Bryan Cranston Doesn't Balk on Baseball, Breaking Bad or the Movie Business

She was kissing me. I mean, kissing me, kissing me. Oh god. And we're kissing and we're kissing and she thought I thought this is gonna be the easiest date in the world. Because she really liked it. I know she did. Liked. And she looked at me after I said we should go to lunch. She went. Oh. No. Like I was a loss of puppy. She just felt sorry for me.

It's a doctor.

Oh, welcome to another edition of Mac Daddy, the one and only Brian Cranston. I mean, the the resume is insane, but you know this is supposed to be like a squirt show. So my first question has got to be how do you know this guy?

Oh, I I met Big Daddy ages ago. Yeah, when he had hair. That's that's when I met him. And it wasn't gray either. It wasn't gray. No, I met him through a a mutual friend of ours and had to do a little research on you to find out uh a little background when you played, how you played. Yep.

And I've gotten to hang out with Brian in Arizona.

Yep.

In LA, and then at the Top of the World Trade Center.

That's right. Remember that?

We went to uh with Aaron. Yeah. We went up there. So we've uh You guys go way back. We've danced a few places.

I was a little nervous getting on that elevator going to the top of the world trades. You know, he's a big man. And it's like you sure were.

Right.

We're under the limit.

We were talking a little bit just before we started about your interest in baseball, which has been been long and sort of storied for you. How did that start out?

I just took to it from a very early age. I remember my father took my brother and I to my first Dodger game in 1961. That was a big year for the Yankees. 1961, I was five, almost five and a half, something like that. And Dodger Stadium had not yet been built. And I was born and raised in LA. And the Dodgers came out to LA just a few years earlier, 1958 being their first year. 1959, they were in the World Series. So LA was thinking, oh my God, they they beat the White Sox in the World Series. So 1961, before Dodgers Stadium, we're go we go to the LA Coliseum, which is an enormous place. 105,000 seats, you know, it's incredible. So they it's not built for baseball, so they put up a netting about the same height and distance as the Green Monster in in Boston, right? And the vacuous space in right field and right center and center field, man, if you hit a ball out there, you could run, you could do in the park home run all the time. And it happened often. The only thing I don't, I was only five, so the only thing I remember about it was that I heard a name of a baseball player that for the first time had the same name of something else that I knew of. And that was Moon. This player's name was Wally Moon, and he played for the Dodgers, left-handed batter. And Vince Kelly used to say, and they're throwing him outside all the time. And he would throw the, they would throw away from him because they didn't want him to pull it into that open area of right or center. So they'd throw it outside. Sorry, I'm just getting a little uh chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken. We're right here in in the Hunt and Fish Club. Yeah, so this is a great place.

But they're tequillers.

Yes. Well, we'll we'll get to that in a second. We will get to that. So Wally Moon figured out how to take advantage of a disadvantage. They're throwing him outside, throwing him outside. He started to learn how to, like a little golf shot, just do some chip shots. And he would hit the ball up high enough and just far enough to go over that net for a home run. It's like 270 feet or something. It's nothing over there. So short ports. Short ports. So Vince Scully got used to calling it a moonshot because it was Wally Moon who did it. And that's where the term came from: a moonshot. Later, NASA used it too, the moonshot to go around the dark side of the moon and come back. And then I borrowed it to use it for my production company called Moonshot Entertainment because I just like the concept behind it. You start with a puzzle, perhaps a disadvantage, a challenge, and you figure out how to work it and how to turn it around into your favor and create something. So that's all our members. Wally Moon.

So I remember going to how I became a Yankee fan, because I actually grew up in Queens, close to what was then Shea Stadium, now City Field, where the Mets play and where the U.S. Open is playing. Yes. And the first baseball game I ever went to, I don't know if it was the first, but it was the one that sticks in my memory, 1977, when Reggie hit the three homers. Oh God. I hate you. Freaking believing Dodgers, Yankees. But I remember, I'll never forget, when we were sitting way up in the upper deck in the right field, and when he hit the third home run, my dad just because the place went freaking nuts. And it was, I think it was this maybe the eighth inning, I think, when he hit the slide. I think it was the eighth. Yeah, the third one. My dad grabbed my hand and he goes, We're out of here. Because it was single, yeah, we're let's go, we're getting in our car, going back to Queens. But I remember that like uh it was yesterday.

