Just Lose Yourself - Bryan Cranston’s Profound Philosophy On Life

Looking at someone who does something extraordinarily well, like a painter, a musician, or a dancer, or a Redwood, you can't help but think, how did this all happen? This is stunning. There has to be a God. There has to be. How how could this be created without thought? Just by pure accident? And have that accident so attractive to those of us who are here? It's like, is that a coincidence? I don't think so. And Bryan Cranston's performances have that same effect on millions of viewers. In the year 2000, he had his first breakout role as Hal in Malcolm in the Middle, and an even bigger breakout in 2008 as Walter White in Breaking Bad. Bryan's accolades include six Primetime Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, and two Golden Globes. When he views art, Bryan sees proof of God. Does he find that same proof when it is Bryan himself creating it? It seems as though the God that Bryan references comes from within, not from religion itself. I am not a religious person. The moment I sense man-made thoughts and comments, I'm done. My God is better than your God. My God did this, and all the tales, and the morality tales, and the cautionary tales that are taught. But once they use religion as a weapon for power, for one-upsmanship, for whatever, for gaining wealth, you lose me. It seems, though, that the larger the flock, the more weakened the chain gets, and it could break at any moment. I believe in inclusiveness, in anything that's not like let people be who people want to be, and love who they want to love, and be around who they want to be. If someone's intolerant of that, I'm not a part of their conversation. The tolerance that Bryan practices is not yet widespread. When it comes to the younger generation, many parents are not open to letting their children become who they want to become. For example, there is an immense amount of pressure put on kids at a young age to pick a career years in advance of even graduating high school. Here Bryan reflects on this harsh reality. I think sometimes we reach down too far into our youth and expect them to produce sooner than they should be able to. We look down now to 16-year-olds and say, where are you going to go to college? What are you going to do for the rest of your life? And it's like, they're sick. They're not fully baked yet. How do they know? Give them a break. Just say, look, I think after high school, take a year off. Take two years off. Join the Peace Corps. Travel. Go figure things out. Or just enjoy yourself. For the first time in their lives, they're adults and they don't have to be somewhere. They're not told to be somewhere. Get used to that freedom. Get used to having the need to self-govern yourself. To be able to employ self-discipline. Or not. Or you realize, oh my god, I'm really slovenly. If I'm not told I need to go to class, I don't go. You might discover something about yourself. I need order. I need that. I like that. Some people love to be said, this is where you have to be and this is what you need to do. Are you that type of person? Or are you a type of person that wants more freedom in your life? And I think exploration, travel, it provides that. The wisdom gained through traveling is incomparable to any other kind of learning. Being immersed into different cultures and unknown situations can provide unique life lessons that can only be taught from first-hand experience. Some of this wisdom can present itself during the act of getting lost. I think people gain a tremendous amount of wisdom when they travel. When they wander. When they allow themselves, as I did, to get lost. And maybe you'll find yourself somewhere. At least traveling forces you to be social. You have to get directions. You have to learn where things are. You're attuned to your environment. You have to be more careful about the weather and where your lodging is going to be. Where you're going to eat. How you're going to get from one place to another. When you're there, what is it you want to see? How can you find a place for you to actually just rest? It's an experience like no other. I love to travel and I enjoy not knowing where I am. It's an unusual thing. I'd sell it and I purposefully teach that to my daughter, who's now 24 years old, to not be afraid of not knowing where you are. So I'll go for a drive or go for a walk in a different city and my wife will say, do you know where you're going? Not really. Just kind of exploring different places and as long as you have a sense of direction, you'll find your way. You'll figure it out. And I do that in foreign countries as well. Just kind of wander and meander and trust that you've paid attention to at least the basic requirement of where you have to get back to in order to find your way home. But how has Brian benefited from this kind of practice? In 1976, I had just finished