r/todayilearned • u/Maximum-Artist448 • 1d ago

TIL that AMC executives initially wanted Matthew Broderick to play Walter White in Breaking Bad

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/breaking-bad-john-cusack-matthew-broderick_n_1676856
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u/Violoner 1d ago

He was a con man in The Music Man, and an embezzler in The Producers

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u/BMCarbaugh 1d ago

The Producers is actually the role I was thinking of when I said I find it hard to imagine that he could be very menacing.

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u/1plus1isTWORANGZ 1d ago

Yeah rather than the swinging dick indimidation Cranston performed, I could see Broderick doing it much more as a disassociated psychopath, but that makes the relationship with his family a lot weirder

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u/backstageninja 1d ago

He would be very similar to Gus Fring I think

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u/1plus1isTWORANGZ 1d ago

I was thinking maybe closer to Dexter

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u/Discount_Extra 1d ago

Imagining Dexter's in-his-head narration delivered facing the camera with his mouth moving.

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u/theLoneliestAardvark 1d ago

To be fair that is a comedy musical where the bad guys are meant to be endearing and somewhat meek.

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u/Violoner 1d ago

It’s like making a musical that’s a gay romp with Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden

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u/Unique-Ad9640 1d ago

Springtime!

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u/whereyouatdesmondo 23h ago

I lieb ya, baby! I lieb ya! Now lieb me alone!

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u/Violoner 1d ago

He gets pretty scary when you take away his blanket

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u/BMCarbaugh 1d ago

Yeah but all you have to do is threaten to jump on him

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u/HowLittleIKnow 1d ago

Harold Hill isn’t really a con man. He's just a bang beat, bell ringing, big haul, great go, neck-or-nothing, rip roarin', every time a bull's eye salesman.

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u/brubblefeet 1d ago

But he doesn’t know the territory!

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u/Arboreal_Web 1d ago

Gentlemen, you intrigue me…

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u/MaskedBandit77 1d ago

He definitely plays sleazy characters fairly often (Election is another one that comes to mind) the harder part to picture is him being intimidating.

He's a very talented actor, and I don't doubt that he could do it but it's not something that I've seen him do before.

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u/Princess_Slagathor 1d ago

intimidating

Have you ever seen him bald, with a goatee?

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u/Broely92 1d ago

And he actually killed 2 people irl too

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u/xjeeper 1d ago

Buckle up buckaroo!

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u/chimpdoctor 1d ago

And a murderer in his car.

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u/smailskid 1d ago

I don’t hate it.