Both Ryan Gosling and Bryan Cranston are amazing actors, with huge fan following. However, when they collaborated on their acclaimed movie Drive, Cranston was way above his co-star in terms of fame and acclaim, and for a good reason too. So when he was approached for the movie, he wasn’t all too happy due to the script being still in drafts and his character grossly underdeveloped.
However, he still decided to take on the movie and came up with his own ideas about it. It was he who came up with the brilliant idea of how his character meets his end, which ended up shocking Gosling as well as Nicolas Winding Refn, the director.
Bryan Cranston Impressed Director With His Idea For His Death In Drive
Drive was an immensely successful movie, praised on many points including the direction, the neo-noir theme, the action, and the emotional quotient of the storyline. While both Bryan Cranston and Ryan Gosling were praised for their strong performances, Cranston’s death stood out for the way it unfolded and contributed to the narrative.
It was the actor himself who deserves the credit for how his character meets his tragic end, which completely shocked Gosling and Nicolas Winding Refn. In an event, Cranston revealed the details of how the scene came about (via The Hollywood Reporter)
“In the original script, my character and Albert Brooks’ character actually liked each other. They were fond of each other and I thought that was a great problem to have.”
So, he came up with his own idea,
“I pitched it that Albert says, ‘That’s all right, no more pain, that’s all.’ I said, ‘And then I think he sets me down carefully.’ And then I think I even pitched… He sets me down on the ground and gently lets my head against the bumper of a car. I’m just laying there and he says, ‘No more pain, you’ll just go to sleep.’”
While it certainly shocked Refn, he readily agreed to have it in the movie.
Bryan Cranston Would Not Have Been In Drive If Refn Hadn’t Called Him
When Nicolas Winding Refn approached Bryan Cranston, Cranston’s character was too underdeveloped. So when he called up the actor, he pitched in that the actor could come up with his own ideas about his character. After a lengthy discussion back then, Refn didn’t hear from him for a while.
Initially hesitant he called him up, which was the reason the Breaking Bad star ended up being in the movie, as the director revealed in an interview with AV Club.
“I called him, and at the moment I called, he was sitting with a blank piece of paper writing pros and cons of doing Drive or not. He said, ‘Well, since you’re calling, there must be meaning, so I’ll do your movie.'”
That is how the highly acclaimed movie came about, which in fact would have been really dry had Bryan Cranston not agreed to it.
Drive can be streamed on Netflix.
