Bryan Cranston reached peak stardom when he starred as Walter White in the acclaimed drama series Breaking Bad. He played the role of a chemistry teacher who turns to crime when he finds out that he has lung cancer. Cranston won the Primetime Emmy Awards four times and even won the Golden Globe for his role in the drama.
Despite his fame, Cranston stated that pursuing such stardom was futile and that a lot of it depended on luck, which was uncontrollable. He gave the example of his father, who left the family when Cranston was eleven in order to pursue the stardom he felt he deserved after being a struggling actor and writer for years.
Bryan Cranston Considers His Father’s Dream For Stardom Foolish
While Bryan Cranston was inspired by his father to take up an acting career, he stated that he did not like the way his father focused on the wrong parts of it. His father, Joseph Cranston, was a struggling actor who tried his best to make it in his career.
Joseph Cranston did have a few notable appearances and he also worked as a screenwriter and producer on a host of B-movies. However, Bryan Cranston mentioned in an interview with The Guardian that his father was hot in pursuit of stardom which always eluded him. He said,
“My dad wanted to become a star. Which to me is the equivalent of saying that you just want to be rich, without having an idea or a plan of how to acquire wealth…How futile is that? It’s a sign of immaturity, which I would tell him directly if he were still alive.”
Cranston Senior walked out of the family when Bryan was eleven years old and was absent for ten years of the Godzilla star’s life. He later tracked him down at the age of twenty-two and rekindled their relationship until his father died in 2014. Bryan Cranston has revealed that he based a lot of Walter White’s character on his father.
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Bryan Cranston’s Secret To Stardom
When Bryan Cranston started his career, he admitted that he did not expect to become a star by the end of it. For him, it was just a means to an end and something which put food on the table. He stated that he was happy with the recurring work he used to get when he featured in shows such as Malcolm in the Middle and Seinfeld.
Cranston began his career on stage, performing at his local theater in Los Angeles. He tried a variety of jobs while he trying to get his acting career going, such as a camera operator, a minister, a CCTV security guard, and a truck loader. He only started doing regular work when he was cast in minor roles in TV series such as Baywatch, Loving, and Raising Miranda.
The actor got his breakthrough when he was cast in the 90s popular sitcom Seinfeld. Cranston played the role of Jerry Seinfeld’s dentist in the show and was a recurring character. He was then cast as Hal in the beloved coming-of-age sitcom Malcolm in the Middle. The show ran for seven seasons and put Cranston on the map.
After gaining recognition as Hal and as Walter White in Breaking Bad, Bryan Cranston told to The Guardian that he believed four elements made a successful acting career namely, talent, persistence, patience, and luck. He said,
“The fourth thing is the intangible one. The fourth one is luck. No career is made without a healthy dose of luck, and it’s an entity of its own. You can’t will it to come. You have no idea when it might. It comes when it chooses. Sometimes, not at all.”
Luck seems to have been on his side as Cranston has risen ever since his stint on Breaking Bad, which won him four Primetime Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe.