I snuck into the 1977 World Series. My brother and I were walking around around Yankee Stadium, and the guy says, Hey, you want to go to the game? You want to go to the game? You know, yeah, we don't have tickets. You don't need tickets here. Take an old ticket, put a 20 behind the ticket and give it to the ticket ticket. You know, it's like, okay, give it to the ticket ticket. And the guy takes it and takes, he can feel the 20 underneath it. He goes, Come on in, come on in. And so now we're inside the stadium, my brother and I, with no seats. So we're wandering around looking, and we just we're right on the first base side, just maybe seven rows back of the dugout, and we spot two seats. And we go, let's just go. Just go like we own it. You know, that's uh looking at our old stubs. Oh, that's it there. Yeah, okay, excuse us, excuse us. And we go in and we sit down for the rest of the game. Wow, no one showed up.

That's amazing. So you were how old? You were like, what were you seventeen? You were 20. What were you doing in New York?

It's 21. I was on a at the time I went to college to think I was gonna be a policeman.

Right. Studied.

Yeah. And then I took an acting class when I was 19 because I needed an elective. And my first assignment in that class was to do a scene with this really pretty girl that it was just handed to me by random. Here, you two read this and you two read this. And I'm I'm kind of nervous, and it's the first day of the first week of you know, looking at this, and it says, a couple is making out on a park bench. And I thought, oh wow. And and then so I had to really kiss this girl, and I'm determined to do it. Well, before I was able to make a move when our scene started, she was kissing me. I mean, kissing me and kissing me, and I was like, oh my god, and we're kissing and we're kissing, and she's oh, and then I feel this, I feel this on my upper thigh like this, and I didn't know what that was. I just kept feeling it. Shoe kept hitting me, and then I realized I had the first line. She was going, get to the scene. I was like, So we went through the scene and it worked out okay. At the break, I walked up to her, and she was smoking a cigarette with a friend. In those days, it was very gallant, you know, and smoking a cigarette. And I came up to her and I said, Hey, I thought the scene went pretty well. She goes, Yeah, not bad, not bad. I go, We should we should have lunch someday, right? I thought this is gonna be the easiest date in the world because she really liked me. I know she did, liked me. And she looked at me after I said, We should go to lunch. She went, Oh, no. Like I was a lost puppy. She just felt sorry for me. And I thought, oh my God. But of course, on the outside, I was going, hey, no problem. Yeah, sure, okay, I get it. Yeah. And she walks away and I went, Oh my god. And then I realized two things. When I was taking all my police science classes, never once was I asked to kiss a fellow student in the class. This was part of the class. You were supposed to kiss this pretty girl. And I thought, my mind was reeling at 19 years old. And then the second thought was I would have bet any amount of money that girl liked me. She didn't. She didn't dislike me, but she was not into me. She was doing something called acting. And I thought, wow. I completely bought into it and couldn't believe it. So I thought, man, if I can somehow get as good as she was, I don't know what happened to her. Her name was Meryl Streep, I think it was by her name. But if I can get as good as she could, I think I have something going. So the reason I was in New York was I ran away. I finished two, I just I finished two years of college, and I didn't want to become a police officer now. I wanted to think about, ooh, should I do acting? I don't know what to do. And I thought I'm not going to stay for another two years if I don't know. So I hopped on my motorcycle and I took off across the country for a couple of years.

But now your parents had been in the acting world as well, and it didn't go particularly well for them. So you'd been around that. Your dad left, obviously, and you went and found him, what was it, 10 years later when you were 21?

