EP. 194 — An Interview with Bryan Cranston

Jenna [00:00:04] I’m Jenna Fischer. 

Angela [00:00:05] And I’m Angela Kinsey. 

Jenna [00:00:06] We were on The Office together. 

Angela [00:00:08] And we’re best friends. 

Jenna [00:00:09] And now we’re doing the ultimate Office rewatch podcast just for you. 

Angela [00:00:13] Each week, we will break down an episode of The Office and give exclusive behind the scenes stories that only two people who were there can tell you. 

Jenna [00:00:20] We’re the Office Ladies. 

Angela [00:00:24] Good morning, lady! 

Jenna [00:00:26] Oh, we have a really amazing guest on Office Ladies today. 

Angela [00:00:30] We sure do. All of you that listened to Work Bus last week know that today in the studio we have Bryan Cranston. We cannot wait for you guys to hear this interview because, look, there are certain episodes of The Office that are just real big episodes and they warrant extra time, and Work Bus is definitely one of those. 

Jenna [00:00:51] It’s definitely one of those. 

Angela [00:00:53] Yeah, and we shared all about our experience on that bus, but we really felt like you needed to hear from the director as well. So we reached out to Bryan. He was so kind and gracious. He came into the studio and chatted all things Work Bus with us. 

Jenna [00:01:08] And more. Now, I know a lot of people know Bryan Cranston from his many acting roles. He’s been in film and television, and he’s been on Broadway. You know, there’s Malcolm in the Middle and Walter White on Breaking Bad, and he even won a Tony Award for the Broadway play All the Way. He’s amazing. But Bryan is also a very accomplished director. He directed episodes of Malcolm in the Middle, of Breaking Bad, Modern Family, Sneaky Pete, and his new series Your Honor on Showtime. And of course, this very epic, famous episode of The Office. 

Angela [00:01:43] And he is just delightful. He is so much fun to talk to. It was such a joy having him. And Jenna, you know what I was thinking? We didn’t bring this up to him, but I want him to direct our road trip movie if we ever do it. 

Jenna [00:01:58] Oh my gosh. Yes! Yes! 

Angela [00:02:01] We have never even shared- have we shared about the fact that me, you and Lee have a road trip idea?

Jenna [00:02:06] We came up with an idea for a road trip movie. Lee wrote it. 

Angela [00:02:11] It’s so funny. It’s so funny. 

Jenna [00:02:15] I know. 

Angela [00:02:15] Some of the hardest I have laughed in a long time was when the three of us were sitting at your dining table and we were pitching jokes. Because, listen, you guys, this is a road trip movie about two gals that are- that are like in their 50s. But anyway, I mean, it. 

Jenna [00:02:30] Yes. It has a Mom Detectives element to it. I have to say. 

Angela [00:02:33] It really does. But would Bryan Cranston ever direct anything on the road again? That’s the question. 

Jenna [00:02:40] I think after you listen to this interview, you might find that he would be very hesitant to do so. Well, listen, The Office might have ruined him forever in directing anything in a moving vehicle again. But let’s let him tell you about it. We’re going to take a break. And when we come back, our interview with Bryan Cranston about Work Bus, which is also known as Death Bus. We’ll be right back.  

Angela [00:03:06] It’s such a great interview. We’ll be right back. 

Bryan Cranston [00:03:19] Yea yeah! 

Both [00:03:21] Yeah! Woo hoo! 

Bryan Cranston [00:03:22] Well, who wrote the your opening theme song? 

Both [00:03:25] Creed Bratton. 

Bryan Cranston [00:03:26] Did he really? You know, I just realized who Creed was. 

Jenna [00:03:30] You just did?

Bryan Cranston [00:03:31] I just in the, like, in the last few weeks. 

Angela [00:03:35] Grassroots, all of that? 

Bryan Cranston [00:03:37] Yes!

Angela [00:03:37] Yeah. 

Bryan Cranston [00:03:38] The Grassroots. And I’m thinking that can’t be the same. It’s the same guy. 

Jenna [00:03:42] Yes. 

Bryan Cranston [00:03:42] You know, my question to you, my first question- thanks for coming on the show, by the way. My first question to you would be, did the show ever do a backstage idea about what Creed’s background was? Did someone ever go, that guy looks so familiar and and, you know, did you ever do anything like that? I don’t remember. 

Jenna [00:04:03] There were so many pitches. There were so many people who wanted to do a whole episode just on Creed and his life, and wanted him to be outed as Creed Bratton. Creed Bratton, because he’s the only person on the show who has his full name as his character name. Like Angela is Angela on the show. But on the show, her last name is Martin.

Angela [00:04:24] Angela Martin. 

Jenna [00:04:26] But Creed Bratton the character is also Creed Bratton, the man. But I don’t think it was ever revealed. 

Angela [00:04:32] I will say though, of all the characters, we have a show bible- sorry- I have to- you guys- Bryan- his microphone- this morning, something’s up with it. And there is a bar in front of his face. And so for me to talk to Bryan, he has to lean around. 

Bryan Cranston [00:04:47] Look, Angela, it’s safer to have a bar in front of my face because that’s the. It helps the restraining order issue that you- we have. 

Angela [00:04:55] We have. But, anyway, of all the characters had a, we had a show Bible of all their back history and Creed’s is the craziest. 

Jenna [00:05:04] It’s the most fun to read. 

Angela [00:05:05] He has like- he has like a family in Canada. He lives under his desk half the time. He’s- it’s like, all over the place. 

Bryan Cranston [00:05:12] Hey, wait a minute. Why didn’t I get a chance to read that? That would have been very- 

Jenna [00:05:16] They didn’t give you the show Bible? 

Bryan Cranston [00:05:17] No, I didn’t get it. I no one said it was available. 

Jenna [00:05:20] You should’ve been given that. 

Bryan Cranston [00:05:21] Absolutely should have been given that. 

Angela [00:05:23] Would have changed Work Bus. 

Bryan Cranston [00:05:25] I’m gonna quit! 

Angela [00:05:26] Yeah. Retroactive. 

Jenna [00:05:29] Well we always like to ask people when they come on, first question, how did you end up working on The Office? How did you get this job directing Work Bus? 

Bryan Cranston [00:05:37] Tracy Katsky is a friend of mine, and she was working as a consultant with David in the last year you guys were on the air. Right? And I had just finished my season with Breaking Bad, and that was 2012. 

Jenna [00:05:57] Yep. 

Bryan Cranston [00:05:57] I think it was 2012. And Tracy calls and says, we’re looking for directors for this new season. Would you be interested in coming on board The Office? And immediately the answer was going to be, of course, no. But, I loved the show. It’s such a legendary show that any chance to to be a part of it in some small way. And she said, I know you’ve been directing Breaking Bad’s and, you know, you’re out in the desert and it’s hot and sticky. How would you like to come to- what was it, Burbank, North Hollywood? Wherever we were. And, we work inside. 

Angela [00:06:40] Yeah. Air conditioned. 

Bryan Cranston [00:06:42] Air conditioned. Easy. Indoors. Five days. Bang bang bang. 

Angela [00:06:47] Boom boom boom. 

Bryan Cranston [00:06:47] And it’s- I said, oh, it sounds fantastic. Let’s do it. And she said, well, we have such and such slot open. And I looked at my calendar and I said, oh, I’ll take that slot. And I don’t know, you probably described it on your show before, but the way it works in television for directors is by time. You have no idea when you sign on to a show what your episode is going to be at the time it gets to your timeslot. So we had no idea. And it just. 

Angela [00:07:17] Oh my God. 

Bryan Cranston [00:07:18] It’s just so happened that Work Bus came onto my lap. 

