The end of the first season of Your Honor was perfect: it was tragic, but it was the perfect way to close the show. But then the question appeared: what will happen…? And we couldn’t slow down,” says Bryan Cranston, talking about how he and showrunner Peter Moffat developed an entire second season of the show, which just premiered on Paramount+, based on doubt. Cranston, famous for being Walter White, that is, the protagonist and soul of Breaking Bad, which many consider “the best series in history”, continues on this question: “My character in Your Honor became someone who was not , and he did everything to save his son. And that ended in failure: he couldn’t protect his son. Moffat didn’t want to talk me into a new season, but being who he is he asked me ‘where do you think your character is now?’. Well, I thought, either he has committed suicide, having lost everything, including his dignity, not to mention his son, or he would be in prison. And that’s how it all started. I told them that I was only interested if they let me work on the authenticity of despair and the need to grow, that I didn’t want to do something superficial where the death of the son is overcome in one episode and new conflicts already appear. That loss is a terrifying idea, so I didn’t want to do what you always do to get over it quickly: I wanted to accompany someone who really feels like they’ve lost everything. Is there any possibility to continue? And that is what the series explores. It made me very happy to walk that path.”
—Your characters usually have to deal with difficult decisions, and face, or twist, their own morality. Where do you find your interest in those characters as an actor?
—I get asked that a lot by young actors on the street. I feel like there are basically four tools. Your characters have to have the ability for that change, in some corner. But you have to be curious, for example, in this case, talk to people who have really experienced the loss and who, of course, want to talk about it. The third thing is willing to take your things outside. Here there was sorrow over everything, over fury, over sadness, there was infinite sorrow. And grief is not easy to show, at least in the way we wanted to show it. Like something believable. That implies having your emotions at hand, to know how to suppress them. Finally, it is always time: understanding what it means to be human, and many times that means using your life, of course, but also imagining, because you don’t have real experience. I feel that the imagination is the crucial thing. I feel that this fascination because they tell us something and for questioning is what defines us. That makes empathy, distance, respect and approach. This is how a character is built, using all of your brain, your body, your memories.
—What did you feel unites the characters you play and why did you feel they appeal so directly to the audience, to the point that they come to identify with them?
I think there is a pattern. The pattern that defines my characters is that they have all been damaged and that defines their complexity. They are wounded and full of purpose. They always have something to prove. We see the good in it, the bad. My criteria for understanding a character involves seeing if I can do more with it. What is he good at and what is he not? What is his ambition? What is his secret? What is the fear of him? If those questions have good answers, great. But sometimes an actor has to search for those answers alone. From those answers you hold on, as if it were a railing, to continue. In Your Honor my character felt dead, and he wanted his body to catch up with what his mind feels. He is not angry, he is not sad, he is not happy, nothing makes him anxious. He’s just not there. It is impressive to enter a character who is closed from the world, who has lowered the blinds. And that can be linked to depression, to the idea of people contemplating suicide (of course, we understand that a TV show is not the panacea for understanding and processing a neurological disease). With that last said, I would like someone to feel a little hope that helps them. I can’t explain what people, after seeing Breaking Bad, have approached me and told me about their cancer diagnosis and how Breaking Bad gave them a character that they could continue (at the time of treatment). Dozens of people, or relatives. It’s constant. And it never ends, and they always tell me that they connect with that, with the cry, with the desire to do anything. It’s always a surprise and it always moves me. I hope something similar happens with his Lordship.
—In that sense, can we make peace with the ambiguity that our morality has from fiction?
—The first season of Your Honor I did it because I am a father. So the question, how far would I go to protect my son? It was something I was interested in answering. And I told myself that I would do anything to protect my son’s life. And my character in that situation being a judge becomes a criminal, and that also gets out of control, in the most uncontrolled way possible. There that ambiguity is more punctual, and can hurt, and does hurt someone punctually. That is also the core of the show. Morality at the time of our societies, especially the North American one, which is where I live, I feel that I have to do, or should, with knowing how to ask for forgiveness and the real power of that forgiveness. Where does redemption live in our societies? If we all can make mistakes, then is it impossible to rectify those mistakes? I do not believe it. I believe that society seeks to forget people who are wrong and who want to return to live among us.
—So, what does “Your Honor” imply when thinking about redemption and why do you think it is crucial at this time?
“I think redemption is important. I think it would speak a lot about us as humanity. I think we can hear each other, which doesn’t seem to happen now. In this case, for example, we focus on the despair and depression of a person who did horrible things, and who paid, at least according to the law, the price. Obviously we make it dramatic, and entertainment without implying that it is an honest story, without cheating, although it does within the genre. I think the lesson it took me is that there is hope. Season 1 involved someone who lost his principles and his soul, and in season 2 he is looking for some of that, to get it back. For example, let’s think about having him help other prisoners with their legal problems. But we said no, we would use that we would respect that the character wanted to be dead, that we didn’t feel anything, that we wanted nothing to do with the world. It was a lot for me to get into a character like that. But think about it in terms of production: do we sit with this character and get depressed? And the truth is that the answer was the opposite.
The artist’s secrets
Bryan Cranston has outlived, and embraced, the fame of Walter White, his famous character on Breaking Bad. But the most interesting thing is that after White, a role that almost appeared out of nowhere for the public eye (he came from cameos in Seinfeld, The X Files, and much more, including the now cult show, Malcolm in the Middle ), won a Tony for his role as Lyndon B. Johnson in All the Way and was nominated for an Oscar for his performance as Dalton Trumbo. What’s more, together with Aaron Paul, who was Jesse in the famous Breaking Bad, they own a mezcal company, Dos hombres, playing a little with the imaginary of that series. Today his role is Michael Desiato, the New Orleans judge who betrays his entire world to save his son from going to prison, for a crime behind the wheel that crosses both of them with the universe of local mob. The series not only has Cranston’s talent, which is already a lot, but also adds Michael Stuhlbarg, Hope Davis and Rosie Pérez. Says Cranston: “There’s so much of a character that isn’t distilled from the script. Be careful, many times you are blessed, and I know the feeling, with a script that you only think: please, please, I don’t want to screw it up, please. But other times instinct helps a lot. I think he learned to trust my instincts, he learned to understand that there is something I want to tell about that is lucky enough to connect with people, with what people want to see. You don’t know how gratifying it is to feel, and at the same time, to know that you have to work for everything to work”.
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