my second year of college and realized that after an experience in an elective acting class that I wasn't going to be the policeman I thought I was going to be. That it was better if I didn't continue on with two more years of an administration of justice major because I knew I wasn't going to become a policeman. So I thought I better just go figure out what it is I want to do. And so I hopped on the back of a motorcycle. My brother was in the same position really. Two young guys who were not quite sure what was in store for them and what avenue they should go down. So we both hopped on our motorcycles and we took off. We had about 150 bucks in my pocket or something and soon ran low of funds and we'd had to get jobs along the way. What was great about it is that we had total freedom. We didn't know exactly where we were going. We didn't know how long we were going to stay in any given town. If it appealed to us, we would stay and explore different places and historical sites. If it didn't appeal to us, we took off again. We slept on golf courses, on cemeteries, back of mortuaries, schools, anywhere we can throw a sleeping bag, an old patch of grass and that was our home for the night. And you know I was 19, 20 years old. It was fun and you could do that then. And that's the time you want to do it. That's the age you want to do it. And in retrospect, I realized that I took off on this trip which lasted two full years in an effort to allow myself to get lost, to be lost and to figure out while I'm gone what it is I really should be doing with my life. So I finally determined it was something where I wanted to allow myself to get lost so that I could be found basically is what it was. And after two years, it was during that trip that I had an epiphany that I really wanted to become an actor and do everything I could to put myself in a position to make a living and be a professional actor for the rest of my life. From that point on, Brian made a living as a working middle class actor until his 40s when he landed the role of Hal in Malcolm in the Middle. Prior to then, one of his most notable roles was Dr. Tim Watley in Seinfeld from 1994 to 1997. In this interview, he speaks of a time on the show that he gained inspiration from an unlikely source. You have to keep putting yourself in a position to be open for inspiration. Yeah. And it's... And the way to do it is what Shirley Knight taught, is start at the beginning and that's relaxation. And you think, well, how am I gonna... I want to get inspired. Yeah. Here's how to do it. Start down here. It's like building a ladder to reach that. You have to be able to build these foundational blocks to be able to get to that, possibly. So have you had some moments like that? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Any that spring to mind? You know, there's a number of things. There's a story when I was on Seinfeld, I'm playing the dentist on Seinfeld, that got an enormous laugh. And I didn't tell Jerry or Larry David that I was doing it. But I was rehearsing. It was an episode. And I did a half dozen episodes as their dentist, Tim Wadley. This one episode, I'm in there and Jerry is in my dental chair. And he's wondering, you know, if I am hygienically clean. And so he's in my dental chair and I give him laughing gas. And he goes out and he doesn't know if he's been molested because his shirt was untucked. And in his days, he sees my dental hygienist kind of put her blouse back together. And I'm kind of like, what's going on? Anyway, we rehearsed the scene and off they go to another part of the set to rehearse another scene. And I stayed on my dental office set to figure out how the stool works and where the tools are and things like that. And I hear a voice. Hey, you know, it would be funny. And there's a guy on a ladder adjusting a lamp. And I go, guy on a ladder, what would be funny? And he said, when you ask for the nitrous oxide, take a hit of it yourself first. And I went, oh, my God, that's pretty good. And so I didn't tell anybody. Audience loads in, we do it. Nurse, nitrous oxide. I take it. Yeah, that's good. And Jerry cracks up. We did that little run maybe 25 times because he kept laughing. And then I kept laughing and we can't. And Larry David scolding both of us. Stop laughing. Stop laughing. Do it. Do it again. Do it again. And they said, there's a brilliant idea. I go, it's not mine. It was, you know, the guy on the ladder is not there anymore. And I'm looking somewhere. Yeah, he's out there somewhere. Yeah. So you never know where a great idea is going to come from. And you know who that guy on the ladder was? No. Who was it? Jesus. Oh, my God. I wish I had paid more attention. Yeah. Don't we all? No wonder he wanted to wash my feet. Did this gig simply come from a man on a ladder adjusting a lamp? Or is it deeper than that? Divine inspiration, perhaps? That's up to you to decide.