Jane Kaczmarek starred in the Ojai Playwrights Conference’s annual winter gala performance on January 19. Entitled An Intimate Pique, It was said to be an evening of dramatic material by America’s leading playwrights. Pique means arousal or excitation. They had scenes that look behind the curtain to the intimate world of backstage affairs both literal and figurative. Scenes where penned by Bill Cain, Jon Robin Baitz, Julia Cho and Charlayne Woodard.
Click ‘more’ to read an interview with Jane by Mommy Track’d about work and family life.
You are a working mom and you played one on TV during the 7 year run of MALCOLM in the Middle. That must have been a weird vortex of life imitating art imitating life. Did you and Lois approach working motherhood in a similar way?
THE SEVEN YEARS MALCOLM WAS ON THE AIR WERE EXTREMLY HECTIC. I WAS PREGNANT WITH MY SON THE FIRST SEASON AND WITH ANOTHER DAUGHTER A FEW YEARS LATER. I WAS GRATEFUL THAT THE CHILDREN ON THE SHOW WERE OLDER THAN MINE BECAUSE IT WAS EASIER TO KEEP TRACK OF WHO WAS WHO. I DID HAVE TO REMEMBER TO TURN THE VOLUME DOWN WHEN I CAME HOME. AND THE DAY MY SON REFERRED TO ME AS MOM SIR, I KNEW I HAD TO TONE IT DOWN EVEN MORE. COMPOUNDING THE CHAOS WAS THE FACT THAT MY HUSBAND’S SHOW (THE WEST WING) COINCIDED WITH MALCOLM’S RUN. WE HAD NANNIES STANDING BY AT ALL HOURS OF THE DAY BECAUSE WE RARELY KNEW WHAT OUR SHOOTING SCHEDULES WERE. HAVING PEOPLE AROUND TO HELP WAS A REAL DIFFERENCE FROM THE WAY LOIS RAN HER HOUSEHOLD ON MALCOLM.
You and your husband are high profile, celebrated examples of the hectic working parent lives our readers live. Describe a day in the life during the years that you were doing Malcolm in the Middle and your husband was doing The West Wing. Who picked up the kids from school? Did they visit the set on a regular basis?
YES, LIFE WAS VERY COMPLICATED. I DIDN’T WORK AS LONG HOURS AS BRAD. USUALLY NOT MORE THAN A 12 HOUR DAY WHEREAS BRAD OFTEN WORKED 15 HOURS A DAY. AS MUCH AS I ENJOYED MALCOLM, I JUST WANTED TO COME HOME AS SOON AS I COULD, SO I RARELY HAD THE KIDS VISIT. BRAD, ON THE OTHER HAND WOULD, HAVE A NANNY DRIVE THEM TO THE SET FOR A VISIT. HE OFTEN LEFT BEFORE THEY WOKE UP AND CAME HOME AFTER THEY WERE ASLEEP, SO IT WAS OFTEN THE ONLY WAY HE COULD SEE THEM.
What have you done with your time since the show ended in May 2006? How did your kids feel about the fact that the show is over?
MY DAUGHTER FRANCES ONCE TOLD ME THAT THE BEST NEWS I COULD GIVE HER WAS THAT MALCOLM HAD BEEN CANCELLED. SHE SCREAMED WITH JOY THE DAY THEY PULLED THE PLUG. I NOW MAKE SURE I’M HOME TO GET THEM DRESSED AND FED IN THE MORNING AND TO BRUSH THEIR HAIR AND GET THEM TO SCHOOL. AND I’M HOME AFTER SCHOOL TO TAKE THEM TO LESSONS AND PRACTICE AND HAVE SUPPER WITH THEM AND PUT THEM TO BED. JUST LIKE A REAL MOM! I ACTIVELY TURN ALL JOB OFFERS DOWN IF I CAN’T MAKE THEM WORK WITH MY SCHEDULE. I WAITED REALLY LONG TO HAVE CHILDREN, ALL THREE WERE BORN IN MY 40′S AND I WANT TO SPEND AS MUCH TIME WITH THEM AS I CAN.
What projects are you working on now?
I’M ABOUT TO START A LEGAL DRAMA FOR STEVEN BOCHCO ON TNT. STEVEN AND I WORKED TOGETHER ON HILL STREET BLUES 25 YEARS AGO AND HE REALLY UNDERSTOOD MY DESIRE TO MAKE MY HOME LIFE MY PRIORITY. I WAS OFFERED A VERY ACCOMODATING WORK SCHEDULE AND AM LOOKING FORWARD TO PLAYING WITH GROWN UPS ON A LIMITED BASIS.
What inspired you to start Clothes Off Our Back? How do you have time to launch a non-profit in addition to your consuming work schedule and family life?
I WAS OVERWHELMED WITH THE AMOUNT OF WASTE IN HOLLYWOOD. WHEN YOU ARE A CELEBRITY, YOU ARE SHOWERED WITH SO MANY CLOTHES AND ACCESSORIES AND PUBLICITY THAT YOU DON’T NEED. CLOTHES OFF OUR BACK SEEMED A GOOD WAY TO RAISE MONEY FOR CHILDREN’S CHARITIES WITHOUT BOTHERING CELEBRITIES TO SPEND MORE OF THEIR PRECIOUS TIME. WE LIKE TO SAY THERE ARE SO MANY CHILDREN IN NEED AND SO MANY CLOTHES THAT YOU’LL NEVER WEAR AGAIN. WE’RE NOT ASKING FOR YOUR TIME OR YOUR MONEY, BUT TO JOIN US AS WE GIVE THE CLOTHES OFF OUR BACK. I HIRED A BRILLANT YOUNG WOMAN NAMED MICHEL SCHNEIDER TO RUN OPERATIONS FOR ME AND TOGETHER WE’VE RAISED OVER $2 MILLION SINCE WE STARTED IN 2002.
There are only so many hours in a day — but when you do have time for a guilty pleasure, what is on the top of your indulge list?
I’M AFRAID I’M REALLY BORING. I LOVE DOING JIGSAW PUZZELS AND HAVE A MYRIAD OF ART PROJECTS I’M WORKING ON, USUALLY WITH JON STEWART OR HBO’S IN TREATMENT ON THE TV IN THE BACKGROUND.
