| Bryan Cranston: I’m not a real cop . . . |
| Written by Ed Avila |
| Thursday, 22 February 1996 09:11 |
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Bryan Cranston is laughing, something he does easily and frequently. He leans forward and runs his hand through his reddish-brown hair. Straight, white teeth emerge from beneath his light beard and his eyes crinkle shut. His laughter erupts after he recalls two embarrassing commercials from his past. In one, he was crammed inside a full skunk suit for an entire day to hawk soap. In the other, he played a cyclops, complete with on giant eye in the middle of his face, reading and enjoying The National Enquirer.
Cranston, who has since established himself as a respectable actor in films such as Clean Slate, two years on the soap opera Loving and in the recurring role of dentist Tim Whatley on the CBS series Seinfeld, now can laugh at his humble beginnings. With his star quickly on the rise, he is currently appearing in the mid-season replacement series The Louie Show for CBS, which stars Louie Anderson. On the show Cranston plays Anderson's best friend, a police detective. But Cranston was supposed to do more than merely portray a policeman on television; he was supposed to become one. At least that was the plan. From the time he was 16, being a policeman was what he assumed he would do. It was respectable-honorable, even. So he studied hard, graduated top of his class from the Los Angeles Police Explorers and majored in Police Science in college. But fate had other plans for him. "Something wasn't quite right about becoming a policeman," explains Cranston, as he sits at a desk cluttered with photos of his beautiful wife and actress, Robin Dearden, and daughter Taylor in the office of his comfortable Sherman Oaks home. "I didn't realize what it was, but all I knew was that I needed to not go down and become a real policeman by the time I was 21. So instead... my brother and I hopped on motorcycles and rode across the country for two years. We'd get jobs here and there, fill our gas tanks and our stomach and away we went."   On this two year odyssey, the brothers landed in Daytona Beach, Florida, where Cranston fell in love with local theater. It was also on their journey that they spent five fateful days under a shelter in an abandoned park in Virginia during a seemingly endless rain storm. Armed with only playing cards, a book of Ibsen and a book of Arthur Miller, Cranston, in between card games, read. "I was visualizing myself acting in these plays. It was at that point that I had this cognition, I should do something I'm not only good at, but that I love. That was the difference, I was good at police work, but I didn't love it. That was the thing that was holding me back. However, I loved acting, and I found out that I was good at it. That was salvation for me." Cranston's narrow, smokey blue eyes widen, as if experiencing his life-changing revelation all over again. His decision to become an actor did not come out of left field. In fact he had flirted with acting his whole life. Growing up in the San Fernando Valley, Cranston retreated to performing in his garage, school plays and watching movies to escape a painful period in his childhood. "When my parents were splitting up, my brother and I would sneak away and go to the movie theater..., because it was a sanctuary. It was a place for me to go and let my imagination wander and get away from reality for awhile." Even in college, while diligently studying for a career in law enforcement, he needed some electives. What was his choice, acting. This started what he calls his "schizophrenia" in college. He was torn between law, which was black or white, and acting, which had no perimeters. But once destiny intervened under that shelter in the pouring rain in Virginia, there was no turning back. Cranston returned to Los Angeles and jumped head first into the unstable waters of acting. Taking jobs (furniture mover, dating service interviewer) that allowed him the flexibility to go on auditions, he began to study with various acting teachers. One such teacher was actress Shirley Knight, who taught him, among other things, not to be afraid but to be almost arrogant in his belief that he could own a character. He also learned early in his career the value of preparation. "I am from the Fred Astaire school of thought, which means rehearse it to death!" he says emphatically, as he swivels back and forth in his squeaky desk chair. "I mean, just work it and work it and work it, which is what Astaire did. When I get an audition piece, I keep looking for a different angle until I know that I'm going to do something in that room that no one else has. I don't stop until I find that thing.""As actors, we are the storytellers. We are the dreamers," Cranston says. "Every person is in quest of finding where their power lies. Actors find power in their art. We truly define happiness by being able to change a person's mood, or make them laugh or cry or something. I think we are attracted to the power and exhilaration of that."  This basic understanding has worked well for Cranston, who has worked continuously in film, television and theater. He now teaches young actors auditioning techniques. One thing he advocates is to not be afraid to "get off the page" during an audition. "No job was ever won by getting all the words right. It's about striking an emotional chord. If you understand that character and make that connection, that's what puts you in the running. Let the character live in you. Let your little idiosyncrasies come out. So do your homework, know that scene inside and out, know the intent of your character, then be free enough to know that it doesn't have to be verbatim," Cranston advises. He pauses briefly, grins and adds, "When and if you get the job, there's plenty of time to learn the lines as they wrote it." And getting jobs has never been a problem for the striking and witty actor. As he waits to hear the fate of The Louie Show, which airs on Wednesday nights at 8:30 p.m. for the next six weeks, Cranston is preparing to shoot the Tom Hanks film That Thing You Do, in which he will play an astronaut. Upcoming television appearances include a new Rockford Files movie with James Garner ("He keeps his set loose, and is fun"), Diagnosis Murder with Dick Van Dyke ("a sweetheart") and another Murder She Wrote with Angela Lansbury ("This time I get to be the killer!"). In addition to his busy acting career, he and his longtime manager, Leonard Grant, formed Quintus Productions. They recently acquired the David Wiltse novel “Home Again,” which they hope to turn into a motion picture vehicle for Cranston. With so much happening for him now, what is Cranston's take on the situation? "I am the luckiest guy I know," he reflects, peering out the window at his quiet neighborhood. "I have a great relationship with my wife, a beautiful daughter and I make a good living doing something that I would certainly do for free. There's no complaint. Sure, there's frustration at times, but no room for complaints." |
| Last Updated on Monday, 15 February 2010 02:47 |