Jenna [00:07:26] What did you think when you read this episode? 

Bryan Cranston [00:07:29] Well, the first I was excited to read it. Read it right away. And Work Bus. Oh, I don’t know. Oh they- oh, they exterminate- was it exterminating? You know, we were exterminating- this is 11 years ago I think.

Angela [00:07:42] There was this electrical issue, magnetic- electromagnetic things in the walls. And Dwight was going to have to open up all the walls and redo the electrical. 

Bryan Cranston [00:07:52] So, so the basic idea is that there could not be a work stoppage for the whole team. So, a work bus was found to be the best method to continue working while this work on the actual location of the office was taking place. So everybody had to load onto the bus. Desks were on there, as we all know, and we had to just keep traveling. We’re in the San Fernando Valley in August. 

Jenna [00:08:24] It’s so hot in August. 

Bryan Cranston [00:08:25] It’s so hot. 

Angela [00:08:25] I went to the call sheets. It was 100 degrees this week. It was like triple digits. 

Bryan Cranston [00:08:31] It was very hot. So the first thing I did was curse my friend Tracy Katsky. Damn you! As if they knew, you know. But it was, it was a challenge. I think we shot in on the set for a day and a half or something like that. Something short. And then the rest of the time we were- 

Angela [00:08:51] On a bus. 

Bryan Cranston [00:08:52] On that bus or in the park, and then we were at a baseball field. I know we were- we did that for a little bit. 

Jenna [00:08:57] We had that cold open. Yeah. 

Bryan Cranston [00:08:59] I enjoyed it for the most part. But there was… 

Jenna [00:09:03] There were some tough moments. 

Angela [00:09:06] Well I have to say okay, you know that our cast has renamed this episode Death Bus. This has come to you, I know. And Jenna and I wrote a whole chapter in our book about it, The Office BFFs. We have a copy for you. We signed it. 

Bryan Cranston [00:09:23] Oh I’d love it. 

Angela [00:09:23] Inside it says, Bryan, we owe you our lives. Thanks, Angela and Jenna. It is chapter 12, and… 

Jenna [00:09:32] We dedicated a whole chapter to just this episode. 

Bryan Cranston [00:09:35] Wow. 

Angela [00:09:35] And we have fantastic photos of you. But we realized after our book came out you were doing press. We felt really bad because every single producer clearly wanted you to be asked about Death Bus. Jenna was like, oh no, Ange. 

Jenna [00:09:51] Poor Bryan! 

Angela [00:09:53] We wrote about this and now everyone is asking him the same question on every talk show. Why did you try to kill the cast of The Office? 

Bryan Cranston [00:10:01] Why did I try to kill the cast? 

Jenna [00:10:03] Was it a murder for hire? No one’s asked. Was it a failed murder for- You can’t talk about it. 

Bryan Cranston [00:10:07] I can’t- I can’t discuss all those details. 

Jenna [00:10:09] Right. 

Bryan Cranston [00:10:11] There is a current investigation going on. 

Angela [00:10:14] Ongoing. Ongoing. 

Bryan Cranston [00:10:15] And, you know, indictments will be handed down. I, I have every reason to believe you two are in the clear. I can’t be positive on that. But I haven’t um… Set of circumstances. It was hot and tight. You know, you talk about the the the set being contained. Well, we’re on a bus. And we didn’t have a lot of room. And if I recall, nothing was actually nailed down. Everything was kind of shifting around. 

Angela [00:10:50] Nothing. 

Jenna [00:10:50] Correct! 

Bryan Cranston [00:10:50] Desks were actually shifting and moving. And I’m looking at this going, oh, my God. I think people didn’t realize this bus is actually on the road on a, an open street and moving. 

Jenna [00:11:05] Well, at first there was comedy in that, right? Like, at first we’re traveling down the road and like, our little coffee cup is moving across the desk. Our papers, you gotta grab.

Bryan Cranston [00:11:15] Holding on to this, yeah.  

Angela [00:11:16] We hit a pothole. My lap slid in my lap, I caught it. Yay! That’s funny. 

Bryan Cranston [00:11:21] It’s funny. 

Jenna [00:11:21] But then. 

Angela [00:11:22] But then. But then there was a part of the script where I guess Dwight swerves and we all kind of slide and we all are like, ahhhh. 

Jenna [00:11:30] Yeah, he’s trying to get us to the pie. 

Angela [00:11:32] Yeah, get to the pie. And and I guess the AD yelled to the cast, we weren’t really swerving, so “lean right!” And we kinda, ahhh! and no one bought it. It didn’t look good. And so then. 

Jenna [00:11:45] They unloaded Rainn. 

Angela [00:11:46] Rainn left, and a stunt driver got on the bus. 

Jenna [00:11:50] They removed us from the tow rig. And now we are truly just a bus traveling down the road with a stunt driver.  

Angela [00:11:57] We listed what all was in the bus. Like we went back and screen grabbed it. It was a full like arrowhead water jug dispenser, a microwave… 

Jenna [00:12:06] A coffee pot. 

Angela [00:12:08] Coffee pot, lamps, rolling chairs, desks, computers, a printer. Was there a little mini Xerox machine? There were so many-

Bryan Cranston [00:12:17] I think there was. 

Angela [00:12:18] So it was a full office. And it it all when when the stunt driver swerved right, it all, it all swerved. 

Bryan Cranston [00:12:25] Everything moved. And all of a sudden, that was not part of the production discussion that we had, by the way. 

Jenna [00:12:32] I’m thinking it wasn’t. 

Bryan Cranston [00:12:33] It was like, we’re doing this, Rainn’s going to drive, and we’re going to do this. And it’s all contained, and we’ll have the the cast move back and forth. And it didn’t look good. Not everybody was in sync. And there was something funny about things happening at the same time at once. And you can’t you can’t duplicate that. 

Angela [00:12:50] You can’t fake that. Yeah. 

Bryan Cranston [00:12:51] And so there was an idea, and I don’t believe it was my idea, but I’m not saying it’s not- to actually heighten the, the movement of, of the thing with a professional stunt driver. 

Jenna [00:13:05] Yes. It was a professional stunt driver. 

Angela [00:13:06] He was professional. 

Jenna [00:13:07] It wasn’t Rainn Wilson. 

Angela [00:13:08] We, however, are not professional stunt people. 

Bryan Cranston [00:13:12] This is true. And this is where the beginning of the indictments will, will start. Yes. And that’s that. And the reality of it in retrospect, you look back and you go, oh my God, what were we doing? Oh, and then- 

Angela [00:13:28] Oh, wait, wait, wait! 

Bryan Cranston [00:13:29] We don’t want to get to that part yet. 

Jenna [00:13:30] Wait, I have to ask. You’re not on the bus with us at this point. You’re in, like, a follow van and you’re watching this footage on a screen. What? 

Bryan Cranston [00:13:37] Hang on. I was in the bus the entire time. 

Jenna [00:13:40] Wait, you were in the bus? For that moment?

Bryan Cranston [00:13:42] Yes. I was in the very back. 

Angela [00:13:45] In the way back on the back row. I remember that!

Bryan Cranston [00:13:46] I was down on- I was on the floor- 

Angela [00:13:50] Crouched down. 

Bryan Cranston [00:13:51] With a little viewfinder and watching the thing as I’m moving back and forth too. 

Angela [00:13:55] I remember that! 

Jenna [00:13:56] I knew you were on the bus most of the time, but I thought there were a few shots where it was like we had to clear everybody. We cleared boom. We had just camera and I did not know that you still stayed on. 

