Having won the Emmy for Outstanding Actor in A Drama Series for the past 2 years, Bryan Cranston never expected to pull off what bowling enthusiasts would call a ‘turkey’. In fact, he was happy “never winning another Emmy again” and he proved this by not preparing a winning speech. This could be clearly seen when he stumbled on his words onstage for the third consecutive year, after being honoured by the Academy as America’s finest dramatic act on television.
Who would have thought that the dim-witted father Hal on Malcolm in the Middle could have come so far? Truly, Cranston has successfully distanced himself from the comedy trap, in which comedic actors have failed to portray other sides of themselves on television. Watching him on Malcolm, you would never expect to see a three-time consecutive Emmy winner, but he is. Well, now anyway. As Hal, he received three Emmy nods for Outstanding Supporting Actor in A Comedy Series, but never won any of them. You could call that a three-peat I suppose, but it definitely wasn’t as satisfying for the man himself.
When Breaking Bad first began, producer Vince Gilligan chose Cranston for the lead, against the criticisms of others, who doubted Cranston’s ability to portray a dramatic character. Indeed, if you’d watched all seven seasons of Malcolm, I’m sure you’d agree. For brilliant as he is playing a neurotic father in a dysfunctional family, could he possibly take up the role of a drug kingpin successfully? And Cranston proved them wrong, right from the very first episode of the critically-acclaimed television series, Breaking Bad.
Now in a hiatus between its third and fourth season, Breaking Bad has been lauded by many as the finest television show of the decade (Mad Men excepted), and Cranston’s chemistry-teacher-turned-drug-lord Walter White signifies the first time a protagonist has slowly embraced the dark side. For that is indeed what he has done. Starting off as a lowly-paid high school teacher who could never comprehend taking a life, Cranston managed to incur a change so drastic, and yet completely believable, in his character. At the end of the third season, Walt has killed twice, and engineered the death of a third, but not without reason. Had he hesitated, his character would exist no more.
Cranston’s finest moments on television are the silent ones, when he is quietly contemplating a terrible act he had just committed. From watching his partner’s girlfriend choke to death on her own vomit, and seeing his brother-in-law in hospital after being shot twice and almost decapitated by two axe-wielding men, we can clearly see the guilt in his eyes as Cranston transforms into the creature called Walter White, to whom murder is nothing but a side effect of the drug business. He has come a long way from his days as a chemistry teacher, and the gradual change is apparent all throughout the first three seasons, successfully engineered by the main actor.
And who could forget the evil Heisenberg, the Mr Hyde to Walter White’s Dr. Jekyll? Clad in his signature black hat and dark glasses, Cranston has given birth to the ultimate antagonist; himself. While Season One (all 7 episodes of it) shows Walt as a hesitant, bumbling meth cook, Heisenberg roars through the second like a freight train and mows down all in its path. However, in the most recent season, when the two characters began to merge, shows Cranston at his best. To be able to assimilate with whichever persona fits the situation best, he simply blows Terry O’Quinn’s part as the Man in Black (on Lost) out of the water.
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