Yeah, it was a tough time. So so it was impractical for me to think about an acting career because my father was an actor and my mother was an actor. They worked together a couple times. And once was, I don't know, in 1951 or 52, when they were playing the the neighbors of a of a in a TV show that Betty White was the star of. And so they had the typical actor's life, good, bad, little work, more work, you know, but very tenuous. I I kind of think it's like a pro football player. I mean, the the the playing life of a professional football player is two and a half years, three and a half years.

It went up now to three and a half now. Wow.

And that's the average.

That's the average, yeah. And how long did you play? Well, I played in uh up till college. Yeah. I didn't play professionally. Right. But you know, I've been in the sports world for 30 something years, yeah, and seeing guys that were the highest picks coming out of everywhere that last two years. Or I I saw one first rounder get cut after one year. First round pick. And I was just like, wow. And you see all these different, you know, the opportunities are there, but a lot of guys don't take advantage of it. And remember, there's only 53 on every NFL team, and there's another 2,000 guys waiting to replace any one of those 53.

Yeah, any moment. In that way, in that sense, it feels a lot like any pro athletic endeavor or an acting career, because you know, I there are many people. There's a lot of actors a lot of actors. There will never be a shortage of actors, nor a shortage of elite athletes. They'll be there, ready to take your place if you mess up or don't take it seriously, or don't train, or don't do, you know, they're ready to take your place.

I I I mean, so many obviously people know you for your your huge roles over the years, but what what would you say was the one that kind of for you made you think, okay, this I can be like really successful now? Was it Malcolm in the Middle? Was it before then? Was that the question?

Well, I was I learned from my father's mistakes. He he was, you know, he's past now, and and I had frank conversations with him that I thought that he lived by his ego as opposed to living an authentic life in in whatever comes along and you you manage that and hope for the best and save money and do this. He was not that way. It was always, I'm it's gonna be a rocket ship. And boy, if he got it, you know, on the acting jobs that he did get, boom, new car. You know? Yep.

Yeah.

And then a year afterward, got rid of that car, and we got an old car.

Right.

One year we put in, they put in a built-in swimming pool. Kids were playing, we're swimming around. The next year, my mother tells me, can't swim this year. We can't afford the chemicals to go in the pool to clean it. So it was a roller coaster ride, not just for him, but for for the kids as well. And I think I learned from that. I mean, under the best conditions, your parents are teaching you how to comport yourself, how to be a how to be a an adult, a a good man, you know, when you because we're going to be adults a lot longer than we are children. So that's the best of all worlds. But that's not always the case. And in my case, a lot of the time I had to look at what my parents did and do the opposite. So they're still teaching me.

Not around.

Just in a in a in a reversal.

So, you know, being you got a great love for baseball, but were there any other sports that you liked? Yeah, yeah.

I loved football. I loved them all. Football, basketball. I played them all and all the way through high school. And and and then you quickly realized, because I wanted to be a professional baseball player. And did you play organized ball? Yeah. In your school or yeah. And then I also played in adult baseball leagues and things like that. But the the reality came my first or second year of high school when I realized, oh, when I was in junior high in the middle school, I was pretty damn good. But now it's a bigger school, and I realized, oh, I gotta, I'm not, I gotta really play hard. And my talent just didn't rise to as much as as I loved the game. I think that's the difference. I loved the game more than I was good at it.

But you loved acting, obviously, when you got that that that bug of acting. And so what what what what were the things you did to make yourself better at it over the years?

I uh well, I went to a number of teachers. Since I I had done the two years of college, I I wanted to try going into the business right away. So when I came back to Los Angeles, I started up in a variety of different classes. One acting class, scene study class, uh comedy improv class, movement or voice class. And so I was doing all these things, working full-time, still doing those things, and trying to find your way. You're always trying to find a way.

You were working full-time in other jobs, yeah, like a waiter.

Right. A waiter job. Yeah.

Didn't you operate some cameras or something too? The CCTV cameras?

I worked in a I worked in in a precursor to like match.com, which was a dating service called Great Expectations.

Well ahead of your time doing that in that business. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Should have got in on the ground floor for that.

