PLUME: What has been the biggest lesson that you’ll be applying to your next film?
CRANSTON: Most definitely – that’s an easy one – don’t be the producer on your own film. Because I wrote it and directed it and was the main producer on it, I would have arguments with myself over what I can afford, you know? “I want a crane.” “You can’t have a crane!” But I need a crane!” “You can’t get one. You don’t have enough money to get a crane.” I would spend what seemed like hours – it was probably minutes – but just kind of staring, going, “Man, I’m frozen,” like when your computer freezes. It’s like, “I can’t move.” So I can’t produce anymore. I’m trying to hook up with these two guys. One was a producer on The Green Mile, and the other is a guy who produced a lot for Robert Duvall, everything up to The Apostle. He left just before Duvall set The Apostle. They seem like really good guys, and I’m hoping that they’ll team together with me and they go out and raise the money. They go out and do all that, let me focus on acting and writing and maybe directing. I don’t know if I’ll do the directing on this one, but that’s where my heart is and that’s where I’m better serving the text.
PLUME: Being the writer on the project, are you comfortable enough handing it over to someone to direct, other than you?
CRANSTON: Yes, I am.
PLUME: Just because you know you’re handing over a whole slew of headaches?
CRANSTON: You know, I think the headaches would lessen if I was just the director and not the producer. A producer in name on there, but let someone else handle all that, and I just focus on the directing. I actually had a good time directing, it just became a headache when I was bogged down with all the business end of it as well.
PLUME: And what you couldn’t do because of the business end of it?
CRANSTON: Yeah, and just the sheer volume of things that needed my attention. It would just tire me out, so I wasn’t rested. Some days, I would wake up to go shoot, and felt like doing All That Jazz. Remember Roy Scheider looking in the mirror, he looked like a piece of shit, and he looked at himself and goes, “It’s showtime!” and he’d turn it on and do what he had to do. I remember just waking up and going, “Oh my God. I have nothing. I’m completely depleted,” and sit in the shower for 10 minutes and sort of wake up, because I had dailies I had to go through and meetings up until 2 in the morning, and I had to get up at 5. Then you go do a full day – 12, 14 hours – and do it again the next day. I think that if I was able to retain some energy by not producing, it’d be all right. It’s still a bitch. Someone said, “What’s your advice?” to one director, and he said, “Wear comfortable shoes, drink lots of water.” And you say, “Oh, come on, you’re being flippant.” They’ll say, “No. You have to do those things to stabilize your body so that it will support you during this arduous time.”
PLUME: It’s essentially back to the marathon analogy, isn’t it?
CRANSTON: Yeah, there you go. Yeah, it’s a long process, so just pace yourself out. But I was trying to do this marathon and also tie a rope to my waist and pull someone else … just too much.
PLUME: When are you hoping to get everything together for your next film? Do you have a title for it yet?
CRANSTON: It’s called Soul of a Hunter. I hope to go into pre-production very soon. Script is just about ready. I want to take another pass through it and shoot in June or July, my last opportunity, my last window to be able to get it all together before I go back to work on Malcolm in late July.
PLUME: I want to touch on a couple different projects and get your recollections on them. I simply have to ask about Amazon Women.
CRANSTON: Amazon Women on the Moon … you know, I’ve never seen it, which is not unlike me.
PLUME: But that was definitely a low-budget film …
CRANSTON: No, not really. It was directed by Joe Dante. So it’s not like it was this nothing – it was a studio movie.
PLUME: Really?
CRANSTON: Yeah.
PLUME: I don’t remember it as such. Maybe because a lot of that didn’t translate to the screen.
CRANSTON: It didn’t work. It was crappy, as I understand it.
PLUME: It was definitely schizophrenic… that would be the polite way of putting it.
CRANSTON: So you saw it?
PLUME: Yeah, it’s definitely a hope of recapturing a Kentucky Fried Movie for the ’80s.
CRANSTON: Yeah, it was a bit ridiculous and it was just a job for me. But, you know, Joe had come – I don’t know if he had already done… what was that little furry thing that he did?
