Bryan Cranston is best known for his performance as Walter White in the critically acclaimed crime-drama series Breaking Bad. Created by Vince Gilligan, the series was arguably the best product of cable television’s golden age in the late 2000s.
The show’s pilot episode introduced Cranston as the cancer-stricken chemistry professor, making drugs to support his family. However, the episode also features a scene with Cranston in tighty-whities. While the scene is iconic now, Gilligan had second thoughts about it until Cranston convinced him to go ahead with it. Here is how the iconic Breaking Bad scene came to be.
Bryan Cranston refused to abandon his tighty-whities in an iconic Breaking Bad scene
Breaking Bad was created by Vince Gilligan and premiered in 2008 with its pilot episode featuring one of the best hooks in television history. The episode opens with an RV driving in the New Mexico desert before we get our first glimpse of Bryan Cranston.
In the scene, Cranston’s Walter White first appears in his tighty-whities in what is one of the most iconic scenes from the show. However, Gilligan admitted to GQ that he had second thoughts about the tighty-whities in the scene while filming it.
Gilligan revealed that he offered Cranston a change of costume before filming the scene, stating:
I took him aside and said, ‘Would you be more comfortable in sweatpants? Or boxers?’
Cranston admitted that while he would be more comfortable, he asked the showrunner what would be the most pathetic choice for the circumstances that define Walter White‘s introduction, and insisted on sticking with that. As a result, Gilligan realized the tighty-whities were the only option, and the iconic scene was shot.
Bryan Cranston’s iconic Breaking Bad scene must’ve been a cake-walk after his previous show’s stunts
During Gilligan’s time of self-doubt over the scene, Cranston demonstrated an impeccable understanding of his character, which resulted in the iconic scene. At the same time, the former Malcolm in the Middle actor admitted that he couldn’t care less about how he looked on the screen.
On the other hand, Gilligan was also concerned about filming the scene in the freezing New Mexico desert with his lead star in nothing but a pair of tighty-whities. However, such filming conditions likely were nothing new to Cranston, especially after his stint on the Fox sitcom.
In the same GQ profile about the actor, Cranston’s penchant for agreeing to ridiculous stunts has been well documented. Cranston himself spoke about the same on The Graham Norton Show, stating (via Metro):
I was strapped on a moving bus, I had 60,000 stinging bees on me, and I did a thing where my character was covered from head to toe in blue paint.
Ultimately, Cranston’s time on Malcolm in the Middle made him used to filming such seemingly ridiculous gags that appear unsuitable for TV. However, like with the tighty-whities, such scenes, when done right, become iconic, and Cranston had no qualms about filming them.
Breaking Bad is streaming on Netflix (USA).
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