Bryan Cranston [00:14:09] I stayed on when it was when there was room, when we were shooting, when I was able to hide in the back on the ground. When when there was no room and shooting in one direction, I think I was off the bus because it was too dangerous. And I said, I shouldn’t be on this. I shouldn’t be here. 

Angela [00:14:25] We did- We did skip over one- So Jenna and I, we were like trying to remember everything about this episode and filming it, and we were like, wait, we all had to get off the bus three times. The first one was because we got so tickled and Ellie peed her pants. 

Jenna [00:14:40] Yep. 

Angela [00:14:40] Remember? 

Jenna [00:14:40] And we had to change her clothes. 

Bryan Cranston [00:14:42] I didn’t know if we were going to actually talk about this. 

Angela [00:14:44] Oh no, Ellie- 

Jenna [00:14:45] Don’t worry. It’s in the book. 

Bryan Cranston [00:14:46] Ellie is… she’s such a good sport.

Angela [00:14:46] Ellie is such a good sport. Ellie was like, Guys, I just peed my skirt. 

Bryan Cranston [00:14:49] And we all laughed. And it’s like, oh she actually did! 

Angela [00:14:50] And it wasn’t a huge pee. It was just a little. Yeah. So. So then. 

Bryan Cranston [00:14:56] Oh, it wasn’t just a saying. 

Angela [00:15:00] So we all pulled over. We hung out in the park. Ellie changed clothes, then we all get back on the bus. And I remember, Jenna, like us being like, this is crazy. What a crazy day. Thinking like, that’s the craziest thing that’ll happen. Then the swerve and everything flew. I remember digging Creed out of a pile of things. Do you remember that? Creed was totally covered. 

Bryan Cranston [00:15:23] It was dangerous. I look back on it now, and it was… I. I would like to think that that wouldn’t happen today. 

Angela [00:15:32] It would all be zip tied or- 

Bryan Cranston [00:15:34] Yeah, something. 

Jenna [00:15:34] Here’s the thing. Our show did not travel well. We were very good at shooting inside of an office, but pretty much any time we left to go on the road, even just metaphorically… 

Angela [00:15:46] The wheels came off the bus.  

Jenna [00:15:47] Something happened. Yeah, we lost half the cast at sea. 

Angela [00:15:52] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:15:52] While we were doing Booze Cruise. 

Bryan Cranston [00:15:53] Oh, that episode where you’re on the- yeah. Booze Cruise. 

Angela [00:15:56] Me, Phyllis, Brian and Rainn drifted out to sea for about 20 minutes. 

Jenna [00:15:59] On a dinghy. 

Angela [00:16:00] At like 4:30 in the morning. 

Bryan Cranston [00:16:02] 4:30 in the morning!? 

Angela [00:16:04] Yes, because we were shooting nights and you had the choice, you know, we were wrapped. They were doing this scene with Jim and Pam. They’re like, do you want to stay on the boat till we wrap or do you want to leave? And only this small group raised their hands because we had to kind of climb down a ladder, hop on a dinghy. 

Bryan Cranston [00:16:22] To get back to shore. 

Angela [00:16:23] Yeah. And then we- 

Jenna [00:16:24] And then the engine broke down. 

Angela [00:16:25] And the engine broke and we… 

Jenna [00:16:27] They lost them. For a while. 

Angela [00:16:28] We floated. 

Bryan Cranston [00:16:29] Let’s take a moment and think about them for just a second. They were so such great cast members. 

Angela [00:16:35] And and that’s the famous thing, is that everyone was like, we lost Phyllis. And me and Brian and Rainn were like, and Angela! Hello! 

Bryan Cranston [00:16:43] Hello!

Jenna [00:16:44] People only cared about Phyllis. 

Angela [00:16:45] I know, I know. 

Jenna [00:16:46] Sweet Phyllis. 

Angela [00:16:47] Sweet Phyllis. 

Jenna [00:16:47] Well, it’s true that whenever we left set, things happened, so we’re sorry. 

Bryan Cranston [00:16:53] It was hard. 

Jenna [00:16:54] Well, okay, so there was a second thing that happened then. We- 

Bryan Cranston [00:16:58] There was a third thing and a fourth thing. 

Jenna [00:16:59] We unpiled ourselves. There was, there was. Then we, we were hot. And I remember being so excited after lunch. 

Angela [00:17:07] Didn’t you guys have to turn the air off when we were filming? Because it was loud? The AC in the bus was loud. 

Bryan Cranston [00:17:13] Yes. 

Jenna [00:17:13] It was loud. So there was this announcement. Guys, we have a great thing. We have a portable AC unit that we’re going to pull on a trailer behind the bus, and we have a hose that is going to go up through like this sunroof thing in the bus. And it’ll be quiet. We can leave it on while we’re filming. You guys aren’t going to be hot anymore. And we couldn’t believe our luck! 

Angela [00:17:36] Yeah. 

Bryan Cranston [00:17:37] Fresh air conditioning. Beautiful. 

Jenna [00:17:39] This is fresh, wonderful, cool air. 

Angela [00:17:40] People were getting wilty. They were getting- we were like, in a hot tin can. 

Bryan Cranston [00:17:44] It was. It was really tough. And San Fernando Valley, like you said, it was 100 degrees. And then we made it worse by having the closed up windows and everything else to where the heat inside that bus. 

Angela [00:17:57] Oh, God. 

Bryan Cranston [00:17:59] I would think would be 110, 115.  

Angela [00:18:01] It was like a little sauna rolling down the road. 

Jenna [00:18:03] And we were trying in the morning. Every time we cut, they’d try to pump the air. But then we’d have to turn it off and you’d only be able to work for about five, ten minutes before it became unbearable. 

Bryan Cranston [00:18:14] Before you had to shut it off. Yeah. 

Jenna [00:18:14] So we got the little rolly unit. 

Bryan Cranston [00:18:16] A brilliant idea. 

Jenna [00:18:17] So wonderful! But then we started moving and my chair was right under the little sunroof. I was very excited. I was like, this is awesome. I’m gonna get the first amazing cool air. 

Bryan Cranston [00:18:33] Yes. 

Jenna [00:18:34] But I- 

Bryan Cranston [00:18:35] And you did. 

Jenna [00:18:36] I sure did. And I was- 

Bryan Cranston [00:18:38] That part is true. 

Angela [00:18:40] It was very cool. 

Jenna [00:18:42] I was smelling the air as it was cooling me and I was like, it doesn’t smell right. It smells gassy. It smells not right. 

Angela [00:18:52] And so you started voicing that. 

Jenna [00:18:54] Yeah. 

Angela [00:18:54] And I was more towards the front and I was like, I don’t I don’t smell anything, I don’t, I don’t. And there was a little bit of like, Jenna…. A little bit. 

Jenna [00:19:03] I know, to be fair, I was the person on the set who had all the allergies, and I was ruining takes from sneezing all the time. And I think people thought it was just Jenna’s allergy nose. Jenna’s sensitive. And I was like, no, no, no, it’s not that. It’s like gas. 

Angela [00:19:19] And then Sarah, our camera operator, who was standing back there by you, she was like, I like, wasn’t- she had a headache. She got a little dizzy. 

Jenna [00:19:25] She was woozy. Yeah. And then, Brian, I think you came up. 

Bryan Cranston [00:19:28] I did. 

Jenna [00:19:29] And you were like, let me see what you’re talking about. 

Angela [00:19:31] What? Wait. 

Bryan Cranston [00:19:32] I stood on a chair right where your desk was, and I put my face right up to the to the register where the air was coming. And sure enough, carbon dioxide. 