What is your best advice to our readers who are struggling to manage the daily tug of war between work and family?
I CAN’T STRESS HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO TURN OFF THE TELEVISION! WE HAVE ONE TV IN OUR HOUSE AND IT’S NEVER ON UNTIL THE KIDS GO TO BED. MY KIDS STAY FOCUSED AND ACTUALLY ENJOY PLAYING GAMES AND WITH EACH OTHER. THEY ARE STILL SMALL, SO I CAN GET AWAY WITH THIS. ALSO, THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS HAVING IT ALL. I HAVE FOUND I’M SO MUCH HAPPIER SAYING NO AND KEEPING MY LIFE AS SIMPLE AS POSSIBLE. JUST BECAUSE YOU’RE FREE DOESN’T MEAN THAT YOU’RE AVAILABLE.
What do you think are the best and worst things about being a working mom? Do you have a worst working mom moment? A best?
THE WORST THING ABOUT BEING A WORKING MOM WAS SCRATCHING MY CHILDREN’S BACKS AT NIGHT AND HAVING THEM ASK WHETHER THEY’D SEE ME AT BREAKFAST. NO. WHETHER THEY’D SEE ME THE NEXT NIGHT AT BEDTIME. NO. BEING AT HOME WITH MY CHILDREN MAKES ALL OF THE TINSEL OF THIS TOWN PALE BY COMPARISON.
MY BEST MOMENT IS WHEN I’M IN MY GIANT BATHTUB WITH ALL THREE KIDS. WE CALL THIS PLAYING HIPPOS IN THE RIVER AND WE SING OUR THEME SONG.
Jane Kaczmarek’s charity Clothes Off Our Back had problems in January due to the cancellation of the Golden Globe Awards and other events as they auction off evening wear from the red carpet.
“The one thing you could always rely on in Hollywood, besides fires and mudslides, is awards shows. And they seem to be disappointing us this year….So we have had to think of other ways to raise money, because the children’s charities are so dependent on us…It’s a good time to clean out your closets, Hollywood…I always say I won’t be happy until everyone is Hollywood is naked.” said Kaczmarek.
The above photos of Jane and husband Brad are from the Davante Rodeo Drive Boutique opening earlier this month. See more in our GALLERY.
Variety is reporting that TNT has picked up the Jane Kaczmarek starring, Stephen Bochco (NYPD Blue) produced pilot, Raising the Bar, for a 10 episode order.
TNT has given a 10-episode go-ahead to a legal drama from Steven Bochco called “Raising the Bar” for scheduling later this year.
Produced by ABC Studios and Bochco Media, the series stars Mark-Paul Gosselaar as a public defender with a mission to help the down-and-out and Gloria Reuben as his protective boss. Jane Kaczmarek plays a forceful but erratic judge.
Also in the cast are Currie Graham, Melissa Sagemiller and J. August Richards.
The writer-executive producers are Bochco and David Feige; Jesse Bochco directed the pilot.
Michael Wright, senior VP and head of TNT’s content-creation group, calls the series a “smart, highly charged legal drama.”
The series fits in with TNT’s focus on criminal justice with the current scripted original dramas “The Closer” and “Saving Grace” and the rerun hours “Law & Order,” “Without a Trace” and “Cold Case.”
Jane will play Judge Trudy Kessler. TheFutonCritic gives more details.
TNT has given the greenlight to RAISING THE BAR (working title), the latest series from the mastermind of legal dramas, Emmy-winner Steven Bochco. The series, which stars Mark-Paul Gosselaar (NYPD Blue), Gloria Reuben (ER) and Jane Kaczmarek (Malcolm in the Middle), follows the lives and cases of young lawyers who have been friends since law school, but who now work on opposing sides.
In RAISING THE BAR, Gosselaar stars as Jerry Kellerman, an idealistic public defender who will stop at nothing to help those who cannot help themselves. Reuben plays Rosalind Whitman, his passionate and protective boss. Teddy Sears (Ugly Betty) is Richard Patrick Woolsley, who foregoes a cushy job in his father’s firm to work for the public defender’s office. On the opposite side, Melissa Sagemiller (Sleeper Cell) plays Michelle Ernhardt, an attorney in the DA’s office with an unassailable morality and a burning desire to see justice done. She works for assistant DA Nick Balco, played by Currie Graham (Boston Legal), a bit of a lecher who, nevertheless, has a razor-sharp knowledge of the law. They are joined by J. August Richards (Conviction) as Marcus McGrath, who will stop at nothing to put criminals behind bars. The courtroom arena in which they face off belongs to Judge Trudy Kessler, played by Kaczmarek. She is imperious and known throughout legal circles to be a little crazy, treating the courtroom as her own private fiefdom. Working for her is law clerk Charlie Sagansky, played by Jonathan Scarfe (Into the West), a man with a wealth of secrets.
Justin Berfield and his production company, J2 Pictures, are working with the Cayman Islands Government and local investors to establish an official film commission in that country.
Former “Malcolm in the Middle” star Justin Berfield, and frequent visitor to Cayman, has confirmed his company’s discussions with the Cayman Islands Government and local investors to establish an official film commission to service all of the Cayman Islands, a press release said.
Recognizing that tourism and banking are the primary industries that the island benefits from, Berfield’s goal was to formally introduce a whole other industry to the government and people of Cayman.
“The island is so conducive to many different types of filming and can double as many different locations,” Berfield said. “There is so much local talent in Cayman in terms of not only on camera, but trade, electricians, sound engineers, and transportation. The Cayman Islands have done a very good job of servicing tourists. Through this, there is an infrastructure in Cayman that is conducive to television and film production. The infrastructure needs direction and a clear presence. My partners and I hope to work closely with the government and the creative community of Cayman to establish a commission that will truly benefit the country.” said Berfield
Cayman is no stranger to film production, having played host to several productions over the last few decades including Paramount Pictures The Firm in 1993 starring Tom Cruise, and most recently the independent feature film Haven in 2004 starring Orlando Bloom and directed by local Caymanian Frank E. Flowers.