It was very, it was very good. It was very effective, too. It really it really worked really well. But I I learned from my my parents. Sorry to interrupt, gentlemen, but can I get you anything to drink before the summaries? Oh let's do a dose. Yeah, let's try if you don't want to. Are you gonna make something?

I can definitely make something for you. Something boozy, something light, refreshing.

Okay, so it okay. So we have two different kinds the the tequila and the mezcal. The the mezcal is great when you want to add a little smokiness to something. To to a bloody Mary, it's fantastic. To to a paloma, it really adds a nice little oomph to it. You make a spicy margarita with the with the tequila, you're in business.

So those are our two orders Paloma with S and Spicy Margarita. You make it trying both.

All right, well, I'm gonna go with the spicy margarita because I haven't tried that yet.

And I'll have it neat. Gotcha. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate that. I love it here.

So that's this is the way to do interviews, you know. This is the way to do so. All right, let's go to a couple of your famous characters and ask what kind of fan they would be and what sport would they be into. So Walter White breaking bad, what would be his sport and his team? Chess. Chess. Yeah.

Really? I was gonna say the Raiders.

No, it would be You didn't hesitate at all. No, it'd be something heady. It'd be something that has some structure to it, some science to it, some thought behind it. It's not not a physical sport, it's a mental sport.

Rumor has it you studied chemistry.

Yes, I did.

Did you bring a little of that to the character?

Yeah. Well, when I knew I was gonna play Walter White, I called the University of Southern California, my daughter went there, and I and I said, Here's what I'm doing. My daughter goes here. Can can I can I follow around the the head of the chemistry department? And I talked to that guy and he said, sure. So I went down there for a week and I was just shadowing it, really, and just sitting in the classes and trying to gauge what the what the students were feeling, how he taught. And then I went around to the other chemistry teachers in the department and saw how they were teaching and realized everyone has different methods and different approaches to teaching. And I thought, okay, there's there's a way to do it. But for me, basically, it was to do a crash course on the jargon, the technical nomenclature of chemistry, and know what a you know, a round bottom uh boiling flask is, know what it's for, know what the beakers are for, how to use them, how to, you know. Those I was entering into a world that was foreign to me.

You know, would be foreign to me too. Yeah.

But it was great, and I I like that kind of work. And I think that's the only thing that could make for a good actor is if they're curious, they have to be curious to be able to dive in and want to do those kind of characters. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Chess. Okay. What about Hal Wilkerson, your big Malcolm in the Middle character, which Hal on Malcolm?

I I think I think he'd go for something like ping pong.

Maybe tennis, maybe my game, maybe tennis.

I think that's too competitive. And maybe ping pong is a little too either. Maybe pickleball now.

That's a new thing. Pickleball. Yeah, maybe pickleball?

I oh I I I got a shoulder issue which I'm gonna, you know, go in and fix. I'm gonna get a brand new shoulder.

You know, so be better than ever.

Yeah. Maybe and maybe I might even be able to play ball again. I'd hope. I'd like it. But I think I think Hal would probably maybe dominoes, setting up dominoes to knock them down. That's that's probably his speed. What about dentist Tim from Signal? Tim Watley.

That was what a what a character.

He's a player.

Yeah.

He played, he'd want to play tennis just for the for the outfit. Just to for the just to be able to put on a, you know, and and be she and be a member of the of the country club. You know, that's uh that's what he is. A country club guy. Country club guy, yeah. What was it like doing that show?

Too much fun?

Oh, doing Seinfeld, as I've mentioned before, and it's to be around Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David and those gifted actors, it was like my invitation to a comedy boot camp. Like to be able to be there at that time and and be a part of it, and watching them up close, they would deal with comedy like a surgeon and a scalpel. And it's like, you know, let's take that one word out. Take the one word out and just and now put it together and it works. I mean a word like at or the and you take it's like you're that that small, minute, and it all of a sudden it works. And you go, unbelievable. Or waiting a second before you respond to something, or giving a look before you speak, or all these things that I was able to just soak in. It was an incredible opportunity.

