Bryan Cranston as Walter White in Breaking Bad

He’s credited with changing the face of television over the last five years. Bryan Cranston — Walter White of Breaking Bad — chats with t2 on his character’s degeneration from influential educator to unscrupulous meth maker in the hit TV series, season I of which is currently airing in India (Monday to Friday at 11pm on STAR World).

A mild-mannered chemistry teacher to a terminally ill meth-producing criminal — Walter White has been the role of a lifetime for you. When you started on the show, did you ever think that Breaking Bad would become so big?

No… no! I gave that up a long time ago. I think it’s a folly on the part of newcomers to try and predict what will work and what won’t. It’s such a waste of energy. All we can do is do the best job that we can… focus on our work and hope. I always talk about the component of luck too… you have to have a tremendous amount of luck to get a show that people respond to and that stays on for six or seven or eight years. I treat it a lot like the Serenity Prayer… control the things you can and leave the things you can’t.

But yes, the success of the show has overwhelmed me. It’s just exploded, if I can use one word. I was attracted to the character and the scope of the show. I didn’t focus on whether we would be a hit or not. When I heard the news that people had responded well, I thought: ‘Fantastic… it means I can play around a little more.’ This character and show has hit a core and that has resonated among viewers as well as the (television) industry. So many people want to work with me now and I am flattered and excited at the prospects. It’s up to me now to carefully pick and choose where I should land.

Why do you think the show has become such a huge global success?

I think the one thing that really resonates is the honesty. The show started out as one man’s decision-making and how he is on a slippery slope. This man now is like cancer himself and has infected all the people around him. I also think it works because the show just doesn’t portray the American point of view. It is universal… it is the way human beings act and think and feel. We are sometimes good, sometimes bad. The way that television characters have been depicted in the past is too cookie cutter… too black or too white. To depict a character who can kill someone and then go home and make love to his wife and mean it is complex, yes, but true. And that’s what we wanted the audience to see and decide whether it resonates with them.

What have been the biggest challenges of playing Walter White?

When you look at Walter White, there’s no rest for him. He doesn’t sit down and read the paper with a cup of coffee. He’s always fighting for his life! The whole series takes place over two years and these years have been the most he’s ever lived of his life. Some terrible, some not so terrible. There are some moments he wouldn’t trade in, like the ones that made him feel powerful when he was able to intimidate a man. He had a pocketful of money for the first time in his life… he was respected and feared for the first time in his life. Those are very tempting things for someone to take in. It’s been a challenge.

Were there times when you got so involved with the character that you carried a part of it off the set too?

Normally, we would shoot 13 hours a day over eight days. We would do little bits and pieces every day and then put it all together later. What you are seeing in each episode and getting affected and traumatised and screaming at the heaviness of a scene is actually stretched out over a long period of time. So it becomes more of a pragmatic approach for me. When I know I will be required for a heavy scene, I just shut down and don’t think about anything. I take a nap in my trailer or talk to my wife or do things that I know will get me away from that.

I spend all my energy on set and by the end of the day, I am broke. So I leave it all on set and I go home, I take my make-up off and I take off Walt’s clothes and I don’t want to deal with him anymore. I put on Bryan’s clothes. I drive home and I talk to my wife on the phone when I am on the way and ask her about her day.… I call my daughter who never picks up (laughs)... and then I am all Bryan. I take a bath, have a piece of chicken and half a glass of wine and go to bed. Yes, very exciting! (Laughs)

Do you relate to Walt in any way?

I relate to Walt in the familial sense… his family is very important to him and so is mine. And as a man, when he is faced with the dilemma that he has two years to live and he thinks about lost opportunities and so many ‘what ifs?’ in his life. We all think like that when we are depressed. He never wanted to be in a position where his wife empties his bedpan and wipes off his drool. Pride is something inherent in all men, most often to a fault. He then decides to do something for his family’s future and have a little control over his own destiny.

You have three back-to-back Emmys for Breaking Bad and a nomination this year as well. Does that put more pressure on you or inspire you to do even better?

It’s always sweet. Getting woken up at 5.30am is always bad news, but now when the phone rings at that hour, I think: ‘Oh, today is the day, the Emmy day!’ Any kind of recognition like this is a bonus for an actor. I love it.

WHO'S WALTER WHITE

A disillusioned chemistry teacher living with his pregnant wife and 16-year-old son in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Walter’s job is so low-paying that he has to do time at a car wash to make ends meet. One day, his world turns upside down when he is told that he has inoperable lung cancer. To ensure his family’s financial security after his death, Walt teams up with former student Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) to produce meth, gradually going over to the dark side. As Heisenberg — his clandestine alias — Walt stops at nothing, not even murder, as he breaks bad.

BRYAN’S BEST

MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE

Bryan Cranston starred as a henpecked husband and father of five in this hit TV series that ran over several seasons and won a host of Emmy Awards.

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN

He was a standout as the upright and resourceful Colonel Bryce in the Steven Spielberg film starring Tom Hanks.

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE

Cranston starred as the shifty-eyed Stan in this 2006 film about a family which pulls out all the stops to make their daughter enter a beauty pageant.

DRIVE

Cranston was Ryan Gosling’s boss and confidant in this 2011 critically-acclaimed film.

ARGO

He made an impact as Tony Mendez’s (Ben Affleck) supervisor in this Oscar-winner based on real-life events.

Priyanka Roy

Is Walter White TV’s most badass character?Tell t2@abp.in