It is the intention of Berfield and his proposed advisory board to act as a liaison between Hollywood and the Caymans and as a result bring productions to the island. Further, the proposed film commission would aide local business owners and residents with their existing filming and television commercial production.
Actor/producer Justin Berfield is a partner in highly regarded Los Angeles based boutique production company J2 Pictures. Berfield and his producing partner Jason Felts got their start in film when they served as producers and investors on the feature film Romance & Cigarettes, starring James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet, Mandy Moore and Christopher Walken. The film was written and directed by actor John Turturro.
Berfield and Felts themselves are currently in pre–production on ESCOBAR, a full–length motion picture that will chronicle the life of Pablo Escobar, the infamous Colombian drug cartel leader.
J2 also has a strong interest in comedy, and produced Blonde Ambition, a comedy feature starring Luke Wilson, Jessica Simpson and Rachel Leigh Cook.
Justin Berfield (Reese) is 22 (25, February 2008) today and we at the MITMVC want to wish him a great day!
Justin recently predicted the 2008 Super Bowl “Giants 27, Patriots 17 — even though it would be cool to watch the Patriots make history.” He was close, final score: Giants 17, Patriots 14.
Thanks to girlfromfranc from the CelebrityLoop Official Justin Forum we have some new photos of Justin however we aren’t sure what they are for - yet.
Back in the series game after an extended layoff, the cable channel is suddenly batting two-for-two: first with the exceptional ’60s time capsule Mad Men, and now with the alarmingly up-to-date Breaking Bad. But where Mad Men made a new star out of Jon Hamm, Bad brings new life and depth to an old one: Malcolm in the Middle’s Bryan Cranston, riveting and remarkable as a chemistry teacher who finds a more commercial use for his skills.
Maybe someone else could do Bad as well, but it’s hard to imagine who that might be. As Walt White, a mild-mannered married man whose life has gone to pot — or, more precisely, crystal meth — Cranston adds fed-up desperation to the world-class comic skills he displayed so winningly on Malcolm. It’s a vanity-free, unexaggerated, incredibly empathetic performance, and Bad could not work without it, because empathy is not exactly inherent in the show’s story.
Walt, you see, is dying. So in a last-gasp effort to provide for his pregnant wife (Anna Gunn) and their teenage son (RJ Mitte, who, like his character, has cerebral palsy), Walt breaks into the crystal meth business. And he’s not just making any meth: With the help of a low-life, none-too-bright former student (Aaron Paul), he’s determined to market “a chemically pure and stable product that performs as advertised.”
Any show built around a meth dealer faces a number of problems, the least of which is the concern that viewers will think it’s just the product of some copycat network taking Weeds a step too far. However split people may be on the dangers of marijuana, there’s not much debate over meth — and not much sympathy for, or interest in, the people involved in the trade.
Wisely, writer/director Vince Gilligan (X-Files) uses our societal desire to keep the drug at a distance to fuel Walt’s dilemma and to separate his show from the lighter, more comic Weeds. There’s no doubt that death has brought Walt to life, turning him from a milquetoast to a man of action, but it also leads him into a series of terrible decisions. Bad is no advertisement for drug use or dealing; the world Walt enters is dangerous, dehumanizing and gruesome.
There is humor in the show, mostly in Walt’s efforts to impose scholarly logic on the business and on his idiot apprentice, a role Paul plays very well. But even their scenes lean toward the suspenseful, as the duo learns that killing someone, even in self-defense, is ugly, messy
work. As can be acting, by the way, as witness those shots of Cranston in socks, shoes and skintight white briefs. It takes a brave actor to be shown like that, and a fine one to make the scene as poignant and moving as it is funny.
Two Emmy-contender shows; two Emmy-contender stars. Can’t wait to see what AMC breaks out next.
For seven seasons, Bryan Cranston goofed off as Malcolm in the Middle’s oddball dad, Hal. Now, he’s returning to series TV with Breaking Bad (premiering Sunday, Jan. 20, at 10 pm/ET on AMC), an hour-long dramedy whose humor is a bit darker — he’s a chemistry teacher who turns to churning out homemade crystal meth after being diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. We talked with Cranston about his trip to the dark side and to hear about some of his career highlights.
TV Guide: Are you ready to take some heat for this show’s touchy subject? Bryan Cranston: Heat? Bring it baby! [Laughs] Some people call Bad an edgier Weeds and there is some truth to that… but pot makes it kind of tame, which is right for the tone of that show. With ours, crystal meth really ups the stakes.
TV Guide: That’s fitting since your character Walt is dying. Cranston: That’s true. I also think it’s circumstantial with him. He had no intention of doing this, but he feels he needs to do something profound [to provide] for his family after he’s gone. If Walt were a mathematician, he probably would have chosen card-counting and gone to a casino, but his world is chemistry.
TV Guide: After Malcolm, didn’t you want a breather? Cranston: I kind of did! Then the day after I finished Malcolm, I bumped into Jason Alexander, who’s an old friend from Seinfeld, and he asked me if I was interested in doing a play. So I did [a Sam Shepard drama he directed], and it was fantastic. Then I read [the Bad] script and thought what a coup it would be to transition in front of the camera into a completely different person.
TV Guide: Speaking of Seinfeld, you guest-starred on some of that show’s most infamous episodes. Your Dr. Tim Whatley is the “re-gifter”! Cranston: [Laughs] I usually use that one in trivia contests: “Who was the original re-gifter and what did Elaine give him for working on her teeth for free?”
TV Guide: A label-maker? Cranston: The Label Baby Junior!
Bryan Cranston dishes about tighty whities and cooking meth on the go for his new show
By Maggie Furlong
After the critical acclaim for its original series “Mad Men” last season, AMC—which was once only known for their extensive library of classic movies—is now solidifying its place as a source for fresh and exciting television with a new series, “Breaking Bad.”
Starring Bryan Cranston, of “Malcolm in the Middle” fame, “Breaking Bad” explores what happens when a seemingly average yet absolutely brilliant high school chemistry teacher has a major midlife crisis. And then decides to start cooking meth.
Cranston dished about his new role, his penchant for tighty whities and how being a troublemaking kid paid off.