Angela [00:19:44] Nice cold- 

Jenna [00:19:44] You were like-  I remember, you go, GET OFF THE BUS! 

Bryan Cranston [00:19:47] That’s right. 

Jenna [00:19:49] And we all exited the bus. And that is when you can tell everyone what they discovered. What happened. 

Bryan Cranston [00:19:56] Well, it was a great, great idea, but the execution was not thoroughly thought through. So what we came up with when we were- realized in production meeting, they say it’s going to be hot as hell on this bus. How are we going to keep everybody from wilting? And they said, we can pull a portable air conditioning unit that is strong enough to pump fresh air into the bus. And I and my concern was I want to be able to shoot toward the back so I can’t see it. And we can make it low enough, small enough to where it won’t be seen throughout the windows. And we thought about, we’d have to adjust the rearview mirrors. Just- and what about the noise? And no, no, these new ones are- so we really thought about this. Okay, great. Great, great. And we’ll just tow it. We’ll have a tow hitch on the bus, we’ll hook it up and we’ll just tow this unit. It has its own generator. It’s quiet and- perfect solution. What could go wrong? Well, what went wrong was the intake for the air conditioning unit was positioned the way it’s manufactured. And it’s just so happens the way it was placed on this trailer was it was facing the back of the bus. At about a foot and a half away from where this intake is, is the exhaust pipe of the bus. So the fumes and exhaust from the bus only had about a foot distance away from the intake, from the air conditioning. 

Angela [00:21:35] Just getting sucked up, going right into the bus. 

Bryan Cranston [00:21:36] There was no possibility of avoiding this. And it was locked down. But we didn’t realize that until we were actually underway. And the thing was fired up. And actually, Jenna, you and your sensitive nose saved our lives. 

Jenna [00:21:53] Finally! It did some good in my life. 

Angela [00:21:56] It paid off. 

Bryan Cranston [00:21:56] You saved our lives. I at first went, how can exhaust be coming inside? It just doesn’t make any sense to me. and sure enough, when I- I went, oh my God, we have made a huge mistake. And we nearly killed the entire cast of The Office. 

Jenna [00:22:13] Really incredible. 

Bryan Cranston [00:22:14] But I would say, had no one detected it, what a beautiful way to go. 

Angela [00:22:18] All together. 

Bryan Cranston [00:22:20] Right? Oh my God. All together. Kumbaya. 

Angela [00:22:22] Rolling down the road. Shibuya roll call. The big roll call. 

Bryan Cranston [00:22:26] That’s it. 

Angela [00:22:28] Well, Leslie, I remember looking at Leslie David Baker and his eyes were bloodshot and watering, and I kept thinking, like, maybe the vent is hitting him at an angle. You know how it dries out your eyes, like if a vent hits you? But, no, it was, it was just poison. 

Bryan Cranston [00:22:41] Now, was, was Leslie’s desk close to yours? I’m trying to remember.

Jenna [00:22:44] Yes. When, when we had the, when we all went flying into one another, I believe I flew into Leslie. 

Angela [00:22:55] Did Les- when we got off, I remember he was like, I’m not getting back on. 

Jenna [00:22:58] Leslie said, I’m never getting back on the bus again. I’m done. I’m done getting on the bus. I remember him walking to his car and driving away. But I think that might not be true. But for some reason, I remember Leslie was like, goodbye. I’m out.

Angela [00:23:10] I’m out. Shoot around me. 

Jenna [00:23:12] But also poor Leslie. Whenever we went on locations, he got the worst of it. When we went to the beach, he got sand kicked in his eye and it scratched his cornea and he had to wear like a patch for a week. 

Angela [00:23:24] Yeah. 

Bryan Cranston [00:23:24] Oof. 

Jenna [00:23:25] So I think Leslie was like, I don’t do scenes outside of the office anymore. 

Angela [00:23:29] Yeah. Forget it. Forget it. 

Jenna [00:23:30] I don’t I don’t go on location. 

Angela [00:23:32] Shit goes down. 

Bryan Cranston [00:23:33] It almost sounds like his character. Just droll. I don’t go outside. 

Jenna [00:23:38] I don’t leave the office. 

Angela [00:23:41] Were there any moments that you haven’t talked about about this episode? Because we know you’ve been hit up with those questions quite a bit. But any behind the scenes memories that you have that you’d want to share? 

Bryan Cranston [00:23:52] Yeah. There was. Those things are so on the frontal lobe that it was it’s hard to remember- it was just I just had a really good time other than than worrying about that. I was, I was really happy to be able to be on your set and and see it and feel it. And you guys- by the time I came along, it was the ninth season so you you were a well-oiled machine. And the role of a guest director is not to come in and I wouldn’t dare, wouldn’t dare say anything to an actor about their character. How, how- Wouldn’t that be obnoxious? 

Angela [00:24:35] Season nine. I think you could make a different choice for Dwight? 

Bryan Cranston [00:24:38] Let’s make this- I think he’s friendlier. 

Angela [00:24:43] Why is Angela such a bitch? 

Bryan Cranston [00:24:45] Yeah. What’s with the cats? Let’s do away with- let’s forget all of that. 

Angela [00:24:49] No more cats. No more cats. 

Bryan Cranston [00:24:50] Yeah. And then you two, you know, I’d pull you apart. Start to think about something about Jim that you didn’t like. Just just throw a wrench into everything. It’s like, I don’t think there’s- so there’s nothing a director on on episodic television just comes in and and and tries to- what my whole goal was whenever I direct television is which is different from directing features because in features it’s it’s you, you are trying and need to please yourself and, and make sure that you get all those elements and moments that you’ve worked so hard in breaking down that script. In television, it’s it’s about staying true to these characters, putting them in positions where they can really be themselves, where they feel comfortable. It’s delivering the meat and potatoes that every showrunner is going to expect from you. I always thought if I can deliver 2 or 3 things that the showrunner didn’t see, that’s, that’s golden. Just a couple little, couple little things. 

Angela [00:25:58] I think there’s a few. I mean, when I rewatch the episode, I completely forgot that Ed plays the banjo at the end. 

Bryan Cranston [00:26:06] Oh yeah. 

Angela [00:26:06] I mean and just rips it. It’s just so great. And everyone is just like, eh whatever. 

Bryan Cranston [00:26:12] Well, no, it’s it’s it’s and it’s true. I taught him the banjo in two weeks, and he, he was able to pick it up and and perform that. 

Jenna [00:26:20] That’s amazing. 

Angela [00:26:21] Yeah. I loved all the pie scenes, too. I thought they were really sweet. 

Bryan Cranston [00:26:24] The pies. 

Jenna [00:26:24] Did you eat any pie? 

Bryan Cranston [00:26:25] I had some pie. 

Jenna [00:26:26] Do you remember your flavor of pie? That’s probably hard to remember. 

Bryan Cranston [00:26:30] I’m thinking gooseberry. 

Jenna [00:26:32] Yeah! Yeah. There at that was- no. 

Angela [00:26:35] Look how happy you were that he remembered that. Yeah! Yeah! 

Bryan Cranston [00:26:38] Yeah, because it’s such a funny name. I like it and there was like… 

Jenna [00:26:42] Yeah, there was like a it was like a I think it was gooseberry. It because it wasn’t BlackBerry. It was. Yeah, but there was a special berry crumble pie. 

Bryan Cranston [00:26:50] Pie. 

Jenna [00:26:51] Pie. 

Angela [00:26:51] When I rewatched it, I just remember how happy we actually all were to sit outside and have pie. I had, I had chocolate cream. It was a delicious. 

Bryan Cranston [00:27:00] Interesting choice on a very hot day. Huh. Chocolate cream. 