PLUME: Gremlins…
CRANSTON: Gremlins. I don’t know if he had already done that or if it was just before that, but he had a few things under his belt. It was like, “Oh, okay. Joe Dante – we’ll get some attention with this.” I read the script, and when you’re at that level of an actor they go, “Do you want the job?” and you go, “Let me read the script.” They go, “Get out of here! Do you want the job of orderly number two or don’t you?” Do you know what I mean? It’s like, “We’re not going to send you a script, dickhead. Do you want the job?” “Oh, okay, I’ll take the job.” So there it was, there it is. That was my experience.
PLUME: The next one I would ask about is That Thing You Do.
CRANSTON: Well, I know Tom through my wife. My wife and his wife, Rita Wilson, are friends. My wife was in their wedding, as one of the bridesmaids, and that sort of thing. He’s just been a friend and you know, wanted to help me out, which I really appreciate. I just admire him and respect him tremendously. He’s doing some courageous things now, and branching out. He’s just a very, very smart guy, and a nice guy to be around and a lot of fun. When they come over or when we get together, we have a lot of fun. We just crack up. He just called me and said, “Hey, come in. I want you to think about doing this job.” “Okay, great!” With Tom, it’s like doing something with Spielberg. You say yes first, and then find out what you’re doing. He told me what he wanted me to do, he wanted me to play an astronaut in That Thing You Do. It was like 3 or 4 days, turned out to be 3 or 4 seconds that I was on the screen, but that’s the way it goes. Then he called me up – I was playing this very effeminate hairdresser on a series with Rhea Perlman, like 5 years ago. I get a call from Tom – it’s buzzing all through the set. “Tom Hanks is on the phone, he wants to talk to Bryan!” Tom says, “Are you still skinny?” I said, “Yeah, I guess I’m skinny.” “Good.” This is Friday night. He says, “Can you be on a plane tomorrow, to come to Orlando, Florida?” I said, “Yup.” He says, “Good, I’ve got a job for you. You’re going to be here a while, though.” I said, “Yeah. Okay.” “I’m going to have some people call you, and you’ll probably be on a morning flight tomorrow morning.” “Okay, thanks man. Oh wait – Tom, what am I doing?” He goes, “You’re going to play Buzz Aldrin in From the Earth to the Moon.” I said, “Okay, cool. Thanks a lot, Tom.” Hung up and I went, “Okay, I’m going to play Buzz Aldrin, starting Monday.” I had this little thin beard and moustache, and this frilly little hair, and I was playing a takeoff on Isaac Mizrahi, the dress designer, and now I’m going to cut it all off and bleach my hair blonde and play an astronaut. At that moment, I thought, “I love this business. This is the coolest, bitchinest thing I’ve ever thought of in my life.” Then I went down there and did that.
PLUME: Did you have any opportunity to do any research, prior?
CRANSTON: Oh God. Virtually none. I did on the plane and while I was done there, because the couple first days are slow and I’m constantly reading. I just got so involved in it. It was the most important thing I have ever done in my career.
PLUME: And a stunning performance.
CRANSTON: Well, thank you. It was the most important thing I’ve ever done, because of its historical place. I just look back on it, and I learned so much. I just reveled in the fact that I was able to put on a space suit, and walk around as an astronaut and go to launch pad 39A like the real guys did, and go up the elevator and walk out – it just blew me away. I got goose bumps… I’m getting goose bumps now, remembering it. Just the opportunity to do something like that is just magical. It was so important, and I’m eternally grateful to Tom for giving me that shot.
PLUME: It was a very intense part, as far as portraying Buzz.
CRANSTON: Yeah, he’s an interesting man. Very, very bright. And some people say hard to get to know and hard to like, and there’s certainly an element to him that is not all that comfortable in social situations, but I found him very, very gracious and a very nice man. Even after his somewhat displeasure of how I portrayed him in the series, he was still gracious, and so I appreciate that.
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