Roundtable Interview With Bryan Cranston On Total Recall

We Got This Covered: How was Len [Wiseman] as a director?

Bryan Cranston: He was a tyrant (laughs). I happen to know firsthand that he’s sleeping with one of the actresses too. I think it’s appalling. (laughs) He’s great because he has such a calm demeanour. The number one tenet for an actor to do good work is relaxation. An actor needs to have a foundation of relaxation in order to go “I feel comfortable here. I know that my director is supporting me. Therefore, I’m just going to jump in.” If an actor feels reticent and not comfortable, their performance level is not going to be what you want. That’s a director’s job, too. A director has to be part parent, therapist, coach and disciplinarian

We Got This Covered: What about when the director is also your co-star such as in Argo with Ben Affleck?

Bryan Cranston: A director has so many balls in the air and Ben has a lot of balls (laughs). I really think that Ben is going to be the next Clint Eastwood, actor turned director. I think he’s on his way. I’ll confess that because of all of his boyish nature and where he went and who he was dating, I didn’t pay too much attention to him. But he has matured now and is grounded and very smart. He, too, sets a tone of how that temperament on the set is going to be whether it’s stage, TV or film. It doesn’t matter. It’s hard work though, we’re there fourteen hours a day.

It’s fun, but it’s exhausting. The older I get, the less patience I have with people who misbehave. On my set, I run my set and there is no bitching. You can be artistically frustrated. That’s absolutely allowed. If the conversation goes beyond “I can’t get this” or “That’s wrong”  and turns into “I want a trailer. I don’t want to work today,” I don’t allow any of that. If you’re an actor making movies, you’re the luckiest person in the world. Look what you get to do for a living. Shut up. Be on time. Know your lines. Work on the scenes. If you’re miserable now that you’re working, what kind of life do you have?

That concludes our interview but we’d like to thank Bryan very much for chatting with us. Be sure to check back throughout the week for additional interviews with the rest of the cast as well as our official review on the film.