Angela [00:27:05] Peel back the layers. 

Angela [00:27:17] Okay. I have got to do something. I have been going through the call sheets and on the back of the call sheet they do a thing called get to know your cast and crew, and they ask a few questions, but they’re so interesting. 

Bryan Cranston [00:27:30] You mean on every one of your call sheets it was get to know your cast and crew?

Angela [00:27:34] There- someone was featured on each call sheet. We had talked about- Jenna and I wanted to start- with each new guest, ask them a few of these questions. What was one of the first jobs you had in entertainment? 

Bryan Cranston [00:27:47] One of the first jobs I had in entertainment. I think it was a soap opera. I was, I did a, like, a three day role on Days of Our Lives. 

Angela [00:27:58] I love Days of Our Lives. 

Bryan Cranston [00:28:00] Back in 1981?

Angela [00:28:04] What was your character? 

Bryan Cranston [00:28:06] I was a cousin of the person. I will tell you this. Bill and Susan Seaforth, he and his wife Susan and Bill, they were on that on Days of Our Lives for years. I happened to oversleep that morning, the first day that I was to work, and I missed the rehearsal, missed the blocking, missed everything. I’m panicking. Absolutely panicking. And I race to NBC where we’re shooting it and I’m panicking. I’m nervous. And and all of a sudden I hear a knocking on my dressing room door and it’s Bill Hayes, the big star of the show. 

Angela [00:28:42] Yeah. 

Bryan Cranston [00:28:43] And he says, I understand you had a problem this morning. Hmm well, we we stood in for you and we blocked it. And he says, can I rundown what we did? And do you need some help on the on the backstory of the character? I was so appreciative. I was just a day player and he put himself out there to say, look- 

Angela [00:29:02] That is so kind. 

Bryan Cranston [00:29:03] Yeah, he was a lovely, lovely guy. And he’d he helped me get over the the anxiety of being late and the responsibility of that. And I spent all the money that I made on that episode to buy flowers for the people that I knew stood up for me. Bill and the casting director. And it was like, I’m so sorry, but that was my yeah, it was my first experience. 

Angela [00:29:29] Okay, I love that. 

Jenna [00:29:30] I love that story. 

Angela [00:29:32] I love the kindness you were shown. I didn’t know where that was going when you said he knocked on the door. I was like, oh no. 

Bryan Cranston [00:29:36] Yeah no. In a good way. 

Angela [00:29:37] In a good way. Okay. Favorite place in the whole wide world that you’ve ever been to? 

Bryan Cranston [00:29:43] I guess it would be Venice. I was there on my honeymoon, 30- almost 35 years ago. Very romantic and very unique. And we just had- there was one night when my wife and I were- there was a thunderous rainstorm. And we went to a Vivaldi concert in a church that had windows at the top of this sphere and, and this dome. And it felt like God was adding the exclamation to it. (IMPERSONATES ORCHESTRA AND THUNDER SOUND) You know, and, oh, my God! It was just so it was just so magical and romantic. Unbelievable time. 

Jenna [00:30:29] Wow. Have you been back since your honeymoon? 

Bryan Cranston [00:30:32] Actually, no. It’s been a long time. We’ve- I’ve been there twice and that was- we haven’t been back in 34 years. It’s time to go back. 

Angela [00:30:39] I think it’s time. 

Bryan Cranston [00:30:40] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:30:41] I don’t know. I say don’t mess with it. 

Angela [00:30:44] What?! 

Jenna [00:30:45] I say leave it. 

Angela [00:30:46] Don’t revisit? Never revisit a memory?

Jenna [00:30:48] Well, it’s too good. It’s too good. You know what I mean? If you go back and then you’re going to be like, oh my gosh, it smells. And it’s- I mean, no offense, Venice, but I hear that you’re getting floods and maybe it’s a little stinky now. And it’s a lot of tourists… 

Angela [00:31:03] Oh here come the letters. Here come the letters. 

Jenna [00:31:06] The cruise ships and all. 

Bryan Cranston [00:31:07] All the Venetians. 

Jenna [00:31:07] They- I’ve lost the whole-  

Bryan Cranston [00:31:11] The amount of gondoliers that listen to the show. It’s just incredible. 

Angela [00:31:14] We just lost a few. 

Jenna [00:31:16] Well, I’m just saying, you know, a lot of time has passed, and this is an amazing romantic memory. Maybe it should just… stay there? 

Angela [00:31:24] I agree with you. I agree with you. Maybe in the church and the concert and the rain and all that. But I don’t think you need to rule out all of Venice. I think there’s maybe new places you could discover. 

Bryan Cranston [00:31:36] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:31:36] No, I think leave it. 

Angela [00:31:38] Okay, well… 

Bryan Cranston [00:31:39] I’m torn. 

Angela [00:31:40] Two very. Two very different takes on this memory. Okay. Last question. They just ask three. Last question. Do you speak any other languages other than English? 

Bryan Cranston [00:31:51] Oui. 

Angela [00:31:51] Oui? 

Bryan Cranston [00:31:51] I don’t actually. That was the extent of my French. No, I know, I know a little bit of French and a little bit of Spanish. But that’s one of the things I really, really do want to accomplish before I leave this earth is to be able to expand my awareness and culture, and and not just be so American centric. You know? I want to step out of that. I spoke recently about- not retiring, but taking a break. For the last 25 years, I’ve been working really nonstop. And it’s been great. As we know, it’s wonderful and, you know, you’re supported and and you’re having fun and you’re engaged and it’s artistic and creative and all those wonderful things, but it’s not real life experience. You’re going from one bubble to another bubble to another bubble. And I’m getting to a point where I feel like I’m a little depleted. Like my ideas aren’t as fresh. They’re a little harder to come by. And ooh, am I being derivative of another character that I’ve done? And can I break out of that? I needed more, I need more influences to come in so that it’s more reciprocal. Right now there’s been a lot of outflow for the last two decades, and I think I need some real life experience to be able to say, oh, I’ve never even thought of that before. I want to read that classic novel that I’ve always sworn I was going to read. I want to learn how to cook. I want to learn a language. I want to be in another culture. And I don’t want to talk about show business. 

Angela [00:33:36] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:33:36] We had an amazing conversation with Zach Woods. And we were talking about this exact thing where we were saying that as artists, you need a life to feed your art. You can’t stay in just an art making bubble. 

Bryan Cranston [00:33:50] No. 

Jenna [00:33:51] Because it’s through our observations of other people and things, and it’s through going to that weird cousin’s wedding that you get your ideas, your inspiration. 

Angela [00:34:05] Life happens. 

Jenna [00:34:05] And and I would extend that even to I remember Jerry Seinfeld doing an interview about this, talking about how much of his comedy comes from the frustrations and little annoyances in his life, of standing in a line or someone, you know, butting in front of you as you’re been waiting for- you know, all those little ways that you watch how different people handle these everyday, very universal situations. They inform you. They inform your art. And you, like you said, when you go from set to set to set or bubble to bubble to bubble, you start losing all those. And those are those are the things that we use to make our characters. 

Bryan Cranston [00:34:48] I used to joke that that I haven’t changed. I’ve had great good fortune in this business, but I really haven’t changed. My dresser still puts on my pants one leg at a time. 

Jenna [00:34:59] Good. 

Bryan Cranston [00:34:59] He really does. He does a great job. 

Angela [00:35:00] Your valet. Your valet.

Bryan Cranston [00:35:02] It’s my valet. 

