Bryan Cranston says he once planned to join the Los Angeles Police Department before acting took over, a path that looks almost unthinkable now for the man best known as Walter White on Breaking Bad. In a recent interview, the 70-year-old said he had been studying police science at L.A. Valley College when his career took a different turn.
Cranston said the shift started in junior college, after he had already decided he was not much of an academic. He said he became quiet and observant, then found acting when he needed an elective, and that one class left him with second thoughts about police work. His brother, he said, was also interested in law enforcement and was studying to join the LAPD.
The weight of that admission is in how far it sits from the career that followed. Breaking Bad ran on AMC from 2008 to 2013 and made Cranston the face of Walter White, the high school science teacher with cancer who turns to making meth and becomes a kingpin. Long before that, he was making people laugh on Seinfeld and Malcolm in the Middle, two very different stops on a television run that turned him into one of the most recognizable actors of his generation.
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The same interview also turned to family, and to the success of his daughter, Taylor Dearden. The 33-year-old plays Dr. Mel King on The Pitt, and Cranston said he is proud of her work. “Well, Taylor is a wonderful, hard-working actor,” he said, adding that hearing praise for her performance means more to him than anything anyone could say about his own work.
That pride came through in one line after another. “You know, you’re a proud dad. And I’m OK. I could retire after you hear that,” Cranston said. “There is nothing more gratifying than when your kid receives praise. Nothing.” He added, “No one can say anything to me that’s better than that,” and said he and Taylor’s mother, Robin Dearden, are “just over the moon” with her work on the series.
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What makes the story land now is that it shows Cranston at a point in his life where the legacy is settled, but the surprise is still there. He is not talking about another reinvention or a comeback. He is talking about the career he almost chose, and the daughter whose work he says leaves him more satisfied than any applause for his own.
