up a little more traction is and is right now swirling a little tighter. Whether or not it happens, I don’t know, there’s a lot of ideas that never come to fruition. And that’s just part of our business. If we come up with a really good idea, it’d be fun to explore. But if we don’t, then let’s just let it be what it was.
Read more from the Drama Series issue here.