Presented by Volition America, which gives 13% of its profits to fold the bottom. Sponsored by Fire Department Coffee, veteran-owned and run by firefighters.

The attention to detail is what you're talking about, just off the charts.

Off the charts. Yeah. It's like you playing tennis with the best. If you're playing with someone who's better than you, which I did unfortunately I did often.

Yeah.

It's then you have a chance to improve. If you're always playing with some and that's what I took when I in intuitively knew that whatever comedy improv class I was in, or whatever acting class I was in, and this is not to be self-serving, it's it was just an observation of mine, because I always wanted to be with someone who was better. So if I felt that I became the best actor in a class or a comedy improv, I'd leave the class. I'd find a class where I was intimidated and a little nervous about getting into the because they're really good. And that's the class I wanted to get into because I wanted to be at the bottom again to see if I how good I can become and start working your way up.

And now that now that you've won, what is it, seven primetime Emmys, a couple of Tony's, an Olivier Award, all how do you continue to find those places where you think you can improve or you're not the best in the room?

I I think it's I think it's just a competitive nature within myself. And I think you guys can completely relate to that because if you don't compare it.

What is your name by the way? Xavier. Xavier, thank you so much. Thank you. That's the margarita. Oh man, that looks beautiful. Yeah, that's good. We're just gonna taste each. That's all. Just see which one's better. Oh, they're they're all good. They're all good. Cheers, thank you. Cheers. Cheers to you.

Yeah.

Cheers to you. Cheers to you. Thanks for joining us, yeah. Thanks. Nice to see you again.

Absolutely.

You were saying about before we we started the interview, we were talking about oh, that's good. That's very tasting. We were talking about the tequila.

Yeah.

And I said, you know, it's obviously quite popular, the the tequila brands and the set celebrities getting behind it. And you tell me what you said about getting involved in this.

When Aaron Paul and I started Dos Hombres, we didn't know anything about Mescal or tequila. We just knew that we liked it. That's not enough.

You know what's funny is I remember you telling the story about how, you know, they're in this city, if you want to call it that, or town, where there was like no running water, and the uh there was one phone, and you know, if it rings and I pick it up, yeah, I'm trying to find Brian. I gotta yell, Brian, you gotta call. You know, and I remember all I remember you telling that story, and I was like, wow, this is really in-depth, and you don't hear that side of it, you know. So for you to be open and honest about it was it left me impressed.

We make our our mezcal in um in Oaxaca, which is really the the natural home, the ancestral home of mezcal, and we make our tequila in Jalisco, which is also the that's where and little villages in both. And the the thing that we insisted upon it is because this is how we like to drink it, there's no additives, no sweeteners or glycerins, there's nothing in it. Nothing. It's cooked agave and spring water, and that's it. So it's pure, and I wouldn't have it any other way. And I think because of it, because it's so pure on its own, that's why it makes a great cocktail. I drink it like this a lot more often than that.

I usually drink it like that, yeah.

And I taste it because I want to I I you do like a quality control and you smell your drinking like you want it to be good. But uh so the difference is as actors, we all the time we we go into a new job all the time not knowing what we're about to do. Not really. I played Lyndon Johnson on Broadway.

What was that like? Oh, the when you won the Tony for that.

Yeah, it was amazing, but it it required an incredible amount of research. Because this man did something that was notable enough to make a story about. His lawyers, his children, his friends are still alive. They know him. So I'm talking to all of them, and I'm just absorbing like a dry sponge, just taking it in as much as I can to try to do this man justice. So, but I loved it. I loved that part of the the search for it, just peel uncovering everything you can. And that's the same attitude you gotta have when you go into business. If you don't know that product, it will eat you alive. You've got to learn what you have and why you have it, and how it's made, and the people involved. Yeah, so so that's what we did. We went in as dry sponges and learned as much as we can about mezcals and tequilas, and we tasted hundreds, which was a great job to have, but uh before we found these two that we really love.

Well, this is I'll tell you, this is taste.

