Meth-od Actor: A Conversation with Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston

Bryan Cranston has made one of television's great leaps: From goofy dad on Malcolm in the Middle to the complex Walter White on AMC's Breaking Bad. White is man on a collision course with the dark recesses of the human soul; that may seem dramatic, but all it takes is one look in Cranston's eyes to see the depths of his character's tortured soul.

Earlier this week I caught up with Cranston, who has won two Emmys for his performance, to talk about what's in store for Season 3.

TV.com: I talked to creator Vince Gilligan last season, and we both agreed that Breaking Bad could be categorized as a comedy. What's your take on that?
Bryan Cranston: I don't see it that way. I look at something like Malcom in the Middle, that was a comedy. This is a well-written drama, and any well-written drama has moments of levity that provide several things: a relief for the audience, a more well-rounded experience. So no I don't see it that way.

It is a bit of a stretch, but I just can't get over how many times I find myself laughing at loud at the show.
Well it depends, you happen to be a person with a sick sense of humor. You probably laugh at little old ladies who fall. You bastard!

Ha! When we last saw Walt, there was a plane crashing down around him, he was watching Skylar leave him, and he had the death of Jesse's girlfriend on his hands. How is he going to handle all this weight?
Not well. Season 1 was all about the decision that was made. Why he made it. Who this man is. What his circumstances are. Season 2 was the consequences, like you said, of that decision and realizing that he has to learn a whole new set of skills and that he's unprepared for all of this. Season 3 really encompasses the change he is going through and the self-realization that he has to accept that he's capable of some very dark things. It's embracing who he really is now, and allowing himself not to put up the defenses about it, but allow it to be "This is who I am now, I've changed, there's no going back. And I just want to hang on to be able to hang on to as many little threads of my family as I can before I die."

Will we see the ramifications of Jane's death surface?
That does come to surface in one particular episode this year. And Jesse gets suspicious and starts to probe and... I can't tell you anymore. [laughs]

I believe you've said in other interviews that Skylar discovers what's going on with Walt.
At first, even the producers said, "Wait, what are you doing, don't give that away!" And I said, "You're kidding, we have to tell [the media] something about the season." And that happens in the first episode. She makes an educated guess and finds out what I'm doing. What I thought was brilliant about it is that the conceit was this man truly believes that if she found it, it's over. That's it, I lose everything. That was the whole series. Now they throw that out in the first episode, and it's very compelling to be able to watch what you thought might happen may not happen. It's a very good year for Anna Gunn. She goes through a lot of reflection, anger, and loss. It just keeps getting more complicated.

We heard about the cartel in Season 2, but never really came face-to-face with them. With Walter gaining status and territory, will we see the cartel come into play in Season 3?
[pauses for a second... as if not knowing if he should tell the truth] Yes. The cartel becomes a bigger player in Season Three, primarily because Walt steps on too many toes. It's another example of Walt not having the skill set to understand the world that he's in, and that when you do well, it makes others do less than well. It's remarkable to him and he keeps scratching to make sense of it all. And he really doesn't even know the extent of the danger around him.

Do you think Walter is a good man or a bad man?
In the first year, I can honestly say that Walter was a good man who's made bad decisions. Now, being more specific with it, you have to admit he's just a man. Complete with qualities that are positive and negative. And he has to embrace all of who he is in order to survive. That's an interesting thing. When someone else fails you, you can be angry and hurt by this other person's action and you can discontinue your relationship. And we do that often, we come in and out of relationships. Some end forever, some waiver, and a few stay strong all the way through because you learn to adapt to each other. But when you yourself disappoint you, you either embrace it or you end it, in suicide or self medication.

And Walter is starting to embrace the bad.
Walter is starting to accept it. At first he was incredibly judgmental about it and using this altruistic point of view—"This is for my family. This isn't for me, it's for my family." Well there's only so far you can make that claim. But he's been seduced, and the knee-jerk reaction is to resist going to the dark side. There's a scene last year where I'm giving my son drinks, that was a hard one for me, as a parent myself. It was like, "Wow, how do I wrap my head around this?" I was able to do it because I was starting to feel like the Wolfman, I could see the hair grow on the back of my palms. And you can feel the dichotomy between good and bad, and for the first time in his life, Walt was dangerous. He could intimidate people, and he was a man in some good sense and some bad sense. He was determined to resist the voice of reason, who was Hank in that instance, and I was resisting it because I didn't want to hear the voice of reason. He was venting some self-loathing, he wants to be scolded, he wants to be yelled at. It's a very delicate scene.

I'm a huge Bob Odenkirk fan, so I have to get a Saul Goodman update.
He plays a very key role in our show now, and I think will for a long time to come. The reason is legitimately that these two guys haven't a clue as how to proceed on a level they need to proceed, and [Goodman] has the know how. Like Jesse says, "You don't want a criminal lawyer, you want a criminal lawyer." Here's a guy who is away from the day-to-day threats of life. He's looking paperwork and making phone calls and connections. So his point of view is free and easy. "Hey well, it's been known to happen, a drug dealer getting killed." Meanwhile, Walt and Jesse are tense and can't take the pressure, and Bob just comes in with such a laissez-faire "Ehhh whatever... so you don't like that joke." And it's a wonderful juxtaposition between the angst-ridden Walt and Jesse and Bob's kind of laid-back self.

My favorite scene in the series is the talk the family has, where Skylar is passing around the talking pillow from Season 1. What's yours?
I haven't thought about it at all. I'm not really one to reflect, in my life, in the job... I'm in the present. I like experiencing the present and looking toward the future. I would say 85 percent of my life is in the here and now, 12 or 13 percent is in the future. and 2 percent is like, "Remember when we did that. That was fun." So when people say look back, I say, "Look back?" It's kind of like your favorite meal, it's the one that you're eating.

Between putting on some weight and shaving your head, you really put yourself in the character. Has there been any fallout from that transformation in your real life?
Yeah, it's made me look and feel a lot older, which is right for the character. Walt is older than he is, he's only 50 on the show but he feels the weight of the world, he has hunched shoulders, and the anguished face. He feels like he's 65 to 70 years old. I feel for him, I certainly wouldn't want to be him. At the end of every day, I have a ritual. I strip the wardrobe off, get rid of it. I go to the makeup trailer and put on the makeup remover, and I take two big, hot, wet towels. I put one on my bald head and one on my face and I just breath into it and wipe all the grime from the day off my head. My head's steaming now, and ohhh that feels great. It wipes away all the energy that Walter White carries with him, I don't want to take that home with me.

Breaking Bad premieres this Sunday, March 21 at 10pm on AMC.