Bryan Cranston, welcomed with a standing ovation, appeared on last night’s The Colbert Report for the ― as one could expect ― silly, joke-filled interview with Stephen Colbert.
Despite the shenanigans (equally played out by both Cranston and Colbert rather than Colbert prodding his interviewees for laughs) there were still things learned about Cranston and Breaking Bad beyond fake spoilers.
Colbert noted, “You were at Comic-Con this year, but people didn’t know it … for awhile,” Cranston following up with, “…even when I was on the panel?” before Colbert disclosed a picture of Cranston at Comic-Con suited as his meth-dealing character Walter White but instead wore a Walter White mask to conceal his identity.
Colbert joked that the beginning of Heisenberg, White’s street name, came from Cranston’s history of doing voice-overs for monsters in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series.
The light-heartedness of the interview could leave one to guess that Colbert would ask what happens in the end of the series after noting that Vince Gilligan appeared on the show as well. “So you already know that Jesse Pinkman has a sex change operation?” Cranston says in a matter-of-fact tone of his sidekick in the meth dealing business.
“How long does it take you to get into psycho-mode at this point or can you just turn it on at a moment’s notice?” Colbert asked, who was greeted with “You know, if someone pushes my buttons I can turn it on very quickly,” and a moment’s notice led to Cranston piercingly gazing through Colbert, not breaking character and showing his dedication to the dark role of Walter White. Earlier, Cranston described the character and show as “the greatest professional experience of my life.”
The last half of the last season begins August 11. “We can’t look forward to it because that means it’ll come here and then it’ll eventually be over,” Colbert said.