How did Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston avoid taking Walter White home?

Virgin Radio

12 Feb 2023, 23:21

And the chemistry teacher turned drug lord returns... tonight!

Bryan Cranston has talked about the problem of taking "mean characters" home after a long day filming.

Cranston played chemistry teacher turned drug lord Walter White in Breaking Bad between 2008 and 2013. He briefly reprised the role for the final season of Better Call Saul and for El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, and tonight revisits it again in a Super Bowl advert for the snack, PopCorners.

He's said that reuniting with Aaron Paul and Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan was "so much fun to do".

Cranston recently told The Independent that actors can unintentionally take the role of "mean characters" home with them and must be mindful of how doing so affects their personal lives.

He said, "Sometimes you're playing a mean character and you take it home with you – until hopefully your partner tells you to knock it off."

"You need it to live a normal life," he continued. "I don't want to live in the characters I play. I would be completely exhausted if I had to take them home with me."

Describing how he gets into character, Cranston compared the process to yoga, saying: "Your body knows what you're about to do. It's the same thing for an actor. When I go to work, my body knows where we're going, and it knows how to get there, and then you flip that switch and cleanse yourself of the toxicity of those emotions you don't want to carry into your regular life."

But enough about that, we want to know what PopCorners taste like.

Cranston told Digital Spy, “Instead of crystal meth, we’re baking these PopCorners [in the RV], and you know – it’s a very tasty snack."