In this show, you find out you have a terminal illness, then pretty much lose it. Did you feel like the show was limiting its timespan with a dying main character? I mean the series can’t go 300 episodes with that…
Well, “M*A*S*H*” was able to stretch the Korean War to 10 years, so we can make cancer work can’t we? [Laughs] We can do that scene, you know, “Mr. White, I made a terrible mistake. It wasn’t you that was a…”
[Laughs] Well, what was your first reaction to the character of Walt White? What pulled you in initially?
I read it cover to cover in one sitting, and I rarely do that nowadays reading scripts. It’s just the storytelling—it was compelling. I related to him, I understood him, I knew who this guy was…I know people like that. There is a massive amount of people who have that feeling of I should’ve, I could’ve, I wish I had taken the opportunities that were present to me. And that’s ultimately tragic and sympathetic.
Somebody described this character as having the worst midlife crisis ever. But wasn’t that the same case every single week on “Malcolm in the Middle”?
Yes. [Laughs] Well for comic reasons, you want to create as much turmoil as you can…and actually the same is true in drama. More turmoil means more conflict. Conflict drives story. What was so important to us was, you’re not going to agree with the choices this character makes, but you’ve got to relate to this guy. If the audience doesn’t sympathize with this man, the show’s not going to work. You’ve got to be able to feel for him.
Sympathize with him making a mobile meth lab. It’s kind of a crazy concept, but truly genius. Are you all up for exploring cooking meth in a helicopter, or maybe meth in the back of a taxi cab?
Well Albuquerque [where we shot] has the longest vernicular—the tram—in the world. It’s a beautiful tram ride up to the top of the Sandia Mountain. And so I was fantasizing one day about a storyline that could involve that. I did pitch [the show creator] Vince [Gilligan] on it. He looked at me like I had started smoking some of my own product. [Laughs]
Now, there are lots of different ways an actor can go in terms of comedy underwear, whether it’s boxers or a thong. Were the tighty whities the way to go from day one?
It was written in the script that way and, you know, my character on “Malcolm,” Hal, wore tighty whities a lot too. I remember the first day when I walked into the wardrobe meeting for “Malcolm,” and I kept going back to the tighty whities for one reason: It was funny to see a grown man wearing underwear that should be worn by a seven-year-old boy. And with Walt wearing it, it became not as funny but sad. This man, it’s like he’s stuck in a time capsule! He didn’t mature beyond a certain point. And it was kind of funny, bittersweet.
So is that your undergarment of choice in real life?
I’m wearing some right now…and that’s all I’m wearing by the way. [Laughs]
Were you an ace in high school chemistry? What would your teachers think of you now?
[Laughs] ”Oh, now he who knows the answer why iron is FE on the chart.” You know, I was kind of a troublemaker in high school. I wasn’t a very good student—I was smart enough to know what I had to do to get a C, and then the rest of the time I just goofed off. I’ve lead my life that way philosophically, and it’s paid off considerably. So I would tell all high school and college students, don’t work so hard. [Laughs] Goof around and life will be a bed of roses for you.
“Breaking Bad” Offers Cancer, Crystal Meth - And Tighty Whities
It looks like a worthy - if very, very different - followup to “Mad Men.” The new AMC original series “Breaking Bad,” debuting Sunday at 10, has the amateur drug-dealing of “Weeds,” the midlife crisis of “Californication,” and its own dark and desperate gonzo.
Bryan Cranston - the sweetly wacko dad from “Malcolm in the Middle” - stars as New Mexico chemistry teacher Walter White, a nebbish who learns he has terminal lung cancer.
Already living from paycheck to paycheck, Walter finds himself in desperate straits. He’s devoted to his pregnant wife and their son, who has cerebral palsy. How to provide for them once he’s gone?
Walter marshals his chemistry knowledge and teams up with a former student to cook crystal meth in his RV. But of course it’s not going to go smoothly…
Cranston, series creator Vince Gilligan and other cast members met the press on a funny conference call to talk about the show.
Question: I was wondering sort of where the series goes for after this initial storyline involving Walter and Jesse and the two dealers who they get stuck in the desert with. I’ve seen the first three episodes and it’s pretty much devoted to that. I’m wondering, you know, can you talk a little bit about the arc beyond that? Vince Gilligan: Well yes. I - essentially this is the way I’ve kind of always pitched this was that take Mr. Chips and we turn him into Scarface over the course of however many episodes we get. You know, fingers crossed, we get a lot. And then he drops dead of cancer. So… Question: Wow. Vince Gilligan: That’s probably the glib answer. That’s not the best. But this is in my mind always been a story of metamorphosis and transformation. And that is essentially, you know, I don’t want to paint myself into too much of a corner, but the first part of that about the cancer part, the first part of that is definitely true.
This is a guy who is in the process of reinventing himself. And not to give too much away, you know, that’s going to happen in future episodes, but Walt really is going to not just dipped a toe into this new world that he’s sort of, you know, dallying with, but he’s actually going to, you know, do a big cannonball right off the edge of the pool and into it.
And he is going to become a criminal, become, you know, some version, some post-modern version, a highly educated post-doctoral version of “Scarface.” And that’s sort of where this is headed.
Question: mostly for Bryan, but for anybody, when you do a show like this with this theme, does it make you think about your own mortality? Does it make you think about the things that you still wish to accomplish? Bryan Cranston: Gosh, with that description of Mr. Chips turning into Scarface and then dropping dead, I thought we should premiere around Christmas instead because it’s such an upbeat lighthearted fare.
You know, it kind of does it. It’s such a cliché now when someone’s near their deathbed, they say, you know, you’re never going to wish you spent more time in the office. So I think there is that.
I just think it’s ironic that you have a tendency to feel more alive — and certainly the character does — when he’s really faced with death and it really becomes really apparent to you.
I go through life forgetting that someday I’m going to die. I really do. I - oh yes, that’s right. At some point I’m just going to keel over.
I think that’s the best way to do it, just keep working, keep doing the things you enjoy. And when it happens, it happens.. So I don’t dwell on death too much.