Angela [00:35:03] Your valet. I traveled a lot growing up. My dad was a drilling engineer. I grew up in Jakarta, and we moved around a lot. But recently, I found an old travel journal that I kept as a as a young gal, and I read a little bit of it on the podcast. I was very snarky about a man who sat next to me who was taking a lot of notes about how to play poker on his napkin, but he would cover them so I couldn’t see them. And I was like, what’s up with this guy? And I had a whole journal, a paper, and I would have given him a piece of paper, but he kept hiding his notes, so I didn’t. It was like this weird, like retaliation I had with him. But this story has a point, which is as I go back and look at that journal of travel and seeing other things and experiencing other things. I just crave it. I’m like, I want to, I want to like, sit next to the guy on the plane who is taking notes on his napkin. What’s that about? 

Bryan Cranston [00:36:01] What’s interesting, though, is that now you have to hope that you’re not recognized. In order to have a legitimate conversation. Otherwise it’s it’s the way- it’s weighted. 

Angela [00:36:15] Yeah. 

Bryan Cranston [00:36:15] And it it’s not the same thing. Celebrity is is a strange thing as we know. It, it makes people nervous, anxious, giddy, excited. It’s they can’t stop- they can’t believe it. I mean, how many people have said, I can’t believe I’m meeting you? It’s really blowing my mind. Well, that’s not the way that person normally behaves. 

Jenna [00:36:39] Yeah. 

Angela [00:36:39] Right. 

Bryan Cranston [00:36:40] So there’s no way that you’re going to have a normal conversation with that person. So I always used to look for old people. If I were in some people who didn’t know. Chances are wouldn’t know who I am. And that way I knew I was getting an authentic conversation. 

Angela [00:36:58] Oh, yeah. 

Bryan Cranston [00:36:58] Do you know what I mean?

Angela [00:36:59] I do. 

Jenna [00:37:00] I do. I do. One of my favorite cities is New York, and one of my favorite things to do is just people watch. And so I love to go hide out in Central Park and just watch everything unfold in front of me. And that’s something I find I can- you can still go unrecognized. And if you wear your hat. And you don’t make a big fuss about yourself. 

Bryan Cranston [00:37:24] Yeah. And your red nose. 

Jenna [00:37:24] Yes. That’s right. 

Bryan Cranston [00:37:25] And your floppy shoes. 

Jenna [00:37:27] And your wig. 

Angela [00:37:28] And your sign. 

Jenna [00:37:29] And then I smoke. You know, cuz we know I don’t smoke in real life. So it can’t be me.

Bryan Cranston [00:37:33] Start making balloon animals so they won’t know who you are. 

Angela [00:37:38] I feel the same way when I go to- my family has a farm in Archer City, Texas, and there’s a little cafe, Mern’s, because the woman who runs it is named Mern. 

Bryan Cranston [00:37:48] Fantastic. 

Angela [00:37:48] And and, you know, it’s great. I go in there and it’s just everyone that’s been working cattle, and they’re all in there, and it’s I just love it. No one, no one knows the show.  

Bryan Cranston [00:37:59] Do they have your picture up on the wall? 

Angela [00:38:00] No. Heck no. 

Bryan Cranston [00:38:00] They don’t? 

Angela [00:38:01] No they have like- 

Bryan Cranston [00:38:02] Come on, Mern. 

Angela [00:38:03] They have the starting line up of the football team and the cheerleaders and whoever is, you know, doing well at 4H club that year. 

Bryan Cranston [00:38:12] It’s, that’s rather sweet. 

Angela [00:38:14] Yeah. It is, it’s great. 

Bryan Cranston [00:38:16] I used to travel a lot by motorcycle. In the 70s I traveled across the country for two years. I was on a motorcycle. 

Angela [00:38:23] Wow. 

Bryan Cranston [00:38:23] And I would get odd jobs here and there. And in the 70s, you could do that. You ladies wouldn’t know that. 

Jenna [00:38:30] How do you know I didn’t ride a motorcycle in the 70s? 

Bryan Cranston [00:38:31] Because you’re way too young. And, and at one time, I took, route 66 from California Santa Monica to Chicago. And on the way back, I took this route 50, which is called the Loneliest Highway. And you go through Nebraska, Kansas, the places that people, for the most part, they go, well, there’s nothing really to see there, so I wanna avoid it. I want to go there. So we’re going through Kansas and a little place called Peabody, Kansas. And it’s flat. It’s small. There’s a bank on the corner, there’s a coffee shop, and in the coffee shop they list everybody’s birthday for that day. And I said, These the people who work here? And they go, no, that’s people in the entire town. We have such a small town that they list everyone’s birthday on that particular day. 

Jenna [00:39:25] Wow. 

Bryan Cranston [00:39:25] It’s really and it’s quaint and sweet. And by the way, speaking of birthdays… We- 

Jenna [00:39:30] We share a birthday! 

Bryan Cranston [00:39:31] Share a birthday. 

Angela [00:39:31] You do? You’re birthday buddies? 

Bryan Cranston [00:39:33] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:39:33] Woo-hoo! We are. We we interviewed Tim Meadows for the podcast, and we were all talking about our celebrity birthday partner, and I said you. 

Bryan Cranston [00:39:42] Yes. 

Jenna [00:39:43] I know. Happy birthday. 

Bryan Cranston [00:39:46] Well, not yet. 

Jenna [00:39:46] Happy early birthday. 

Bryan Cranston [00:39:47] March 7th. 

Angela [00:39:47] March 7th. 

Jenna [00:39:48] Pisces. 

Bryan Cranston [00:39:49] Yeah. Same year? 

Jenna [00:39:51] Yeah. 74? 

Bryan Cranston [00:39:53] Yeah. That’s right. 

Jenna [00:39:56] This is my big 50th birthday this year. 

Bryan Cranston [00:39:59] Are you, are you welcoming it? It’s going to come whether you want to or not, but- 

Jenna [00:40:04] I am welcoming it. 

Bryan Cranston [00:40:05] You’re saying bring it on, world. 

Jenna [00:40:07] Yeah, I’m saying bring it on. I’m doing big party. I am happy to celebrate my 50th. I’m excited about it. It’s- I find it very liberating. 

Bryan Cranston [00:40:16] I think it’s great. You look fantastic. You both look great. 

Angela [00:40:19] I am 52. I will be 53. I love my 50s. I love- I told Jenna, it’s the zero Fs. 

Jenna [00:40:24] She is making it look a lot of fun. 

Angela [00:40:26] It’s my zero F’s chapter of my life. 

Bryan Cranston [00:40:28] Yeah. 

Angela [00:40:28] Super fun. I guess if it was truly my zero F’s, I’d say zero (BLEEP), right? 

Jenna [00:40:34] We like to keep it clean on Office Ladies. 

Angela [00:40:35] We do. We keep it, we keep it clean. 

Jenna [00:40:37] We have a lot of young listeners. 

Bryan Cranston [00:40:39] Yeah, I bet you do. 

Angela [00:40:40] We do. The age range is like really big. 

Bryan Cranston [00:40:43] There’s rumor you probably already talked about this rumor of doing a reboot? 

Jenna [00:40:49] Yes. We hear Greg is working on something. 

Angela [00:40:52] Yeah, he’s cooking something up. 

Jenna [00:40:54] But it’s not involving the same cast. We should say that. 

Angela [00:40:57] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:40:58] But I would love to pop on as a guest. 

Angela [00:41:00] Ooh. Me too!

Jenna [00:41:02] I’d love to be a guest on some sort of- 

Bryan Cranston [00:41:05] Next gen Office. 

Jenna [00:41:06] Yeah, or something like that. That would be great. But I don’t see bringing Pam back in a sort of permanent way and following her life again. At least it hasn’t. But, you know, Greg Daniels is a person who could think it up and pitch it to me and get me on board, so. But I can’t think of it. 

