What was your favorite part about the carnival? What did you do?

I worked in, uh, what they call a joint, which was a, a game that you throw the darts at the balloons, and it's, it's one of those games that it's possible to win, but you win a cheap little prize.

Why were you wanted for murder?

Because there was a chef at a restaurant that I worked at as a young actor, and he was, uh, mean and mean-spirited.

That's every day for me

... exact- [laughs] well, an emotional day.

In the theater, they're every day as well, and if you pick a good play, it should have, um, a, an impact on, on audiences and, and yourself, as I said.

And, and it does.

So my experience over there was full.

It was exhausting and exhilarating and fun and adventurous and tiring, and it was, uh, occasionally boring during the days when it's gray and cloudy and misty, and you're like, "Oh my God, what am I gonna do? [laughs] I'll take another nap." When we did, uh, Breaking Bad, I was in the desert of New Mexico for six and a half years, and, um- Fortunately, it's not that far from Los Angeles, so I would either catch a flight home on Friday night or Saturday morning to come home and then go back either, you know, sometime on Sunday.

So I'd spend a night, or two if I'm lucky, and go back.

[laughs]

Could you tell the audience about how you got Breaking Bad and its connection to this taping?

Uh, yes.

Um, I, uh, I always tell, uh, young actors, and if there are young actors in, in this audience tonight, there are four things that you will need to have a career as an actor.

Talent, not a boastful one, not pounding your chest, just a quiet confidence that you can do this, that you have talent.

You have to have patience, and you have to have persistence, which seem to be contradictory at times, but they actually work in tandem.

And then the last element is luck.

Y- you have to have a, a, a healthy dose of luck sprinkled throughout [laughs] your career, and no career is made without luck.

Was there a particular scene that was the most emotionally challenging for you to film, and how did you prepare for it?

Inside of you

... we have to scratch within us.

Right.

Like, even if no one, I would still be making all the songs the same way, doing everything the same way, but because it just scratches that itch that I love.

And you both are so good- Okay, so in- ... at what you do.

So good ...

in 47 years of- Yeah ... of doing this and working on some really, really wonderful material both in theater and...

[laughs]

Yes.

And so that's no different.

And just like students, you either get to it...

You know, most of us wait, and then we, oh, we have to crash course it.

We have to just go, and we just have to put, you know, work on it 24/7 for the next two weeks in order to get something together.

Like, for example, um, I was doing a, a, an guest star role-Many, many years ago, almost 30 years ago, on a, on a situation comedy where I was playing this, this hapless kind of foppish character and, um, and I got a call from Tom Hanks, and he said, uh, he said, "Hey, can you be on..." Uh, this is a Friday night, and he said, "Can you be on a plane tomorrow morning for Orlando, Florida?" And I said, "Yeah, I'm finished with this job tonight." He goes, "Good.

I'll call you back with the in-" I said, "Tom, Tom, Tom, wait, wait.

Yes.

Well, I mean, a- as, as I was saying, we're doing a, a normal episode of The Late Show, which is always kinda special.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, absolutely.

But, um, not even, like, I don't know, a, a surprise celebrity cameo popping up out of nowhere?

[laughs]

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, totally.

Like what is the Cranston flag?

flag?Okay, so I, I joke with my wife a lot.

Her last name is Dearden.

A deer in a den- In a den ...

I guess.

Yeah.

And, um, my Cranston is the crane with claws- Cranes ... with, you know, on a ...

Have you seen Soul Man? Fucking hilarious."

Vero Beach

... yeah, Vero Beach, and we were on the same team and playing.

It was, it was great.

And I had done a commercial years ago with Amy Yasbeck, and so I met both of them.

And so he's just a really terrific guy, and we were in a movie together called, um, I forget it.

It'll come to me.

Um, but anyway, uh, he said, "Uh, I'm gonna be in New York.

Right

Yeah, Charles, Charles Fleischer, funny guy.

Charles is a good fucking actor, man.

I should tell you the time that, you know, um, uh, re- reminded of Charles Fleischer and, and other, you know, like, um, th- there was a time when I was, I was doing a movie in Toronto that, uh, John Ritter was supposed to do.

All right? He was supposed to do this movie.

Instead, he did a, he did a play and it went to Broadway.

And I said...