Question: Good for you. Vince what was the genesis of the show for you? Vince Gilligan: Good question and always a hard one to answer. I can tell you when and where the genesis happened. I don’t know where it came from exactly. But I - about three years ago, I was talking on the phone to an old college buddy of mine who’s a fellow writer out here in Los Angeles. We were goofing around as we usually do, talking about what we’ll both do when the money for salaries for writing dry up and, you know, talked about being a greeter at Wal-Mart and stuff like that. And, you know, because it’s about all we’d be good for, the two of us rather.
But - and we talked about, you know, maybe cooking crystal meth in the back of an RV and driving around and seeing America and stuff. We’re joking obviously. But as we were goofing around on the phone, this idea of a mobile meth lab in the back of a recreational vehicle kind of stuck with me. And as I was still on this, you know, short phone call, suddenly his character popped into my head, this character that became Walter White. And I don’t know where he came from exactly. It doesn’t usually happen that way for me. Usually it’s a very laborious process to come up with an idea for script, you know, be it a TV script or a movie script. And it’s slow going. But this guy just kind of popped into my head. This guy as Charlie Collier said who is having the world’s worst midlife crisis.
And I guess that’s where it came from in some sense, you know, not to do sort of the dime store Freud psychoanalysis of myself. But I’m middle-aged now. I guess I officially turned middle-aged last year when I turn 40. And maybe I’m starting to have - you know, maybe this is some weird exorcism, a pre-exorcism of, you know, if I’m headed for a terrible midlife crisis myself, maybe this is my way of staving it off for a few more years by writing about it instead of living at it.
Question: Bryan, there’s lots of different ways an actor can go in terms of comedy underwear whether it’s big boxers or thong. But were the tighty whities the way to go from day one? Bryan Cranston: You know, it was written in the script that way. And that sent a red flag to me. And I talked to Vince about it. You know, my character on Malcolm, Hal wore were tighty whities a lot too.
And I remember the first day when I walked into the wardrobe meeting for Malcolm and I looked at all the array of underwear that was out there and my choice. And I kept going back to the tighty whities for one reason. It was funny to see a grown man wearing underwear that should be worn by a seven-year-old boy. And I kept going back to that.
And then I told Vince about the underwear thing and he said oh, then we’ll lose it, we’ll lose it.
And I kept thinking about it and going into this wardrobe meeting, I thought well, you know what, I think it’s going to work anyway. And because I start thinking about what it conveyed in this context.
And to me with Walt wearing it, it became not as funny but sad. This man is like he’s stuck in a time capsule. He didn’t mature beyond a certain point. And it was kind of funny, bittersweet. Question: Yes. Bryan Cranston: So still funny.
Question: Yes, it works. It works. Bryan Cranston: I’m wearing some right now. And that’s all I’m wearing by the way. Vince Gilligan: I originally wanted a yellow slingshot thong but then (unintelligible). Bryan Cranston: The old banana hammock.
Question: There you go. Well thank you so much. It’s been a pleasure.
Question: Yes, I was wondering how much of the success of “Weeds” got this in terms of making if not a heroic character, certainly the character that the audience identifies with a drug dealer? Two years ago that - you wouldn’t have thought that would have been acceptable. “Weeds” I guess made it acceptable. Gilligan: It’s a good question. I have to start off by saying I was a little embarrassed when I found out about the existence of “Weeds.” I came up with “Breaking Bad” about three years ago. And “Weeds” was I assume, well underway in its gestation around about the same time or a little bit earlier. But I never heard about its existence until one of my first big pitch meetings at one of the companies I pitched to before I fortunately wound up at AMC. … And I was half way through the pitch to the head of FX. He said this sounds a little like “Weeds.” And I was like, what weeds?
And I’m so lucky or so fortunate I guess I didn’t know about “Weeds” in advance. Because I would’ve said oh this is too much like “Weeds.” And I would’ve shut the whole thing down right then and there.
As to whether or not “Weeds” has helped us get on the air, it’s a hard question in to answer. It’s a great show, “Weeds” is. I think it’s very different from our show thank goodness. And since I’ve learned of the existence of it, I’ve tried even harder to make our show as different from “Weeds” as possible. But at the end of the day I’ve like to think of our show is not so much about a drug dealer, although there’s no denying that that is a fundamental, you know, element to the story, but rather I like to think of Walt as this guy who is indeed breaking bad.
“Breaking Bad” by the way is an old sort of Southernism. It’s, you know, in other words, it’s to raise hell. This is about a guy who’s raising hell for the first time in his life, this guy who’s colored inside the lines and played by the rules his entire life He’s never so much as jaywalked. And suddenly he’s doing this really despicable thing. And then we don’t shy away from that, the idea that it’s despicable. I mean crystal meth is a much different drug than marijuana. And it’s much, much less defensible. And we do not defend his choice in the show. We think it’s a terrible thing he’s doing. And then it’s going to come clear that he’s made some very bad choices as the series progresses. He’s - and they’re going to cause some very bad outcomes.
Question: Outside of the drug enforcement administration, you know, pot’s viewed as a fairly benign drug, crystal meth not so much. Was there any fear on your part that people may come to this and go, I don’t want to deal with the crystal meth, you know, dealer? I mean I just can’t get my brain around this that this is somebody I want in my living room once a week? Vince Gilligan: Absolutely. Good question. And yes, I think in one of my very first meetings with the AMC folks, once they, you know, expressed interest, I think I said to them, you know, the show was never - in my mind I didn’t - and this is just me speaking. I’m not speaking for anybody else. But in my mind this show is never going to be, you know, it’s never going to be “ER.” … My best hope for it is that people like it. But it’s very much the people who do like it like it very much.
But I think I said from the beginning, you know, certain folks are just going to hate this show no matter what. And other folks I hope, I pray are going to love it.
But it’s - I can tell you it was not - I didn’t ever come up with it in order to sort of make a big splash of the word, to whip up a lot of controversy. I don’t take crystal meth lightly as a subject.
And I wasn’t just going for - none of us are just going for, you know, sensationalism. It’s - I guess what I was trying to do if anything was trying to pick as a plot point, as a plot element, I was trying to pick the worst thing Walt could do and make money on it.
