Bryan Cranston: From Walter White to the White House

The actor on his role as Lyndon Johnson in ‘All the Way’ and the benefits of delayed success

Alexandra Wolfe

The Wall Street Journal

CANCEL

Biography Alexandra Wolfe
@AlexandraWolfe
[email protected]

May 20, 2016 9:28 a.m. ET

Three years ago, actor Bryan Cranston was half-hoping that he’d be assaulted. He was weeks away from playing President Lyndon B. Johnson in “All the Way” in Boston, where it opened before a four-month run on Broadway, and he felt entirely unprepared. He’d spent too much time researching the part and not enough time learning his lines. “I thought, ‘What if someone jumped me and hurt me—not really badly, just enough so I couldn’t do it, but it wasn’t my fault,’” he says. That was immediately followed by, “Oh my God, I can’t believe I had that thought!”

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Mr. Cranston, 60, went on to win a Tony Award for his performance. This weekend, a film version of “All the Way” will air on HBO. He found that playing Johnson on the screen was a different experience. The sets were more precise, and he sat through more than two hours of hair and makeup every day, getting a prosthetic chin, ears, cheeks and nose, so that he looked the part. “Doing the movie, the character was deeply in my bones,” he says.

Mr. Cranston became a household name late in his career, mostly thanks to his role as Walter White, a chemistry teacher turned crystal-meth producer, in the television series “Breaking Bad” (2008-2013). In recent years, he has taken on other challenging roles in films such as “Trumbo” (2015) and “Argo” (2012). He has started producing shows as well, including “Sneaky Pete,” a drama series about a con man who leaves prison and takes on his cell mate’s identity. It will appear on Amazon later this year.

Born in Hollywood to a radio actress mother and a father who was an actor and writer, Mr. Cranston started acting at age 7 when his father cast him in a United Way commercial. He became interested in movies and used to stage scenes with his brother, but his parents split up when he was 11, and he stopped acting.

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He went to Los Angeles Valley College with the intention to be a police officer. But at 19, he took a drama class and realized, “The girls in theater are prettier than the ones in police science.” And after reading “Hedda Gabler,” Henrik Ibsen’s play about an aristocratic woman who struggles with the confines of married life, he was inspired to pursue acting after all.

He was cast in a series of TV roles, including an occasional part as a dentist on “Seinfeld.” His role as the goofball father on the Fox sitcom “Malcolm in the Middle” (2000-2006) earned him three Emmy nominations.

“Breaking Bad” brought him even more attention, as well as four Emmys and one Golden Globe Award for best lead actor in a drama. Mr. Cranston says that he appreciates his late breakout. “If you’re in your late teens and 20s and you find great fame, it’s difficult to navigate,” he says. Younger people often don’t have the maturity “to always know what’s the best way to keep a level head about that stuff…. It’s being able to say, ‘Wow, what a lucky break,’ and I think through age I’ve been able to do that.”

Bryan Cranston Photo: Brad Trent for The Wall Street Journal

When deciding on a new part, he first considers the story, script and character, then the director and other actors. “It doesn’t have to be a monumental story. It could be a small personal story,” he says. “I just need to be moved.”

To get ready for a role, Mr. Cranston does as much research as he can. For “All the Way,” he read about Johnson, interviewed historians and family members and went to Austin, Texas, to visit the LBJ Presidential Library. For “Breaking Bad,” he actually learned how to make crystal methamphetamine from Drug Enforcement Administration chemists.

Many of Mr. Cranston’s parts have been intense, such as his star turn as Dalton Trumbo, a screenwriter blacklisted from the film industry in 1947 because of his Communist sympathies. Offset, he tries to distract himself from a demanding role by listening to calming music. “By virtue of survival, you have to find methods by which you can relax,” he says.

‘‘If you’re in your late teens and 20s and you find great fame, it’s difficult to navigate.’’

He also likes the challenge of live theater. On stage, “you have a personal exchange with the audience,” he says. “When you say something and they inhale greatly, they’re telling you they get it, and in the quiet moments you can feel the audience leaning in.” Other times, they may be checked out or an actor may be having a bad day. “You find a way to soldier on,” he says.

Mr. Cranston lives with his wife, actress Robin Dearden, in Ventura County, Calif. They have one grown daughter, Taylor Dearden, who is also an actress. Next, Mr. Cranston will star in “The Infiltrator,” a film about U.S. special agent Robert Mazur, who got inside Pablo Escobar’s Medellín cartel. He also has a book of autobiographical stories coming out in October called “A Life in Parts.”

After playing LBJ for so long, Mr. Cranston hasn’t ruled out getting into politics himself someday. Still, he notes, “I have no [political] aspirations from an ego standpoint.” As it is, he adds, “I get much more attention than I ever wanted or care about.”

Write to Alexandra Wolfe at [email protected]

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32 comments

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Frederick Wissemann subscriber

The man is a great actor. Seeing him in "All the Way" will make you appreciate that. It also made me realize what a masterful politician and negotiator President Johnson was.

WILLIAM PEITHMANN subscriber

I remember a cartoon when he passed -- in 1973, in the height of Nixon's disgrace -- that showed LBJ ascending toward heaven on the twin wings of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, but with a black amulet the size of bowling ball (cannon ball?) that said simply "Viet Nam".

I like to think that Bill Mauldin drew that cartoon, but I suspect he had passed by then.

40 odd years later, and that's the most cogent comment I remember on LBJ -- and yes, I've read Caro.

Steve W. Bell subscriber

Cranston played the climax to "Breaking Bad" so superbly, he's forever typecast to me as the criminal genius mastermind/madman, racing across Albuquerque to save his drug money, or fiendishly plotting the demise of his rivals (usually so it's blamed on someone else).

