Bryan Cranston Never Wanted to Leave the ‘Seinfeld’ Set: ‘Soak It Up’
To millions of fans around the world, Bryan Cranston is best known as Walter White, the mild-mannered high school teacher who starts manufacturing meth in order to secure his family’s future. However, long before he landed the role of Walter White in Breaking Bad, he was acting in a very different kind of TV series. For several years, Cranston had a recurring role in the iconic ’90s comedy Seinfeld — and to the distinguished actor, his time on the series is still one of his all-time best experiences at work. In a recent interview with GQ, Cranston opened up about how he never wanted to leave the set of Seinfeld.
Bryan Cranston had a recurring role in ‘Seinfeld’
Cranston was still an up-and-coming actor in 1994, when he landed the role of Dr. Tim Whatley, Jerry and Kramer’s dentist, in Seinfeld. The character of Dr. Tim was first introduced in Season 6 and became an immediate fan-favorite. Charming and more than a little bit cocky, Dr. Tim confuses Jerry on more than one occasion — most notably, when he seems to suggest that he became intimate with his assistant while Jerry was under anesthesia.
Over the next few years, Cranston reprised the role of Dr. Tim Whatley on several occasions, becoming one of Seinfeld’s most popular recurring guest stars. His stint on the series helped prove that he had what it took to be a comedic performer, and not long after his work in Seinfeld, he landed a larger role in the sitcom Malcolm in the Middle.
What did Bryan Cranston say about his time filming ‘Seinfeld’?
Cranston loved every bit of his time on Seinfeld, as he revealed in a recent GQ interview. “The audition for Seinfeld was great,” Cranston said. “Did it first for the casting director, Meg Lieberman. And then for the callback, Jerry was in the room and the goal of any actor is to, man, if I can get him to laugh, that’s the thing. And I got him.”
Cranston discussed how he managed to look different in every one of his appearances on Seinfeld because he was working on other projects — but through it all, he was always thrilled to have the opportunity to act alongside such top talents. “No matter who was acting in any scene at any given time, I’m watching brilliance,” the Breaking Bad star said. “So even if I only had two scenes in something, I’m watching the rest of the show all through rehearsal, all through taping nights, just to be there to soak it up.”
Bryan Cranston admitted that he made Jerry Seinfeld laugh on several occasions
Cranston might have been giving props to the other stars of Seinfeld, but his own comic brilliance is hard to dispute. After all, Cranston has admitted that he’s made Seinfeld himself laugh on more than one occasion. In an episode of Talking Bad with Chris Hardwick, Cranston recalled how he once made Seinfeld laugh so hard that it took an hour to finish shooting a very simple scene. In the episode, Jerry is in Dr. Tim’s office, nervous about the possibility that the dentist might be secretly molesting him.
Cranston explained how he was rehearsing before the scene when he got an unexpected suggestion from a crew member. “I hear a voice saying, ‘Hey, you know what would be funny?’ and I look out and, on a ladder adjusting a light, is a guy,” Cranston said. “And he goes, ‘It would be funny if you first took a hit of the laughing gas before you gave it to him.'” Cranston did just that, which caused Seinfeld to “fall over” laughing. “We were there for an hour,” Cranston noted.
