Bryan Cranston – best known as chemistry teacher turned meth dealer Walter White on AMC’s “Breaking Bad” – isn’t a Donald Trump fan. In fact, he thinks Trump would be a “horrible president.”
Yet, in a recent podcast interview, the actor said he found the Donald’s campaign “refreshing.”
“I actually like his candor,” Cranston told Chris Hardwick – better known as that guy who hosts “The Talking Dead” – on the podcast “The Nerdist.” The One Who Knocks then offered his best Trump imitation: “You’re an idiot. I’m a winner, you’re a loser.”
In a world where the George Clooneys and Jon Voights dwell, Cranston is not known as a particularly politically active celebrity. He’s done his bit for missing and exploited children; he’s come out for marijuana legalization and gun control; he’s ably played President Lyndon B. Johnson; he once told The Washington Post he has voted Republican “when they used to stand for fiscal responsibility and independence.” But’s he’s not, say, a UNHCR goodwill ambassador.
Cranston, it seems, is just a guy who loves a good debate.
“I can’t wait to see these and many more,” Cranston said of Trump’s recent performance at Fox’s Republican presidential debate earlier this month. “I hope he stays in for a long, long time. And just collapses that whole tent of his.”
The Emmy-awarding winning actor seemed to view the “fascinating,” “wonderful” Trump as a sort of lovable guy who jump-starts a boring party.
“There’s something so refreshing about shaking up that world that is all about being handled and here comes this loose cannon who has terrible ideas and would be a horrible president, but there’s something great about his ‘I-don’t-give-a-s---’ attitude that really kind of keeps others honest,” he said. “I think it’s a surprise benefit to the country, actually.”
Cranston and host Hardwick also speculated whether, at some point in the future, Trump will reveal that his abrasive demeanor, often unguarded comments and “whole personality for the last 50 years” were just an art project. Cranston, in Trump mode, imagined the announcement.
“I’m done with the social experiment,” Cranston-as-Trump said. “I’m bald ... I know it surprised a lot of people.”
Cranston isn’t just killing time practicing impressions of presidential candidates on the Internet. He recently produced and appeared in the show “Sneaky Pete,” starring Giovanni Ribisi, which just debuted on Amazon.
