Sneaky Pete was actually the childhood nickname of this Breaking Bad star, here's what we know

Sneaky Pete is for those who have daydreamed at least once about ghosting their own life and slipping into someone else’s shoes.This show is capable of becoming an obsession for fans who enjoy a smooth talking conman show. It’s smart and emotionally layered. Trust becomes a gamble and truth is rarely what it seems in the show.

Originally an Amazon Prime Video original, this gem with a 96% RT score, has now found a new streaming home, Netflix. And that means it might finally get the attention it’s always deserved

Marius is a skilled con artist with a complicated past and a serious need for a fresh start. So he steals the identity of his old cellmate, Pete, and inserts himself into Pete’s family.

Little does he know that they’ve got secrets of their own. As Marius keeps up the act, trying to stay one step ahead of his own lies (and some very angry people from his past), things escalate and become a mess.

Keeping all of that aside, there's one little detail you probably didn’t know. Sneaky Pete was actually the real-life childhood nickname of one of the show’s writers, who also happens to be a Breaking Bad star, an executive producer of the show, and even directed one of its episode. It's Bryan Cranston.

Read on to know more.

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Sneaky Pete: Is it based on a true story?

Many have wondered this ever since Sneaky Pete first aired in 2015. The answer is no. But it isn't entirely plucked from thin air either.

Bryan Cranston actually drew from his own life while developing the show’s concept. In an interview with Deadline, he revealed,

“My own family dubbed me Sneaky Pete.”

Referring to his childhood persona, he added:

“There are many examples of things that I was circumventing accountability in and finding my way through.”

So Sneaky Pete might be rooted in real-life traits that Cranston lived. Minus, of course, the criminal life. He never fell into crime like Marius does in the show. Instead, Cranston described his younger years as a kind of survival game:

“You're trying to find your way in and out of situations, and it's all trial and error. And that's how you become a Sneaky Pete.”

The character of Marius (aka Pete) feels oddly believable for this very reason. You can absolutely imagine someone like him existing in real life. And Bryan Cranston was that kid. In fact, he admitted:

“I was a sneaky kid and wrote about, in a book recently, A Life in Parts. It was cathartic to be able to go, oh, I did that too... It’s okay if you’re a teenager from a broken home and you have no father as a mentor and your mother is becoming an alcoholic before your own eyes.”

Cranston also shared that he loved shortcuts as a child. He once asked his teacher how to just get a C grade to pass school. And he even sold reused suntan lotion.

In an interview with Mashable, he even joked:

“I might be a con man if I wasn’t an actor.”

His quick thinking and the urge to bend rules is all part of what made Cranston such a compelling storyteller and performer. And eventually, it all led him to a path where those instincts helped shape an unforgettable show.

Before Sneaky Pete premiered, Cranston explained the show’s central arc at the TCA, saying:

“In loose terms, this could be the reverse of Breaking Bad. Whereas Walter White is a good person who devolves to being a bad person, in this case, Pete is a bad person. He does steal from people, but there's a possibility that he could evolve to become a good person.”

Through Sneaky Pete, we get a character who’s not just a con artist, but a complicated human being capable of change. And now, with its new streaming home on Netflix, there’s never been a better time to revisit this Prime Video show.

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