And he was still producing this movie I was doing, so I said, uh, I was talking to him every day and I said, "Well, I'll come to New York and I'll see your play." "No, no, no.

Inevitable name for a play

Mm.

And then they would splinter again, but it would work.

And, um, so I think there is some comfort to it.

Uh, i-in my own personal life, when I was eleven, my father left, and I didn't quite understand that, and my mother was very despondent by that and started drinking.

And so she wasn't really available to me emotionally.

She was there phys-- And my father wasn't available at all.

So I'm left to my own devices, and that's not a great thing for an eleven or twelve-year-old to figure out, "Well, that's the easier way to go.

Mm

Kind of-

Yeah, I, well, about 12 years ago, I was getting a lot of fans coming up to me and saying, "What happened to Malcolm?" And that Lois and Hal were pregnant when the sh- series ended.

"Did you have a girl that you wanted? Or was it another boy?" And I, I kept saying, "I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know." So I went to him and I said, "I think there's enough fodder here for a story." And he said, "Absolutely not.

I'm retired, done, forget it." And then a year later, I said, "I don't know, what do you think? I don't know." And he said, "I, I don't think so.

I really, I really don't think so." And I took that as progress-

That's real bees.

young but it's also you know when you've been at something for a long time so i read that you really wanted to make this revival happen

I did.

I had been playing a lot of dubious characters and nasty guys who were killing people.

And I thought, I don't know, it'd be kind of nice to slip back into the shoes of a sweet, innocent, vulnerable guy.

And he's a lovable guy.

And I love playing him.

And for seven years, we're on the air and we had a great time.

How fantastic and how do you wrap your mind around that? I think it's so special.

Yeah.

Just, well, no, I was c- so confused.

So i, in a way, at the time, I felt like I was running away, and I suppose I was, because I didn't know what it was I wanted to put all my energy in.

And it wasn't until I was, I was on the Blue Ridge Parkway of Virginia waiting out a rainstorm on my motorcycle underneath a, a, a picnic, covered, um, picnic bench with a slab of cement and me.

And I stayed there for, like five days, 'cause it just never stopped raining.

[clears throat] And it was at that time I had this epiphany that, okay, I am going to go after something that I really feel I can be in love with but I wasn't necessarily good at yet, uh, as opposed to something I was good at, which was police work, but I didn't love it.

And so that was the distinction to me.

One to 10

[laughs]

And so we're collecting eggs.

We fed, uh, the chickens.

At night, once every two weeks, we would dress up in dark clothes, and we'd have a, the cages on top of our Cushman carts.

And chickens would get out of their cages, and they wouldn't know where to go, so they would roost on top of the cage.

And we'd come by, and we'd go about halfway down, "Ooh.

Wa, wa, wa, wa, wa, wa, wa, wa, wa." We'd put them in the cage and then find another cage for them to go.

Mm

Right.

"Don't say White Front.

Don't say..." So, of course, when the time came, I said, "President Lincoln will deliver his Gettysburg Address as soon as he returns from the White Front." At that moment, I saw parents bursting out in laughter, falling to the floor of the aisles, uproarious laughter.

All the kids around me were laughing.

The teacher in the wings was laughing.

Everybody was laughing at me.

At the same time, I didn't know how to reconcile that.

And I love this.

It's got the sort of the red rocks, and then it's got this area, and it's a wonderful place to shoot

shootIt's gorgeous country.

This actually, this sequence was the last sequence we shot on your episode, on this episode here.

The very last, uh, shot that we did for the series was on Rian Johnson's episode, where we did a flashback, or fl- yeah.

He took a day off, yeah.

Uh, uh, Jessica Hecht was doing a play, and the only day she had, one day, and it had to get this scene on this day, or we would never get it, and they, and the, the nice folks of the, her Broadway show let her out to do this, and, um, and she was able to come out.

I, it was on a Monday, when they're dark in New York.

Boom, she finished, flew back on Tuesday morning, and was there on the, on the stage Tuesday night.

Yeah, it was great.

You know, it's funny how, how you look at the, the character of Saul Goodman, and you...

Some people can dismiss him, uh, because h- he's, he kinda glides along the surface, uh, almost like a dragonfly on top of the water.

He doesn't get affected.

He doesn't get damaged.

