PLUME: Is there any such thing as take three on soap operas?
CRANSTON: Yeah, if there’s a problem, sure. Only if there’s a technical problem or a problem with the actor and you can’t quite get something, then you’ve got to keep doing it until you get it. People in real life stammer and stutter and search for words, and I like that in drama. I like the sense of reality in it. I remember we did a scene in a soap opera once, when I was on Loving for ABC … we did this scene around the table and someone knocked over a champagne bottle, someone grabbed a towel and something like this – just maybe a few seconds – and someone picked up their cue and we started. They said, “Cut, we’ve got to do that again.” I thought, “Why? Why would you do that again? It’s perfect – it’s real.” You can’t get a more real moment out of an accidental spill. It didn’t take up but a few seconds before the next person threw out their line and then you’re off and running again. So I would have handled it differently.
PLUME: Do you think shooting the way Malcolm does – does that siphon away any of that spontaneity, by its very nature?
CRANSTON: It does. It does. But, see, we don’t rely on spontaneity. Our series is so finely honed as far as the scripts are concerned, that every moment has been measured out. Now, it’s our job as actors to give the impression that it’s not, and that’s where the trick of acting comes in. To have scripted material appear that it’s not. So that’s the challenge. It certainly does challenge us – nightly.
PLUME: Were you surprised by how quickly the show became a success?
CRANSTON: Nicely surprised, yeah. I had done series before. I had two other series that had made it to the air – neither one did well and were cancelled. I had also done about eight pilots in my time, total. Three went to series, including Malcolm. So you have this situation where there were other shows that were really terrific, and I thought, “This will sell. This will definitely sell. This will go.” Didn’t go, didn’t go. Then, one that I never thought would go, went, and it’s like, “Oh my God, I have no way of knowing.” So I stopped thinking about it. I just can’t figure it out. So, that’s the way it went.
PLUME: How measurable is the change when you’re on a hit show? Does the phone start ringing? Do people start pointing at you on the street? What is that shift like?
CRANSTON: It does, although I like to be a chameleon as much as possible. My hairstyle is what I call Hal hair, and the way Hal carries himself is different and the way he acts is different… his facial expressions are different, so it sometimes takes people a little bit to recognize me, but then they do. It’s grown and that’s part of it – certainly not why I became an actor, but that goes with the territory. For the most part it’s fun, there’s only been a few instances that have been uncomfortable. That’s just dealing with zealots in the realm of fandom, and you’re going to have some crazy people out there, and when your face is known then you have to be a little more protective, a little more careful.
PLUME: But that’s a minority, I’m assuming…
CRANSTON: Yes, but all it takes is one. That’s the thing. With craziness, you can’t predict it. There’s very little defense you can have on craziness. But so far it hasn’t been terrible, and that’s a good thing. But the real reason that I enjoy chameleon kind of look is that it affords me the chance to play other characters more believably. So I much, much prefer and will do everything in my power to stay an actor and not become a personality.
PLUME: Do you think it’s also good, from that sort of typecast perspective, to have as long a career as you’ve had with varied roles before you got the success on Malcolm?
CRANSTON: I think so. But there is that pigeon-hole mentality that people like to try to say. I remember hearing, “Well, he does dramas. He’s a drama guy.” So then I had to focus on finding more comedies. Then it swings the other way, “Yeah, but he’s a comedy guy. No one’s going to take him seriously.” I hate when they do that. I hate when they say those things. When they called us soap opera actors, as opposed to, “He’s an actor currently working on a soap opera.”
PLUME: The range that you’ve showed on Malcolm is impressive – like the bathroom scene, the dancing in your underwear scene, that Fox used for all their promos that one week …
CRANSTON: Oh did they? That’s lovely. The criteria for me to do something is if I think it’s going to be funny. And Linwood Boomer, our executive producer, he just continually comes up with the funny material. So even if something’s potentially embarrassing – which I have come up with on this show on a weekly basis – I’ll do it if it’s funny. And this is funny. The guy is looking at himself, a middle aged man looking at himself in the mirror and he’s in his underwear, and he looks at his fat on his belly and he starts shaking it and goofing around. I thought, “Yeah. In an odd way, we males do this.” We pinch ourselves and go, “How the hell did you get here? What happened?”
PLUME: But it’s also a commentary on the marriage, when you pan back and see Lois in the bathtub and realize just how comfortable they are as a couple.
CRANSTON: That’s a good point. That’s a good point. What’s great about comedy, obviously, is that you set up a situation that people assume one thing and then you break the assumption. That’s basically the backbone to comedy. You set up a situation, let people make an assumption, and then you break the assumption. So in this case, we set up a situation that people understand, and the assumption is I’m alone. Right? All of sudden you pull back and, “Oh! He’s not alone.” That’s where it goes.
PLUME: And yet the behavior is the same.