Bryan Cranston [00:41:22] Right. 

Angela [00:41:22] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:41:23] You know? 

Bryan Cranston [00:41:23] So if Dunder Mifflin still existed, there’d be other people working there. 

Jenna [00:41:29] Maybe. 

Angela [00:41:29] We think Creed would still be there. Creed would still be there. Brian and Oscar and I, our little accounting clump, we used to have this pitch that we would be the spinoffs, but it would be on Telemundo, and it’d be like, (SPEAKS SPANISH) Los accontadores! Oscar, Angela, y Kevin. And I would do that. I would do I would do the Telemundo reboot of the accountants. 

Bryan Cranston [00:41:50] Telemundo! 

Angela [00:41:51] Telemundo!

Jenna [00:41:51] Bryan, what do you get approached about the most from?

Bryan Cranston [00:41:54] Breaking Bad. 

Jenna [00:41:54] Breaking Bad. 

Angela [00:41:55] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:41:56] Yeah. Still.

Bryan Cranston [00:41:56] I guess they’re the most fervent fan base. 

Jenna [00:42:00] Do you get pictures of people on Halloween dressed as Walter White? 

Bryan Cranston [00:42:04] All the time. 

Angela [00:42:04] All the time, right? 

Jenna [00:42:05] Yeah, we get that too. It’s a crazy thing. 

Bryan Cranston [00:42:07] You get pictures of Walter White for Halloween? Do you?  

Jenna [00:42:11] I do. I do. Yeah. People want me to know. 

Angela [00:42:12] She holds a cat, my Walter White. 

Jenna [00:42:15] That’s a crazy thing to have been on a show that endures. I just rewatched Breaking Bad. I got Covid, and it was my Covid comfort show. I, let’s see. 

Angela [00:42:29] I watched it during the pandemic. 

Jenna [00:42:31] This was my rewatch because it is my opinion that Breaking Bad is the single greatest television pilot ever. 

Bryan Cranston [00:42:39] Wow. 

Jenna [00:42:39] I stand by that statement. And I have loved rewatching it. And, and people still rewatch it, right? And people still rewatch The Office and it’s such a, it’s such a cool thing to be part of something that endures like that. I think.

Bryan Cranston [00:42:54] It’s truly legendary shows. We’re both all very fortunate to be chosen to be on such a thing. And as people have always asked you, I’m sure, they always ask me, did you know it was going to be a big hit? You go, No, it was a job. We we- I was happy to read this great script. You two were like, this sounds crazy. This sounds fun. I don’t know exactly how it’s going to work or- and let me ask you this. On the first year of The Office, what were the ratings like? I mean, was it- 

Jenna [00:43:31] Abysmal. 

Angela [00:43:31] Horrible. Our first season was six episodes. 

Jenna [00:43:33] And we were going to get. 

Angela [00:43:35] Shit canned. 

Jenna [00:43:36] For sure. We were going to get canceled. But then that summer, between season one and deciding if we would get picked up for season two, The 40 Year Old Virgin came out and Steve Carell became a massive box office comedy star. 

Bryan Cranston [00:43:51] Wow. 

Jenna [00:43:51] And I think NBC was like, I’m sorry, you don’t cut loose the number one comedy box office star. 

Bryan Cranston [00:43:57] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:43:58] You pick up that show. It was still only a a little bit. Not a full season for season two. And Phyllis and I used to call the ratings hotline. We used to run on Tuesdays. 

Angela [00:44:09] This is how old we are. Old tech alert.

Bryan Cranston [00:44:11] Ratings hotline. May I help you? 

Angela [00:44:13] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:44:14] We would run on Tuesdays originally. Before we moved to Must See TV we were on Tuesdays. And every Wednesday morning we would get on set and Phyllis and I would listen to the recording. And we knew that as long as we had, like, a two point four or above, we still had jobs. And we would just hold our breath and wait for the recording to tell us what our ratings were. 

Angela [00:44:35] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:44:36] And it was like that for into the second season. 

Angela [00:44:40] Every week I would send out a mass email. I was like that person. 

Bryan Cranston [00:44:44] Please watch the show. 

Angela [00:44:44] I was like, you guys, can you guys please watch our show this week? It would really mean a lot. Thanks so much. Like everyone I knew from all my improv days, all my theater days, everyone back home. And then finally it was around the first Christmas episode, Yankee Swap, one of my friends wrote back and said, I don’t think you need to send these anymore. You’re gonna be okay. 

Bryan Cranston [00:45:06] You’re being a little annoying. 

Angela [00:45:08] Yeah, Hey, stop sending me these emails. 

Jenna [00:45:10] What about was Breaking Bad big in the ratings at first? 

Bryan Cranston [00:45:13] No, not at all. No, we’re we’re on a cable channel, AMC. We didn’t- we weren’t big hits at all. Although the like The Office, the critics really, really loved us. So we we had that. But that doesn’t equate to being commercially successful. What happened for us was a stroke of really good fortune. And that was in 2009, Netflix switched from the red envelopes where they would send you the movies once a week. Remember they would mail them to you? 

Angela [00:45:50] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, sure. 

Bryan Cranston [00:45:52] To streaming to where you can push a button on a computer. It changed technology. It changed availability. And Breaking Bad second season we had two seasons and we’re like, I don’t know if it’s going to go at third and, well, maybe we’ll let them go with the- whoa- and all of a sudden everybody started to go- was able to go back and watch the first episode and then just start watching them all. And then that’s what caught on. So really it was Netflix that was the the stroke of good luck for us. 

Jenna [00:46:26] For us too, kind of. 

Angela [00:46:27] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:46:27] It’s why we’ve endured since the show went off the air. 

Bryan Cranston [00:46:31] Let me ask you this because I, I seem to remember this and I’m not completely positive, but when um Ricky Gervais’ version of the original Office, his character was caustic and mean spirited and rude and biting and all those things. And Steve’s character, when it first started, had more of a flavor of, of an edge to him, didn’t it? 

Both [00:47:00] Yeah. 

Bryan Cranston [00:47:00] When I first started watching, it was more of like, ooh. And I think at some point- and I’m asking as a fan- at what point did they go, well, let’s make a, let’s turn the dial on this a little bit and give him more of that confident imbecile kind of level. 

Jenna [00:47:20] Yes. 

Bryan Cranston [00:47:22] And and not mean spirited. 

Jenna [00:47:24] That happened in that transition from season one to season two. I think, you know, people saw this lovable quality to his character in 40 Year Old Virgin. And they also just started writing the show more to Steve and less to the template that Ricky had laid down with his character of David Brent. And so there was a little bit of a retooling. But we also got some really good advice from Ricky Gervais, who said, hey, you know, in America you guys like to do hundreds of episodes of shows, and David Brent doesn’t work for hundreds of episodes. 

Bryan Cranston [00:48:00] That’s a good point. 

Jenna [00:48:01] Like you, you can’t quite, like, have that character do this for that long. So you’re going to need to find more layers to your lead character or he’s going to burn out. 

Angela [00:48:11] And also- 

Bryan Cranston [00:48:12] So true. 

Jenna [00:48:12] So true, so smart. 

Angela [00:48:13] The writers room also did something that I thought really worked for American audiences, is each episode has one redeeming moment. One moment where it’s either Pam listening to Jim’s messages as she drives home and there’s a montage, or it’s, you know, Dwight getting a pat on the shoulder from Michael, even though the whole day they were, like, fighting. There’s one little moment. And it doesn’t have to be a huge one, but each episode has one. 

