“He was my champion to get it”: Bryan Cranston on first getting to work with Vince Gilligan on Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad was only the second original show from the AMC network back in 2008, after Mad Men, but now the show is more commonly known as the top drama on TV for a groundbreaking audience. The show starred Bryan Cranston, who, before being cast by Vince Gilligan, was most commonly known as the dad on Malcolm in the Middle.

His reputation as the goofy father reached the networks and the executives before the creator, Vince Gilligan's defense behind hiring him for the role of Walter White, did. Walter White was a high school chemistry teacher who, after being diagnosed with lung cancer, decided to turn from a law-abiding, good citizen to employing his chemistry skills and becoming a crystal meth manufacturer. His actions have ripples of consequences throughout the seasons of Breaking Bad, affecting his family, friends, and some very powerful people at high levels and deep underground.

Here's why Gilligan was convinced that Cranston was the man for the job.

Vince Gilligan batted for Bryan Cranston to be cast on Breaking Bad

Bryan Cranston has been nominated for nine Emmy Awards for his role in Breaking Bad and won 6 of them. However, when the idea of the show was conceived by Vince Gilligan, a lot of the executives were convinced that Cranston was not the man for the role of Walter White.

The doubt in Cranston's ability to take on the role was owing to the fact that, prior to being cast as Walter, Cranston's most famous work was the role of the goofy father in Malcolm in the Middle. The executives at Sony TV and AMC were convinced that Cranston was not the guy for the high school chemistry teacher to meth manufacturer role. In a recent conversation with The Daily Show, Cranston reveals how he got the role, despite his image as a goofy character:

"I worked on the 'X-Files'. And then 10 years later, after 'Malcolm in the Middle,' I get this call that Vince Gilligan is doing this new show called 'BREAKING BAD'.

However, Gilligan was convinced that Cranston was the man. Vince's belief stemmed from a project that Cranston had worked on a decade ago. Cranston had starred in an X-Files episode that Gilligan had written, and it appears Cranston's performance in the episode left a mark on Gilligan, as he was the first person that Gilligan cast for Breaking Bad.

When the executives did not share Gilligan's belief, he sent them over the X-Men tape to watch, and even though they still wanted to look at other people, Gilligan said that they could, but Cranston was it.

"So I had to go in and really sell myself that I was the guy to do this job and he (Vince Gilligan) was my champion to get it."

Gilligan championed Cranston getting the role of Walter White, and we're all grateful that he did, because there's nobody else who could portray the cold-blooded, power-hungry authority as well as Cranston did on Breaking Bad.

In a conversation with The Guardian, Gilligan revealed that at the base of it, his show grew from a character study where he wanted to understand what exactly would push a law-abiding good citizen into Walter's shoes, so casting the exact person Gilligan had in mind for the character must have had a big role in Breaking Bad being the phenomenon it is today.

"Why would someone make such a radical change in their lives if they were basically a good person, a non-criminal? I think of Breaking Bad as a bit of character study...We are telling a story of transformation in which a previously good man, through sheer force of will, decides to become a bad man."

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