Bryan Cranston: Indulging in the Breaking Bad zeitgeist is 'overwhelming' (exclusive)
It’s been ten years since Walter White and Jesse Pinkman started to cook meth together in AMC’s Breaking Bad, and so when Yahoo Movies had the pleasure speaking with Bryan Cranston in Berlin, to celebrate the release of Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs, we couldn’t help but discuss his own experiences shooting the much-adored TV series.
“I think if I indulge into the zeitgeist of all that is Breaking Bad then it would be overwhelming, but I have to step back and look at it and go, ‘wow, what an experience’,” he said.
While it was an experience Cranston, along with his co-star Aaron Paul shared with millions of viewers around the world, for the actor Breaking Bad was always a distinctly personal, human experience, and one he’ll evidently cherish forever.
“For me it was very personal, and I got on board this storytelling journey from a point of view of it being non-existent. There was no success or failure to it, it was neutral. We were just trying to tell a story in the middle of the New Mexican desert that was personal and relevant and human, in all its goodness and faults and just be as honest as we can. You cannot set out to make a classic, nor did we. It’s become that because the people around the world have said, ‘that’s an incredible piece of storytelling’ and I’m immensely proud of that.”
Cranston plays the lead role of Chief in Anderson’s new animation, and with that, as well as his future film projects and his work on stage in the West End in London, playing Howard in Network – it’s fair to say he’s a man who adores his job, which is handy, because we’re rather fond of his work too.
“As we march along and tell other stories, like Isle of Dogs or whatever I’m up to next, on stage in London, I’m just the luckiest person in the world to be able to go from one story to another, and be a storyteller – that’s my job.”
Isle of Dogs is in cinemas now. Watch a clip below.
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