Few actors are as iconic as Bryan Cranston. Most people might recognize him for his starring role in Breaking Bad, which marked a turning point in television; but many still remember him as Malcolm’s quirky dad in Malcolm in the Middle. Two completely opposite characters, brought to life thanks to Cranston’s incomparable talent and versatility.
More recently, the American actor appeared in the satirical series The Studio, where he plays Griffin Mill, a billionaire CEO in the Hollywood industry who cares about nothing but profit.
Now, in an episode that has already generated a lot of buzz, the cast accidentally ends up taking magic mushrooms, including Cranston’s character. Some media outlets have even called the performance “the funniest thing to happen on TV this year”: he appears disoriented, wearing a headband covered in glowing penises, stuffing his face with food, and falling off a gondola (yes, a gondola, this happens in Vegas).
Needless to say, Cranston’s work was praised by both peers and viewers; it even earned him his seventh Emmy. But how did he manage to portray so well what happens after taking too many shrooms?
It turns out that, despite having portrayed the head of a drug empire for several years, the actor has had little contact with drugs throughout his life. At least that’s what he admitted on Jimmy Kimmel‘s show.
The host asked Bryan Cranston directly if he had ever taken magic mushrooms, to which the actor replied that he had never tried… until he had to film this episode. Of course, being the consummate professional, he decided the best way was to try it himself, in order to accurately portray its effects.
In conversation with Kimmel, Cranston explained that, since his experiences with drugs had been more than limited, he didn’t really know how to behave when acting. That’s why he approached his co-stars, Seth Rogen and Ike Barinholtz, for guidance: “You guys are huge druggies, what can you tell me?”
Wisely, his colleagues recommended he start microdosing, but the actor didn’t even know what that was. So, they encouraged him to try microdosing mushrooms (i.e., a very small dose), and what better context to do so than at a Grateful Dead concert at the Sphere in Las Vegas. The band is well-known for its relationship with psychedelic drugs: “If God wasn’t telling me to do microdosing, what was he telling me?” the actor joked.
By the way, Cranston wasn’t totally alone in his experimentation: actress Catherine O’Hara had also joined the plan to take mushrooms for the first time, and she was just as nervous as he was. But fear not: Barinholtz (“our drug dealer,” Cranston affectionately nicknamed him) assured them he would take care of them and promised it wouldn’t be so terrible, proceeding to give them chocolates infused with magic mushrooms.
“Oh, it’s like a wafer,” the actor commented. After taking half a chocolate piece, he didn’t feel much, so he ate the whole thing. “It felt like maybe I took three sips of wine. It was nothing!” he exclaimed, disappointed, in his interview with Kimmel.
“So you really are a great actor, it turns out!” the host laughed.
“It was acting, I didn’t know what I was doing,” Cranston replied.
So, indeed, Bryan Cranston had to rely entirely on his acting chops to play a character on shrooms, since his sole experience with the psychedelic didn’t quite measure up. Maybe next time!
Cover photo: Philip Romano, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons // Edited con Canva