You know, the idea is that Walt’s dying of cancer. Walt needs to make some - you know, a substantial amount of money very quickly. He needs to make the rest of his, you know, the next 20 or 30 years worth of earnings that he’s going to miss, you know, in the next few months or next year or so to leave to his family. He needs to provide for his family. And how does he do it very quickly? And he makes a very terrible decision with the crystal meth, no doubt about it.
Question: Did you feel you gave yourself - sort of hampered yourself by making your main character somebody who’s terminally ill? Vince Gilligan:Well, another really good question. Yes.
Question: I mean, this isn’t going to go 300 episodes. Vince Gilligan: Yes, now that this thing is actually a reality yes, probably. You know, sometimes we don’t perhaps think as far ahead as we should. Bryan Cranston: Didn’t say that on the (set). Vince Gilligan: You know there’s just no getting around it, he’s dying of cancer. Bryan, what was your wonderful quote about “M*A*S*H?” Bryan Cranston: And I said well “M*A*S*H” was able to stretch the Korean War to ten years. So we can make cancer work can’t we? We can do that scene where you know, Mr. White, I made a terrible mistake. It wasn’t you …
Frankie Muniz attended the LA premiere of the highly anticipated J.J. Abrams (LOST, the next Star Trek film) produced film, Cloverfield, on Wednesday, January 16. The film opened US wide on January 18.
Frankie Muniz and fiancée Jamie Gandy where spotted by paparazzi last week. The above video shows Frankie doing a cute little robot dance after getting a kiss from Jamie.
Bryan Cranston Plays A Desperate Teacher In ‘Breaking Bad’
Bryan CranstonNEW YORK (AP) - ”Breaking Bad” has cooked up this startling premise: A decent man decides to make and sell an evil drug, crystal methamphetamine.
He’s a high school chemistry teacher who learns he has terminal cancer. He and his family already are barely scraping by. To leave his wife and kids provided for, he must put his chemistry know-how to a more lucrative purpose than lecturing to vacant teens. Cooking meth is deplorable. But it can mean big money, fast.
Not that viewers who catch the premiere episode (10 p.m. EST Sunday on AMC) will grasp right away what ”Breaking Bad” is about. The opening scene is artfully bewildering: a frantic fellow in his underpants and a gas mask is barreling through New Mexico no-man’s-land in a boxy motor home. Just one thing is immediately clear: Here is a show that will keep the viewer guessing.
Following last summer’s ambitious, Golden Globes-winning drama ”Mad Men,” AMC has further upped the ante with its second dramatic series, taking even more chances. ”Breaking Bad” dares to be bleak, heartbreaking, shocking and bitterly funny, hurtling its milquetoast hero into situations he couldn’t have imagined.
It also took a gamble by casting as the plagued Walter White an actor best-known for playing the goofy, distracted dad on ”Malcolm in the Middle” - Bryan Cranston. But from the first scene, Cranston proves he’s made a thorough transformation, leaving any trace of Hal Wilkerson in the dust of Walter’s fleeing mobile meth lab.
Inhabiting this new character wasn’t hard, says Cranston. ”Walter White is a guy who has very common flaws. To step into his shoes was a comfortable fit,” he explains. But there was more to being Walter than shoes.
”When I visualized him, I thought he should be colorless,” says Cranston. ”So we took out all the ruddiness in my face. I put a brown rinse in my hair, to take out the red highlights.” He accessorized with glasses and a nerdy Ned Flanders mustache. ”I went to the costume designer and said, ‘I think everything he wears should be taupe and sand. I think this man should blend into the scenery.”’
Cranston also gained 15 pounds, to give Walter a doughy waistline. (For later episodes, he dropped the excess weight as Walter undergoes cancer treatment.) ”Here’s a man,” says Cranston, ”who could have done a lot in his life: a high-six-figure income at a pharmaceutical firm of his choice. Maybe share in a Nobel Prize. But he didn’t reach for the brass ring, and he has lived a life of regret for 25 years. Then he gets the diagnosis.
”But the irony is, ever since he got that death threat, he’s felt more alive than ever. He’s fed up and ready to take charge. And given his set of dire circumstances, for him to use what he knows to do what he does - it seems to make sense.” In an interview, the 51-year-old Cranston is hearty and outgoing, and exudes the satisfaction of an actor who works steadily. But long ago he moved beyond that mark of success. For one thing, he can boast a special status as one of the recurring kooks on ”Seinfeld”: dentist Tim Whatley.
Then he got the hit comedy ”Malcolm,” which wrapped in 2005 after seven seasons, leaving him in the grateful position ”where you don’t have to work for the sake of working, where you have the ability to say no.” He said an enthusiastic yes to ”Breaking Bad.” He had gotten a crack at the role by chance, he says, after appearing in a play in Los Angeles directed by ”Seinfeld” chum Jason Alexander. That performance was seen by ”Breaking Bad” creator Vince Gilligan, whom Cranston had met a decade earlier while guest-starring on ”The X-Files,” where Gilligan was a writer-producer.
Gilligan has surrounded his leading man with a fine supporting cast, including Anna Gunn (”Deadwood”) as Walter’s pregnant wife, Skylar; R.J. Mitte as their teenage son, Walter Jr., whose adolescence is further burdened by his cerebral palsy; and Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman, a recent washout from Walter’s chemistry class who, now part of a meth ring, becomes his business partner.
Jesse and the man he still calls ”Mr. White” quickly bond as a fractious odd couple, blundering through their caper with one cruel setback after another. Never does the series glamorize the drug trade - or let Walter off the hook for his ill-advised venture. ”We’re not looking for people to accept what Walter White is doing,” says Cranston. ”We’re looking for them to understand.”
For Cranston, the hardest thing to understand was the chemistry. ”I hadn’t studied it since high school,” he says with a laugh. ”So I hung out with a chemistry professor to reacquaint myself with what a periodic table is, and an Erlenmeyer flask, and all that stuff.”
Did he really learn to cook meth? ”Yeah, I did,” says Cranston, looking surprised to admit it. ”In fact, we had DEA chemists on our set as consultants. I wanted to be sure how a chemist would hold this beaker or measure that ingredient, and so we’re going through the whole process. There is a specific way to go about it, and I did learn. ”But I’ve forgotten already,” he hastily adds, ”and I have absolutely no interest in repeating it.”