CRANSTON: The behavior is the same. So the best comedy is finding material like that, that you believe … Every middle aged guy I would bet says, “I’ve done that. I’ve goofed around. I’ve looked at myself in the mirror. I’ve shaken my ass to see how much is there.” You do that. So number one, they relate to it. You can go, “Yeah, I know what that is.” And then you have a comical twist to it.
PLUME: What’s your personal preference as an actor – doing comedy or drama? For yourself, you’ve written two dramas…
CRANSTON: More than that, actually. I’ve written a comedy. I haven’t gotten that off the ground yet. But, well, it’s harder to do comedy, but it’s more fun in the process to do comedy. You have jokes, you’re laughing, you’re goofy and the crew is laughing, and you have a better time.
PLUME: So it’s a state of mind issue?
CRANSTON: Yeah, the state of mind. You go home in a better frame of mind. You know, if you’re doing drama day after day after day after day, you can’t help but have a set that is more serious and more just kind of …
PLUME: Somber?
CRANSTON: Yeah, somber. That kind of moves along at that pace. So working conditions-wise, it’s much better to do a comedy. Ultimately more satisfying? I don’t know… it depends on your tastes. But, just like everybody, every actor that I know of wants to do both because, just like a human being, you want funny moments in your life, but you also want serious moments in your life. So it’s the same thing in your acting life. You want some serious moments, you want some funny moments, and you want to mix it up. For instance, now, in my hiatus from my show, I’m going to do a movie where the guy is very serious, hard-body. I’m losing weight and working out and tightening up and everything, so when they see this movie, what my hope is is that people will go, “Oh my God, that’s the guy from Malcolm In The Middle?” That would be wonderful, to have people just not believe it, and to see me in a totally different light. It’s the same thing that, you know, like Billy Bob Thornton did when he broke the mold. He was doing a sitcom, he was kind of a portly guy on a sitcom with John Ritter, no one knew him. Then he does Slingblade, that he wrote and directed and acted in. It just completely and utterly broke his pigeon-hole. Now people are going, “Oh, I don’t know, he can do this, he can do that. I don’t know what he is.” That’s what makes a movie star – that you go, “Man, he’s unpredictable.”
PLUME: What’s next?
CRANSTON: Exactly. That kind of guesswork is what creates the mystique for an actor, and he’s very smart. He created a series of roles for himself, or sought out a series of roles, that alternate – comedy, drama, bad guy, good guy, anti-hero, a heroic hero. I mean, he’s all over the place. That’s what you want.
PLUME: Do you think it’s easier to be pigeon-holed as a TV actor just by the sheer volume of work that people are exposed to?
CRANSTON: Yes. But if you’re an actor who primarily works in movies, you can have the same thing happen to you by simply making a bad choice. In other words, if you do a light, romantic comedy and it was successful, and you follow it up with a light, romantic comedy that might be successful, and then you do another light, romantic comedy – you’re screwing yourself in the long run. Because there aren’t enough light, romantic comedies that you can do, that people won’t get tired of you. You look at a guy like Hugh Grant, who I think has screwed himself. He stayed in that light, romantic comedy too long, I thought …
PLUME: The problem was when he tried to branch out after that, the movie was a failure. So they say, “Well, you need to go back to what you do well.”
CRANSTON: Right. And then you don’t get any offers to do any dramas, but you get offers to do comedies and you’re afraid to turn them down because, “I may not get another offer, so I might as well do it.” It’s an unfortunate situation, whereas if you start mixing it up right from the beginning, then you have a much better chance of a diversified body of work.
PLUME: It also seems like a lot of actors are moving into writing and producing their own films now for that very reason.
CRANSTON: I think so. Billy Bob Thornton would not have been able to be cast in Slingblade had he not been the writer on it, you know what I mean? He didn’t have enough cachet to do it, but once you write the material or own the material – whether you write it yourself or option it yourself – then it changes the whole game. Then you have more power than you realize, and that’s why I started writing and that’s what I would recommend to anybody who wants to mix it up a bit, is that you need to find your own material. Because then you’re not just a name on a list on a sign-in sheet with 100 other actors – it’s you. You don’t even have to cast – it’s you. You’re done. You’re done casting – you’re it, move on.
PLUME: Then you tend to fill the other parts with known quantities, those you know and worked with.
CRANSTON: Well, yeah, you hope to. It’s a real hard process doing film. It’s a very hard business to do, and you’ve got to know what you’re doing. But the easiest way to break in is to do an independent film. Much easier than to break into production of doing a series. Television series are usually run by people who have been around television already for 10, 15 years at least. But you can be a nobody right out of film school and make a movie.
PLUME: Especially now with the technology hitting rock bottom prices.
CRANSTON: That’s right. That’s right. I love the idea, doing digital video films. I love it. I think it will open it up and make more opportunities for more filmmakers that may have not had the chance before.
PLUME: Can’t beat more product out there – it actually spurs on the people that are a bit staid, to be a bit more experimental.
CRANSTON: Yeah.
Continued below…
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