Ron Brancatelli subscriber

I can't believe how far he has come from Malcolm.

Joel Jeckyll subscriber

I love the way everyone is all of the sudden an authority on LBJ. Not a single one of us have ever A. Met the man, and B. Worked for him during/before/after his presidency. Now you're wondering if the movie made use of some of his favorite racial slurs? Wow, that's ripe coming from someone who didn't even know that the Civil Rights Act was passed during his term. Keep talking Sarah.

@Robert Allen @Joel Jeckyll Not saying he didn't. I watched it happen probably more closely than you. I'm saying it's easy to be an arm chair quarterback 50 years after the fact. And especially when no one is allowed to take up for themselves. Pass judgement after you've been left a war and I'll pay more attention.

SARAH FARRAR subscriber

@Joel Jeckyll

Let me see….What POTUS just might have signed into law the 1964 Civil Rights Act?

Hmmmm.

Had to be Obama, right?

Ooopsie.. Dumb me.

Robert Allen subscriber

Sarah is spot on, LBJ was a despicable creature right out of a sewer.

He caused more meaningless loss of American military personal than any enemy.

The former school teacher deluded himself into believing that he was a Battlefield Commander. He should have been convicted of "Treason" and sent to prison.

@SARAH FARRAR @Joel Jeckyll Yea, I guess I made all this up even though I remember watching it happen. I'm so stupid...

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Pub.L. 88–352, 78 Stat. 241, enacted July 2, 1964) is a landmark piece of civil rights legislation in the United States[5] that outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.[6] It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public (known as "public accommodations").

Congress asserted its authority to legislate all citizens equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment and its duty to protect voting rights under the Fifteenth Amendment. The Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 2, 1964, at the White House.

@Joel Jeckyll @SARAH FARRAR

Then what are we arguing about, Fool?

Yes! LBJ signed into law the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

I remember it happening too.

Paul Zmigrosky subscriber

LBJ was a bigger polecat than Nixon or clinton. Can't wait to see the movie tonight.

Just wondering...does this play make use of some of Johnson's favorite racist slurs? Does it delve into his perverse character?

Johnson was an utterly despicable human being....Donald Trump's vulgarisms pale in comparison to Johnson on a good day.

A horrible womanizer....who brought women into his offices in Washington and into his and Mrs. Johnson's own home; a drunkard; a racist.

He thought nothing of urinating in front of reporters...male or female.

The list of his hideous misadventures is endless.

Whatever possessed the producers to decide to delve into this nasty man's character?

Secret Service agent on LBJ: "If he wasn't president, he'd be in a mental hospital".

Howard Roberts subscriber

@SARAH FARRAR @Howard Roberts No sane individual could possibly argue that the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act hurt blacks.

@SARAH FARRAR In terms of accomplishments, LBJ was the greatest American president of this century. Your ignorance of his accomplishments is beyond astonishing!

@Howard Roberts @SARAH FARRAR

I know full well what that maniac "accomplished".

How old are you, Howard? Perhaps all that you know about the failed policies of Johnson are what you were spoon fed in your government indoctrination camp, aka, American 20th c education system.

"The actual consequences of Johnson's Great Society were disastrous for blacks, discouraging initiative, encouraging a sense of entitlement and victim hood, and creating a permanent dependency class. Until 1965, 82% of black households had both a mother and a father in the home -- a statistic on par with or even slightly higher than white families. After 1965 (the year the Democrats and President Johnson decided it was time to stop oppressing blacks and start "helping" them), the presence of black fathers in the home began a precipitous decline; today, the American black out-of-wedlock birthrate is at 69%."

His use of the "N" word was flagrant.

Like the Dems today, he used AAs for their votes.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a Democrat and a member of Johnson's cabinet, warned against the unintended consequences of aspects of Johnson's programs that would undermine the African American family and cause child abandonment and out of wedlock births to skyrocket and lead to an increase in households headed by single women and higher rates of poverty.

History has proven he was prescient about that.

Lord have mercy.

Could there be any fate worse than to have the "character of Lyndon Johnson deeply in one's bones"?

Did Alan go get himself exorcised on a daily basis?

STUART SMALL subscriber

One of the few actors I admire. A class act.

SEAN NOONE subscriber

@STUART SMALL Bryan Cranston is a class act, a gentleman, and a fine family man.

John Nicholas Treano subscriber

'All The Way', the usual left-wing media whitewash of our most toxic and corrupt modern president. Skip 'All The Way' and watch HBO's 'Path to War'.

Tim List subscriber

@John Nicholas Treano

Yeah. Of course. Why waste our time thinking about art when it's really always all about politics?

@Tim List @John Nicholas Treano

"Art" being used as propaganda is the appropriate time to avoid such art.

It is done, Tim.

"We shall discover and encourage the artists who are able to impress upon the State of the German people the cultural stamp of the Germanic race . . . in their origin and in the picture which they present they are the expressions of the soul and the ideals of the community." (Hitler, Party Day speech, 1935)

Paul Wm Danielsen subscriber

Excellent actor finally getting much deserved acclaim.

Rock on BC

To bad that such an accomplished actor has to portray the WORST president of the 20th century.

A War Mongering , fool that also destroyed the black family in America.

@Roger Gordon @Robert Allen

LBJ ranks second; Carter a Close third.

Roger Gordon subscriber

@Robert Allen

You must mean Barack Obama, right?

@RICHARD SZABO @SARAH FARRAR @Roger Gordon @Robert Allen

I am not a Republican nor a fan of any of the Bush clan.

I suppose Bush ranks a notch ahead of the Young Mullah, Obama. It was Bush, after all, (and a compliant, corrupt press/media who failed to vet and deliberately covered the candidate) who gave us that fool.