Despite the fact that it has been a decade since Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul’s Breaking Bad ended, the show is still considered to be one of the all-time favorites for fans. Breaking Bad flaunts a score of 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, although, we don’t need to look at the numbers to see just how spectacular this show still is. You really don’t come across such flawless projects often, do you?
Throughout the five seasons, the cast had to go through multiple emotions, however, one particular scene scarred Bryan Cranston to such an extent that he calls it the most difficult scene to shoot. This particular scene in question can be found in Breaking Bad’s second season and we are pretty sure you know what we are talking about.
A Breaking Bad Scene That Broke Bryan Cranston
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In season two, fans are met with an absolutely gut-wrenching scene when Jesse (Aaron Paul)’s girlfriend, played by Krysten Ritter, dies of an overdose, as Bryan Cranston’s Walter White stood there watching. While the scene is difficult to watch for many, it was a little more personal to Cranston, who opened up about why it took a toll on him.
During his appearance on The Rich Eisen Show, the host talked about how Walter White did not do the normal, “human thing” by saving her life, and instead decided to let her go. To this, Cranston replied,
“That’s overrated I found, you know, saving a life…I like to write down the emotional possibilities. What could this, my character, feel at any given time, but I don’t like to set it in stone because I like to let the moment dictate…So when I was thinking about that scene, about Jesse’s girlfriend dying…I thought, ‘there’s reasons to save her and reasons to let her go. One of the reasons to save her was she’s just a kid, she could be my daughter…and reasons to let her go, she’s blackmailing me, she’s gonna get Jesse killed.”
It looks like Cranston puts a lot of thought and effort into bringing his characters to life. No doubt he played Walter White to perfection! Coming back to why the scene was terrifying for the actor, well as he said, it reminded him of his real-life daughter. Of course, it didn’t help that the Jessica Jones actress was so flawless in her performance.
“So, we’re shooting this scene, Krysten Ritter who is a brilliant young actor, she was giving it her all off screen. Two cameras are on me now and planted in there somewhere as I see her choking on vomit and wondering what should I do. All of a sudden, her facial features disappeared and it was replaced with the features of my real daughter. And I saw my real child choking to death and it scared me.”
It’s truly unimaginable what actors sometimes have to go through in order to deliver heart-touching performances. We now know that being an actor is not really as fun as it sounds, is it?
Bryan Cranston Cried After The Scene
Breaking Bad actress, Betsy Brandt (Marie Schrader) recalled how Cranston was so affected by Ritter’s death scene that he ended up crying. On The Rich Eisen Show, Brandt stated that the cast of the show would take annual group photographs. However, Cranston had to gather himself in order to do so, as the scene was so tough on him.
“I saw him right after that. That was a tough scene. I mean, it’s funny, we would do a class picture every year. Okay, everybody would come and do a class picture and he was crying, like, because you hold it together. He wasn’t in the corner alone. Someone was hugging him. It was like – it was tough.”
The scene was already difficult enough for everyone involved, but since Cranston merged his real and reel life for a few seconds, the scene affected him way more than it affected anyone else. More power to him for pulling through like the absolute professional he is.
You can stream Breaking Bad on Decider.
Source: The Rich Eisen Show