I I I I kind of like this margarita.

You guys, yeah, you guys have a really good job, by the way.

Well, you know, we're we're enjoying it, you know. As I said, you're our first in-person interview. We just started this, the Mac Daddy show, so we're we're super excited.

We got some knives here now from the club here. We got a club here that the hunt and fish allows us to be a part of. So as you can see, Richard Big Daddy Salgado.

Wow.

I've got my knife in there, too.

And you got one there too, Power.

But just the personal service. So you come in and they they deliver my knife to me.

And it's like, wow!

And then they display it. It's like it's it's perfect.

You want to laugh. I came here, I mean, I've been coming here for a while now, but there was a guy that used to come in here all the time. And they would we would sit down, they'd bring my knife over, and he would say, What am I getting my knife? I don't I'm like, I don't know. And you know, you gotta know somebody, I guess. I don't not my issue, I got mine.

So you threw it at him.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It landed in his back. I'm ready to, but because he kept asking me repetitively, where I was like, I'm not gonna come with him anymore because that's all he wants to talk about is the knife.

Explain something to me, Brian, because this this sounds like something that could only happen to someone, maybe like my brother. That you got kicked out of a celebrity softball game. Is there can can you explain this to me? Because that's only my brother would that have happened to you. I don't want to talk about it. We hit a nerve. You know.

Well, your brother did it at a level that and he and I mean no one's ever seen.

But but you know, when he went on to the the the senior tour, you know, with Connors when they were older, and the whole thing was sort of a set. I mean, they would still get pissed at each other, but but they one time they literally tried to default John. It was like, this is no, no, this is not a sanctioned event. So tell us what happened.

We were playing at Dodger Stadium, it was the all-star game there a few years ago, and we're playing in a Hollywood stars softball game, we're having fun, and my bum right arm, I couldn't, I I couldn't really throw very well. So I'm playing catcher and trying to. But I knew at some point we're all there to to have fun and entertain. Right, right. There's a lot of people in the stands. So I knew at some point I'm gonna get this umpire mad. There's gonna be a close play, either for uh against us or something, and I'm gonna I'm gonna put on a show and get mad. So he there's a I'm at bat, and he's like, there's a he strikes me out. You don't strike out, but it was inside and it dropped, and he called a strike, and I thought, here it is. No, it wasn't a strike. And I thought, well, here it is, here's my moment of opportunity. And I just went off on him and got up in his face, and I'm doing, you know, I'm kicking dirt on him and throwing it, and he had no choice but to throw me out. And the the reporter going, I've never seen that. I've never seen, you know, in a celebrity game, someone get thrown out. So I I own that distinction now, I guess.

Your usual preparation, right?

That's uh yeah, kicking that sand up, uh keeping the dirt up is always it's fun, especially when you watch.

All right, so you're gonna get your shoulder done, you'll be back and better than ever. Tell us about the new show with Seth Rogan. What what's what's what's been fun about that, the studio?

The studio. The studio was created by Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg and uh buddies since they were children. And they have been around Hollywood and in very successful ways for a very long time. And so they've collected all these stories of their personal experience and other per other experiences that people had, and very famous stories or infamous stories, and they've collected them all. And over the course of two seasons now, they're now starting to tell these stories, actual stories that people in my business would recognize who we're talking about, and then go, oh, I think that's so-and-so. And so we take what's real and then we twist it for comedic effect, and it's insane. It's just a really bonkers show. And I get to play a character who is so full of himself, which I love. It's the most fun when you're playing an idiot or someone who's so self-centered and narcissistic, and he just he thinks he's the cock of the walk. He's like, oh he can do no wrong. He can do no wrong. And so it's a guy, uh so he's got a super tan, he's like a tanning bed, you know, aficionado, and he tans, he whites his teeth, and he I still have some hair, I guess. You see, my hair's dark, and I got this wisp of white in the middle, and then that's part of the character, and so this wisp of white hair on it, and and I wear all this jewelry, and especially a very phallic symbol of a of a necklace, you know, those guys who used to so and my my clothes are all back in the 1970s because I have this theory that men of a certain age wear the same clothes of the era that they felt the most powerful. It's like, ah, give me a members-only jacket. I'm that's my guy. I'm gonna wear him, or the you know, the the the Italian peppers that they they used to wear, you know, and and their shirts are open to their navels, and it's like this the big long collars and things like that. So I get to play this moron who is so egotistical. And and I I did a little backstory. I said he's probably been married seven times. His latest wife was only 26 years old, and I'm I play a guy who's 82. And I said, I played, I pitched this to Seth. I said, What if my character is 82 years old? I've just had so much plastic surgery that I look, you know, maybe in my 60s somewhere. It's like, it's the best I can do.