Thanks for helping make the city look so beautiful and so seedy at the same time.
Cranston, who used to play the dad on “Malcolm in the Middle,” can share credit with “X-Files” veteran Vince Gilligan and the cinematographers on “Breaking Bad,” the latest series from AMC debuting in January.
“Breaking Bad” stars a forlorn, frumpy Cranston and the craggy New Mexico landscape in the story of a cash-poor Albuquerque high school chemistry teacher who gets a dire diagnosis and decides to use his former Nobel-track prowess to cook up some primo meth and provide a nest egg to bequeath to his wife and handicapped teen son.
It’s an interesting premise, and the producers vow that the series won’t glorify criminal behavior but merely present a good man making bad decisions for complicated reasons. The results are mixed in the debut episode.
On the one hand, Walter is imbued with an unusual sense of bravado almost immediately after receiving his terminal diagnosis. Suddenly he’s superman, staring down bullies much bigger and younger than he is and outwitting bad guys with guns.
On the other hand, Walter is often clad only in his underwear and shoes and socks (he doesn’t want the smell of meth to get on his good clothes) and almost shoots his foot off trying to figure out how to work a handgun.
It’s up to the rest of the seven-episode series to begin sorting out all the moral implications that get raised.
Albuquerque, meantime, often provides a picturesque setting, with the Sandias and mesas as pleasant backdrops. Cinematographer John Toll, whose work ranges from “Braveheart” to this year’s New Mexico-shot “Seraphim Falls,” was director of photography for the pilot. The rest of the series is credited to Rey Villalobos (”Risky Business,” “Urban Cowboy”).
While the landscape looks harsh but alluring, lurking inside innocuous suburban-looking neighborhoods are meth labs, pit bulls and seriously bad dudes.
Walter goes on a ride-along with Drug Enforcement Administration agents and watches one of these operations get taken down. When he spies a former student escaping out a window, he decides to blackmail the kid and corral him into a business proposition.
They buy an RV and drive it to the outskirts of Albuquerque, where Walter’s mad chem skills produce top-notch meth.
The main drawback in “Breaking Bad” is the gap between the lead performance and the rest. Maybe Cranston is that good, but his supporting crew is surprisingly wooden, as if Gilligan urged the actors to be mechanical in some scenes.
Anna Gunn (”Deadwood”) doesn’t bring much to the pilot as the loving, understanding wife, and Aaron Paul looked a little lost as Jesse Pinkman, Walter’s former student and new partner in crime.
Elsewhere, Walter’s students and extended family are solidly two-dimensional. We get the stereotypical hard-ass buddy cops, one Anglo, one Hispanic. (Walter’s brother-in-law, Hank, is a federal drug agent. Can you sense the tension yet?)
This whole production could easily be overwhelmed by Cranston, who was a force on the sloppy sitcom “Malcolm in the Middle” and who had a memorable turn as the dentist on “Seinfeld” in the 1990s.
Cranston has thrown himself into this character, a mix of Walter Mitty and Travis Bickle. He’s pale and out of shape. His mustache is pathetic; his eyeglasses are depressing. We cringe as we watch the pilot episode establish his middle-age angst and desperation.
But often, while Cranston and his character are manic, about to burst, the rest of the gang is stuck in traditional TV Drama Land.
There’s room for improvement all around, which isn’t unusual after a pilot episode. (AMC didn’t send out copies of the other six episodes in the series. You can catch a “Making of” preview on the cable channel three times in the next week, starting tonight at 10:30.)
AMC, which started out as American Movie Classics, has begun branching out into series drama, as a sort of junior HBO. AMC struck gold this past fall by tapping the “Sopranos’” crew of writers. Matthew Weiner’s “Mad Men,” the period drama about the ad game in Manhattan in 1960, scored decent ratings and charmed critics across the board.
“Mad Men” was strong from the start, rich in character, back story and plot. “Breaking Bad” might get there, but to succeed it will have to flesh out the rest of the cast and raise the stakes for our anti-hero.
It’s hip these days to be a hardened criminal just trying to make ends meet and provide for the family. Tony Soprano and Dexter Morgan have mouths to feed and bills to pay; how they process their evil deeds can be the stuff of compelling drama.
Gilligan, perhaps, felt he needed to keep up with the Joneses and cover a lot of ground in the first episode. Walter’s transformation is rather jarring.
We get two basic-cable explicit sexual situations with Walter and his wife (named Skyler, for some reason), which are intended to be not-so-subtle bookends to show us how defeated Walter starts out and how macho it can be to walk on the wrong side of the law.
In the end, the pilot episode offers a message that doesn’t rise much above that of your typical rap video: deal drugs, earn cash and flaunt your virility with the ladies.
We’ll see whether “Breaking Bad” rises above that credo and returns to Albuquerque to shoot more episodes.
Walter White (Malcolm in the Middle’s Bryan Cranston) is a weary high school chemistry teacher with a bad mustache, a middle-aged, suburban drone. Until he’s diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.
This sets him free. Or free enough to get into the crystal-meth business in order to raise enough money for his wife (Deadwood’s Anna Gunn, nicely grumpy) and cerebral palsy-afflicted son (RJ Mitte, nicely smart-alecky) to live on after he croaks, and for him to have a few thrills while he’s at it. Walt partners with grungy teen meth-head Jesse (Big Love’s Aaron Paul), who’s trying to launch his own tweak factory. With Walt’s chemistry expertise, they cook up primo ice that attracts both profits and murderous enemies.
