The one movie Bryan Cranston called a perfect film: “There are so many that I could have chosen”
The challenge that faces any actor who’s fresh off a career-defining role is striking while the iron is at its hottest to capitalise on their newfound visibility and try and parlay it into a long, sustainable, and successful career. It’s a lot harder than it looks, but Bryan Cranston managed to pull it off.
Even though he’d been acting in film and television since the early 1980s, Cranston was already a veteran by the time he landed his mainstream breakthrough. It was a performance that required him to flex performative muscles he never even knew existed, and one that ultimately spanned years, gained him a legion of new fans, and continues to win over new converts with each passing generation.
However, the biggest question posed in the aftermath was the most important by far: where could he go after reaching the pinnacle of the industry by playing the beleaguered patriarch Hal once Malcolm in the Middle wrapped up its seven-season run in 2006? It was a crossroads moment for sure, and one that would take him only a couple of years to navigate.
Having become renowned for his goofy dad energy, Cranston then hit brand new heights when doing the complete opposite by playing a terminally ill teacher who turns to mass drug manufacturing to secure his family’s financial future. Breaking Bad was the gift that kept on giving, and it opened new doors that allowed the star to crack the upper echelons of Hollywood’s hierarchy and get himself into the room with some of the biggest and brightest directors in the business.
Since Breaking Bad wrapped, Cranston has earned an Academy Award nomination for ‘Best Actor’, been in a Godzilla movie, voiced a floating blue head in the Power Rangers reboot, and continued his prolific output on the small screen. He even flirted with the idea of being welcomed into Wes Anderson’s ever-expanding repertory after following up his voice role in Isle of Dogs with a supporting part in Asteroid City and a leading role in the upcoming espionage caper The Phoenician Scheme.
Three Anderson films put him somewhere near the bottom of the filmmaker’s regular collaborators in terms of numbers, but if he continues speaking so highly of the offbeat auteur’s back catalogue, then he’s well placed to continue racking them up until he reaches Bill Murray-like levels. Talking to The Independent, Cranston didn’t only reveal his favourite Anderson flick, but he even called it as close to cinematic perfection as it gets.
“As far as a Wes Anderson movie, god, there are so many,” he pondered. “Maybe The Grand Budapest Hotel, which I felt was just a perfect film. There’s so many that I could have chosen, but let’s say that one for now.” It was smart of him to pick one that he wasn’t part of, and such blatant fawning over the filmmaker’s contributions to cinema may well work in his favour if he wants to remain part of that inner circle for the foreseeable.
