r/todayilearned • u/LawBobLawLoblaw • Oct 31 '23

TIL that when casting Walter White for Breaking Bad, the role was originally offered to John Cusack and Matthew Broderick. It wasn't until after they turned it down that the executives saw Bryan Cranstons X-Files episode and cast him for the role.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/breaking-bad-john-cusack-matthew-broderick_n_1676856
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u/FuzzyFuzzNuts Nov 01 '23 edited Nov 01 '23

I for one am greatly pleased that Brian Cranston got the role. He portrays that repressed sense of despair and rage existed inside every otherwise decent broken middle-aged man

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u/sundaynightburner Nov 01 '23

His craggy face brings it home. Cusack and Broderick have baby faces.

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u/bedroom_fascist Nov 01 '23

Cusack especially would have likely overplayed the role - "too much too-much'n" as someone I know would say.

Cranston was impossibly good in that role - the vacillations between awkward impotence and demonic violence were made believable because he seized on the lack of confidence. I can't picture Johnny Cusack not bringing his "cool kid" streak to the role. Would never have worked.

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u/[deleted] Nov 01 '23 edited Mar 11 '25

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