Breaking Bad is created by Vince Gilligan, who helped oversee some of The X-Files’ most witty-rococo episodes (”Jose Chung’s ‘From Outer Space,”’ fans?). This is AMC’s stab at a Showtime-y, Weeds-like series — which could have stunk. Instead, there are some twists you’ll never see coming, and Cranston gives the kind of shaded, comic-dramatic performance that always bubbled just below the surface of his manic Malcolm dad. Breaking Bad mixes desperation and deviousness to yield a volatile, valuable product. B+
High Schools These Days
The broke chemistry teacher in Breaking Bad turns out to be pretty handy in a meth lab. By John Leonard
Vince Gilligan, the X-Files veteran who created Breaking Bad, has made it clear that he dreamed up his series idea “several years before Weeds”—and therefore any resemblance between the two shows is purely coincidental. While both ask us to identify with aggrieved suburbanites reduced to dealing drugs to make ends meet, I see no reason not to believe him. Bryan Cranston, whose Walter White in Breaking Bad is a high-school chemistry teacher cooking up crystal meth in a used RV in the New Mexican desert, shouldn’t remind anybody of Mary-Louise Parker, whose Nancy Botwin in Weeds is a soccer mom selling pot in pastries and popcorn to the whiter part of a Southern California town, unless you’re dumb, numb, and weird. Weeds, moreover, required half a dozen episodes before turning semigothic, whereas Breaking Bad can’t even get through its pilot hour without gunplay, sirens, and poison gas.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Even before he gets bad medical news from the hospital, Walter is already moonlighting as a cashier in a car wash to help pay for his Albuquerque house with the desolate patio and leaf-filled swimming pool, his stay-at-home wife (Anna Gunn) who writes short stories and is pregnant again, and a teenage son (RJ Mitte) with cerebral palsy. Now this lifelong nonsmoker with “a brain the size of Wisconsin” is informed that he has inoperable lung cancer, with a year or two left to live if he’s lucky. Well, what is he always telling his apathetic students about chemistry as a metaphor for transformation? Staring into a breakfast plate of “veggie bacon” that smells like Band-Aids, Walter is in desperate need of some risk-taking changes in his anal-retentive life. If Takashi Shimura’s Everyman in Ikiru doesn’t come immediately to mind, maybe William H. Macy’s car salesman in Fargo will substitute.
But never mind Kurosawa and the Coen brothers. Follow Walter from a drug-bust ride-along with his brother-in-law, the DEA agent (Dean Norris), to the garage of an ex-student (Aaron Paul) whose previous partner in the methamphetamine biz has just been arrested to the cubbyhole kitchen of a Winnebago, where Walter proves to be an “artist” at the batching of magic crystals. This mild-mannered high-school teacher is now spending an inordinate amount of time on the road, in a gas mask and his underwear, dodging bullets and (literally) laundering money. In fact, from a chemical reaction peculiar to the cinematography of the Southwest desert, the very colors of Breaking Bad seem to have been laundered: As Walter moves from Mister Peepers to Sunbelt drug lord, the picture shifts from earth-tone beige to livid blue, asparagus green, and piss yellow.
Further to confound anybody still hoping for Weeds-type sight gags (the stolen goat, the sauna sex, the teddy-bear nanny cam), there will be prescribed courses not just in chemistry but also in chemotherapy. From chemotherapy, one shouldn’t expect a lot of laughs. We are being slipped instead something metaphorical about wayward leukocytes and cells gone wrong. It must be said that Cranston, a sitcom stalwart perhaps best known as hairy Hal on Malcolm in the Middle, embodies all these transformations as if he were himself a lost city of the plains—a toppled tower, a ruined wall, a bundle of whispering bones. Not enough of Breaking Bad was available for preview to decide whether the supporting cast will eventually satisfy as much as Weeds regulars like Elizabeth Perkins, Kevin Nealon, Tonye Patano, and Justin Kirk, but Cranston’s Walter is already a winner. He reminds me of Robin Williams’s Tommy Wilhelm in the film version of Saul Bellow’s Seize the Day, back in 1986, when Robin Williams was still wonderful to watch. Which in turn makes me wonder at the number of Walters there are in our literature, from Melville and Twain to Saul Bellow, William Kennedy, and E.L. Doctorow, deracinated walkers on the wild side, urban outlaws as pop icons, on the lam from farm chores, doctors, cops, and schoolmarms.
On January 20, AMC is premiering Breaking Bad, a new dramedy that revolves around a high school chemistry teacher who, after being diagnosed with lung cancer, sets up a meth lab in an RV in order to provide for his wife and handicapped son. Creator Vince Gilligan, the man behind the highly-successful X-Files series, is unsure of what exactly drove him to develop a show with the particular premise.
“I’m not really sure what inspired it. All I can remember is that I was talking to an old college buddy - also a writer - about two years ago. We were joking on the phone about how we should quit writing and find another line of work. Somehow, cooking meth came up as one possibility,” Villigan told the Times-Dispatch. “Obviously, we were joking. But this character sprung into my head. I’ve never had that happen to me before.”
“This character” is named Walt White, and is essayed by veteran actor Bryan Cranston. Most known for playing Hal on the family comedy Malcolm in the Middle, Cranston “brings an innate likability to the role,” and possesses all the necessary skills to make the character work.
“He is a genuinely good and decent individual, and he’s a man of character in real life. And he’s a wonderful actor. He’s incredibly funny in person and on screen,” Villigan said of Cranston. “If you have a character who’s dying and cooking meth, you’d better have some lighter moments… This character is doing some dark deeds, and we have to like the guy who’s playing Walt on some deep down level so we stay around for the ride.”
Villigan says that he is not attempting to present viewers with a “morality tale” with Breaking Bad. Rather, the series is focused on how one man has chosen to reinvent himself given the circumstances.
“I love… [stories of redemption], but I didn’t know how to tell one in any way, shape or form,” he explained. “So I figured I could turn it on its ear and not tell a story of redemption, but one about a guy with blinders on his eyes who decides to reinvent himself and burn his candle on both ends and really live… The audience doesn’t have to agree with everything he’s doing, like Tony Soprano. But at least we understand why he’s doing it.”
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Jane Kaczmarek starred in the Ojai Playwrights Conference’s annual winter gala performance on January 19. Entitled An Intimate Pique, It was said to be an evening of dramatic material by America’s leading playwrights. Pique means arousal or excitation. They had scenes that look behind the curtain to the intimate world of backstage affairs both literal and figurative. Scenes where penned by Bill Cain, Jon Robin Baitz, Julia Cho and Charlayne Woodard.
Justin Berfield and his production company, J2 Pictures, are working with the Cayman Islands Government and local investors to establish an official 
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