Sounds like a lot of fun. What's been the most, what would you say, of all your roles was while you were doing it, was the most fun?

I did a movie, I did a movie a few years ago, well, 10 years ago now, I guess, called Why Him, which was a comedy with James Franco. And I had such a blast on that movie because it was pure comedy, and every single day you're there to find ways to laugh. My job is to make people laugh, akin to that 19-year-old whose job it was to kiss the pretty girl. Now, no, uh they don't want me to kiss girls anymore. So so I'm I'm just trying to make people laugh, and that's that's a joy. And I think I think there's an underestimating from society about the value of laughter, how important it is to our lives to remember to find humor in things, find joy in things, to lift your spirits, especially when there are times that are challenging. You know, and when things are vitriol and politics and there's war going on and there's uh ugly things around us, and and to find beauty and and solace in in some humor, I think, is essential.

And obviously, when you were kind of bringing full circle now, what what do you think your parents would think of what you've accomplished, you know, after what they went through in the trials and difficulties that you had as a kid?

I they were both alive still when I was doing Malcolm in the Middle. My mother passed away 22 years ago, and so she didn't see Breaking Bad come around. My father did. And I, you know, I they loved me, I know they did. And even though my basic mode of operation was to do the opposite of what they did, and it it it served me quite well because there was, you know, some there were issues and problems in a fractured family. It was not good. That I I still think that they tried their best. That's my my feeling now that my father's been gone for 14 years or so. And I think they did their best. They tried their best. And what more can you ask for?

All right, we got a little thing we like to do as we wrap things up. Things you we can't Google about you, yeah. Which is probably not much with you, so you know all you've done. So get it, I got it.

Well, buddy, do you drink coffee, Brian?

Yeah, I drink coffee.

Okay.

I like coffee.

Yeah, how do you like it?

Black.

Yeah, like I'm not surprised. Yeah, yeah, same with me. I'm like black. Yeah. When you get all these frappuccinos and this and now all that, it's like a dessert. It's a yeah, I want it to be, I want coffee to be coffee.

Yeah. I like it strong, yeah, but not to where a spoon stands up in it, you know. Well, yeah, that's like you know, you know where the term Americano came from, from World War II. Yeah, when the GIs were in France, and they, you know, commerce still goes on, which is a concept during wartime now in Ukraine and Russia, commerce still in and in France during World War II, the American GIs would go to cafes, spend their money, and buy uh coffee. And what they'd be served is espresso, right? And the GIs would go, whew! It's too strong and too little. So the French cafe owners would just put boiling water, add boiling water to the espresso, and they go, and the Americans would go, that's it, that's not what I want. So that's why they call it Americano. They just take the espresso, and that's what Americano is espresso and hot water.

So one one other one other question that I'm gonna ask what are you scared of? Is there anything that scares you?

Yeah, things that are out of my control. I I think like most men, I want to make sure that my wife and daughter are safe. And that's probably the only thing that my family, if if something were to happen, you know. Sometimes you think, ooh, or yeah, it's just that. That's that's all. Everything's everything else we can work out, but that's the only thing that feels like it's beyond your control at any at many times, most of the time.

I gotta I gotta actually go back to that because I know you did an episode with them, your wife and your daughter, one of the breaking down episodes. Oh, yeah. How was that? And you directed it.