And yet when you really look at it, his advice and his knowledge of when to, to make an adjustment to the, to the action, and when to leave, when to give up, the end game-

Uh, some of it was utterly destroyed, but a fair bit of it, uh, which, as you said, is intercut into this scene, is still, was still, uh, viable.

And, you know, because the, it, the scene is so raw, and Bryan's work here is so raw and specific and, and honest, it was, it was kinda rough to ask you to do that a second time.

Yeah.

Uh, no, and, and the other thing was that we had to talk to a lot, and we, we, uh, you know, uh, had to discuss was, there was the physical altercation afterward, me being handcuffed and forcing him back against the truck, and, you know, very easily you can get hurt on these things.

[laughs]

I just wanted to also mention, uh, our stunt coordinator, Al Goto, was involved in that.

So everything is detailed and worked out, uh, so that if we got hurt, it could shut down production.

We can't get hurt, so it looks dangerous, but it's actually very controlled.

Yeah.

I jump in the shower.

It's not until after I get out of the shower that I realize my gas-covered clothes have been soaking in the living room rug this entire time.

I mean, it's, it's...

The whole thing is just so stupid.

I could have rinsed off at the station.

Halfway home, I'm starting to realize, wait a minute, there's a water hose right there next to the air pump, you know, for tires.

McGardners.

Is Kerry cringing back there?

Yeah, of course she is.

[laughs]

[laughs]

Uh, but this is obviously, uh...

Michael asked me if we could do the, uh, schedule it upfront to do this long monologue, because he, he wanted to be able to give, uh, Dean and Betsy a chance to actually hear me deliver this as opposed to, um, you know, uh, the script supervisor, Helen Caldwell, or someone else to say it, and it, it just, it does, it helps the actors to hear the-

Yeah.

So how, how tough was it? 'Cause I think this, uh, in the uncut version, uh, this thing is, like, five or six minutes long, isn't it?

[laughs]

Take me last.

I'll learn my lines as we go along.

No.

No, but it is.

It de- it depends on, on which actor may be carrying the bulk of the scene, and you try to, to give that person the, the, the choice of what, what's easier for them.

Yeah.

And from Walt's standpoint, this is certainly an olive branch, because I passed out and now I'm, I have a blanket and a, and a pillow, and she's tending to me, and I thought, you know.

I love this one too.

You know, it r- it wrote, uh, this beautiful monologue about [laughs] these guys debating the merits of, uh, of Star Trek.

And, uh... [laughs] And with such fervor and absolute commitment to it.

And it gave a wonderful juxtaposition between, uh, Jesse's mood and where his head is at, and it just, just works so well.

And, and I gotta show you guys the praise again, uh, for those of us who read this and are able to either act or direct these, um, it's basically, "Don't get in the way." It's like this plays out so beautifully.

... and you trust, uh, uh, Michael Slovis to tell you if they didn't get it or if something was out of focus or whatever?

Exactly.

And then, you know, at... after each take, I look over, and Peter and I would talk, or Michelle and Melissa and anybody who happened to be there with me at the time.

... of that Michael Slovis shot coming up where, with Skyler walking away.

You really wanna know.

Why are you hiding it here? Don't worry about it.

Who are you hiding it from? I said don't worry about it.

From the police? Or someone else? Someone who would kill for it? Why don't you go back in the office? Why don't you go back in the office and let us do this? We'll get him.

... and you didn't see it.

Well, this was, uh, a very tearful moment for most of us here on the, on the set to, to say goodbye to one of our great characters on the show, but I thought Vince's first draft, uh, the lines were terrific.

Um, Walt comes up to, to Mike and says, "You know why I'm doing this.

Yeah.

Yeah, this, uh, base- this is a basement, uh, I think it's a metal, a metalworking, uh, factory, and it's a...

You can get an idea of its scope here.

It's a very long room, but it was, it was quite dank, and, and, uh, not a lot of air down there.

Beautiful lighting.

Yeah, I remember talking with Michael about, we really wanted to get the textures of the ceiling and, and the walls, and, uh, so Michael, uh, lit it accordingly, and you can really see the sense of the scope, and makes it appear very creepy.

Yeah.

Um, Sharon Bialy and Sharon To- Sherry Thomas, uh, our casting directors, bring us a, a treasure trove of talent, and, uh, it, that's the difficulty is to, is to select one.

Yeah.

And he's running through the field like a new runner.

Okay, number three...