You already know that anyone who has seen Breaking Bad has to have the crime drama as one of their top five favorite shows of all time. Bryan Cranston’s Walter White just had that effect on the viewers! Throughout the five seasons, the show was able to keep its audience invested and is now considered one of the greatest television series, as per the critics.
Despite filming for many years, the actors must have one scene that remains their favorite and for Bryan Cranston, it has something to do with Jesse Plemons’ Todd Alquist. The scene takes place in the fifth episode of season five which ended up making Todd one of the most hated villains of television history.
Bryan Cranston’s Favorite Scene from Breaking Bad
In Dead Freight, Walter White, Todd Alquist, and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) successfully pull off a high-stakes train heist in order to obtain methylamine. As they celebrate their success, a young boy stumbles onto the scene by mistake and the two main characters are left calculating their options. Before they could do or say something, Jesse Plemons’ Todd takes out a gun and shoots the kid, killing him instantly.
What’s even more disturbing is the fact that Todd waved back at the kid before bringing out the gun. Quite sadistic, isn’t it?
However, while the scene was pretty disturbing for the viewers, it ended up being Bryan Cranston’s favorite moment from the show. Talking to Entertainment Weekly, Cranston stated,
“All these things had to go right — and everything went right! It was fantastic. I remember the characters celebrating euphorically in pulling off the train heist of the century. And a moment later, an innocent life is snuffed out when that kid on the motorcycle just shows up. He’s just there. And as Jesse and Walt are trying to figure out, ‘Oh s—, what do we do?’ Jesse Plemons’ character just raises a gun and shoots him.”
According to Cranston, the scene was much deeper than what took place on the screen. It was a way of connecting the audience to the characters of Breaking Bad. As he said, if the viewers want to join the characters during the thrill, they’ll also have to experience the consequences of their business.
“And it was like, ‘Oh my God!’ It was such a beautifully constructed narrative: Okay, you want to experience the highs with Walter White? You want to be on that train ride with Jesse Pinkman? Here’s that rejoicing for you, the audience. And now here’s the repercussions from the business that they’re in. Here’s what happens when you forget that there’s morality connected and consequences to every action. It was just so amazing.”
Todd didn’t really have to kill the kid. He didn’t know what was going on, the heist was successful, and there was no way it could be traced back to them just like they had planned. But for Todd, killing the kid and stuffing him into a barrel of acid seemed like an obvious choice. No wonder the fans absolutely hate his guts!
Another Scene that is Close to Bryan Cranston’s Heart
As Walter watched Jane (Krysten Ritter) die in the twelfth episode of season 2, the scene somehow ended up being much more than fiction for Cranston. The line between reality and acting started to blur and the actor couldn’t hold back his emotions. Why? Well, as a parent, it was very difficult to watch a young woman die right in front of his eyes, even if it was all scripted.
During his appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, the Your Honor actor recalled how his daughter’s face replaced Ritter’s for a few seconds while filming the scene.
“I did a scene on Breaking Bad where I was watching a woman die in the second season and being prepared for that. And then all of a sudden, her face left and the face of my real daughter showed up. I was watching my real daughter die in front of me, and it choked me. I even get a little choked up now.”
Recalling the set-up made Cranston emotional all over again and it is quite clear that he won’t ever be forgetting the hard-hitting scene for years to come.
You can stream Breaking Bad on Netflix.