Yeah, I well, my my wife, I said, look, there's a there's a tiny role, and she stopped acting, and I said, but Taylor's gonna be here because I gave I gave my daughter the opportunity to audition for a role on the show, but I didn't judge it. I didn't cast her, and I told the studio and the network, you have to do it. And promise me, if she is not the best, we don't hire her. It is the next best thing to getting it is not getting it. Why? Because you can say, see, even though I'm the star of the show, you didn't get this role. It's gonna take work, it's gonna take focus, it's gonna take, you know, it's it was a learning experience no matter what. So I stayed out of it. And they cast her, and it was great. She was nervous and excited and terrific, and she developed into such a terrific actor. I I can't wait to work with her. She's now a doctor in the pit. She's an actor, professional actor, and she's working on the pit is Dr. Mel King on the pit. Amazing. Yeah, so we're just family business continues.

That's outstanding. I mean, it makes you proud.

Oh, you know, anytime someone says something about your kid, is like, oh, I'm good. I don't need anything more. That's it.

All right, favorite meal to go with your favorite tequila. How about that?

I'm telling you, it's it's hard not to say Mexican food because it's made there, it's from there. In Oaxaca, they they're known for their beautiful mole. And the food is very different from Jalisco to Oaxaca. Very, very different. And it's I love the differences and going between and the people. I gotta say, Mexican food is the best thing to have with this.

Yeah. Well, we're at the best steakhouse in New York City. I it's gonna go well with steak. Yeah, hunting fish. So we're ready. Wherever you are, Duncan or Nelson, we're ready for those steaks and that seafood salad and bring it all out here. We're ready. Nelson, we're hungry, so get those steaks out here and get the food, and we're ready to go. Wow. For me, couple, couple for Big Daddy. He just said the best thing while we're here to go with that is a steak. Because we're not in a Mexican restaurant. We can we can handle that. Yeah, thank you.

Do you have one? You have your your knife here? I have a knife here on the show or not?

Stepped up to the big leagues here. Isn't that nice? Yeah, very nice. I know. All right, last one for me. Okay. Your favorite place that you visited. I mean, I've seen all the different places you shot these shows, you know, New Mexico and all the different locations. What's your favorite place?

Favorite I the thing that comes to mind right now is Venice, Italy, because we shot, we just shot a month ago, two episodes of the studio there with Madonna. Wow. Oh yeah.

Madonna in Venice. What could be better than that? Madonna.

And we had a blast. We had a huge, huge show. So two episodes there coming next March on the studio, and it's just gorgeous. You know, when you walk around town, we as adults, you walk around the city, I love this city, my second city, LA and New York. We live in both places. You still have to be aware there's cars, there's bicycles, there's people on scooters, there's all these things. None of that exists in Venice, Italy. There are no cars. There are no bicycles, there are no scooters or skateboards, there's no so your mind settles and you walk and you you just cross over bridge over bridge, and you're looking at waterways and gondolas and and you know, people playing organ music, and it's like, oh my god! It's like it's like you're in Italy.

Yeah, well, it sounds like they're starting to open here for dinner, so I think that's our wrap up. We so appreciate you doing it. Good to see you. Thank you so much, Daddy. We'll look forward to the studio and then hopefully that shoulder of yours will be all good. I I had a little surgery on mine recently, so you gotta fight the good fight.

You do, and it's all about the PT. You gotta put it in, put in the time.

A lot of people say, you know, they go and get knee and hip replacements and they think they're fixed. No, you gotta go do the key, do the work. You gotta make it work. So it works as good as it was before you had to. You know, it takes a lot of work.

Cheers. Cheers. We appreciate it. Thank you guys. All the best for seeing.

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Confident without trying too hard. Interesting the second they walk into a room. Maybe a little smoky, maybe a little dangerous. You know, effortlessly charismatic. Not everyone has that. Some people build it over time, others just born with it. I wouldn't know anything about that, of course. Go zombre. Strip away the noise.