Bryan Cranston [00:48:44] So you’re saying that this was a a concerted effort? This was a note that every episode we want to have at least one redeeming quality come out of it. 

Angela [00:48:55] Yeah. One moment. 

Jenna [00:48:56] A moment of hope. 

Angela [00:48:57] One moment of hope. 

Jenna [00:48:58] A hopeful moment within- 

Bryan Cranston [00:48:58] A moment of Zen. 

Both [00:48:59] Yes. 

Bryan Cranston [00:49:00] Look at that. 

Both [00:49:00] Yeah. 

Bryan Cranston [00:49:01] I didn’t know that. 

Angela [00:49:02] Yeah. And if you I now if I go back and watch I, I see it, I can find them. I’m like oh well that kind of made me feel better about that, that Work Bus day, we got to have pie. We got to sit outside.

Bryan Cranston [00:49:12] We got to have pie. Was that our moment? 

Angela [00:49:15] Yeah. 

Bryan Cranston [00:49:16] We got pie at the end. 

Angela [00:49:17] Yeah the montage at the end of pie. 

Jenna [00:49:19] There’s another moment in this episode that I actually love, which is Jim and Dwight up on the roof of the bus. 

Angela [00:49:25] Oh, yes. 

Jenna [00:49:26] And I love any moment when, you know that these rivals, these guys who are always, you know, Jim’s always pranking Dwight and everything. But when there’s this moment where Dwight gets vulnerable and and Jim is there to catch him. And I love that. That was a really beautiful scene. 

Bryan Cranston [00:49:46] That’s true, because that that that exposes the audience to the true character of of Jim, and that he’s when when it’s necessary, when someone expresses vulnerability like that, it’s like he doesn’t come in for the kill. 

Jenna [00:50:03] Yeah. 

Bryan Cranston [00:50:04] He backs off and actually lends support. Ohh. 

Angela [00:50:09] See? 

Bryan Cranston [00:50:09] It’s very sweet. 

Angela [00:50:10] We had a few moments like that. 

Bryan Cranston [00:50:12] And you know we kind of I mean so let’s say that there’s not a reboot series, but what if there was like a movie. 

Angela [00:50:20] Like Downton Abbey the movie? 

Bryan Cranston [00:50:21] Yeah, something, something to where we can see where these people are. These people in the in the entire cast that we’re curious about, we wondered at the end, where did they go? What what did become of them? 

Angela [00:50:35] I mean, I’d do it. I would do it. I would do it for my kids because I think they would think that’s fun. 

Jenna [00:50:41] I mean, if Greg did it because I would trust it. You know? Yes. For sure. 

Angela [00:50:45] Yeah, a hundred percent. Greg is signed on in this hypothetical. 

Jenna [00:50:49] Okay. As long as Greg is writing it and he’s in charge of it, then I say yes. 

Angela [00:50:54] Okay. 

Bryan Cranston [00:50:56] Enough said. 

Angela [00:50:56] Bryan Cranston. 

Bryan Cranston [00:50:58] Get Greg on the phone. 

Angela [00:50:58] It’s he’s our new agent. 

Bryan Cranston [00:51:00] I just want to be I just want to be an extra in it. 

Angela [00:51:04] You have to be in it. 

Bryan Cranston [00:51:04] I do, I would be an extra in it. I would, I would be some guy I’d be like a crossing guard or something like that. 

Angela [00:51:14] Maybe you’re like one of Dwight’s hired hands on Schrute Farms. 

Bryan Cranston [00:51:17] On his farm. Now, why would I be the hired hand and not the foreman? Thank you. 

Jenna [00:51:24] It’s just how it’s how we see you. It’s just like a type. It’s type casting. 

Bryan Cranston [00:51:26] It would be sad. It’s like look at that old guy. He’s just a hired hand? He didn’t advance?

Angela [00:51:30] Why is he having to like bale hay? Do all that heavy lifting. 

Bryan Cranston [00:51:34] He’s an old man, and they’re making him bale hay. That’s not right, that’s not the moment of zen. That’s not a nice moment at all. 

Angela [00:51:42] Are there any projects you’re working on right now that we can share with our listeners? 

Jenna [00:51:46] We know you’re working on the project of living life. 

Angela [00:51:48] Yes. 

Bryan Cranston [00:51:49] The project of living life. That’s a good way to put it. I really do need to do that. I’m I’m very fortunate that I am in a position where I’m getting a lot of offers both for theater and films and television and things, and so I just have to pick and choose what is new to me and challenging. I don’t I don’t want to do something that I’ve done before. And the more I go without that real life experience, the harder that is to find. Because I haven’t changed. It’s like a like you were saying, like if a, if a, a band just played the same music over and over and they never expanded, they never wrote beyond what they were- like, you look at the Beatles and they’re- they weren’t together all that long, but they expanded and expressed themselves in so many different ways. Whatever they were going through, it was infused in their art. And I kind of want to I want to do that. I want, I don’t want, I want to get out of the bubble a little bit. So that’s that. But before that may happen, there’s responsibilities I have. I have a mezcal company with with Aaron Paul, Dos Hombres. 

Angela [00:53:03] Oh, I saw that. Dos Hombres. 

Jenna [00:53:04] Oh wow. 

Bryan Cranston [00:53:04] Yeah, yeah. And had I’d been a great guest I would have brought you some. Damn it! I forgot. But that’s going well. We it’s this business I never thought I’d be in. 

Angela [00:53:16] We’ll share about it in our Office Ladies pod stories. 

Bryan Cranston [00:53:19] It’s so good. It’s so good. 

Jenna [00:53:22] Did you get to go, like do a tasting? Did you get to be part of the formula? 

Bryan Cranston [00:53:27] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:53:27] How does that work? 

Bryan Cranston [00:53:28] Yeah. Er, well, here’s Aaron and I three years after the end of Breaking Bad, we missed each other. And, you know, it’s like when you leave col- 

Angela [00:53:39] We can relate. 

Bryan Cranston [00:53:40] Oh, yeah. You’re you’re together, you’re together, you’re together. It ends and life goes on and sends you in different directions. And we happened to be in New York City at the same time. And we have to have dinner. So we are having dinner and we expressed how much we missed each other. And he said, you know what we ought to do is, is to have a company. We ought to, we ought to have a mezcal company together. And I thought- 

Jenna [00:54:06] What? You’re like, that’s so random.

Bryan Cranston [00:54:07] That’s what I said. I go, what do you- what do you- that’s random. What do you. That’s terrible. That that shitty spirit with a dead worm at the bottom? What are you talking about? And he goes, no, no, no, no. He took me to a mezcal bar in New York City. We sipped some of the greatest spirits that I’ve ever had. 

Angela [00:54:24] I don’t think I’ve ever had mezcal.

Bryan Cranston [00:54:26] Oh, it’s so good. 

Angela [00:54:28] It’s a it’s a. 

Bryan Cranston [00:54:29] It’s the older brother of tequila. 

Angela [00:54:31] Okay. 

Bryan Cranston [00:54:32] Tequila is a mezcal but mezcal is not a tequila. A spirit like that that’s made from a agave plant is always a mezcal. And the way they make tequila is to steam it and put it in a silo. And it’s more of a fast process. Mezcal is smoked, and so it’s in an earthen pit for four days and then mashed. In fact, our, as we have it says artisanal on the bottle. And there’s no modern technology used in the process of this, or else we can’t say that on the bottle. 

Both [00:55:05] Wow. 

Bryan Cranston [00:55:06] So it’s the old fashioned way. It goes from that to a rock pit where two donkeys pull this big rock wheel and mash this now smoked agave, then it’s then it ferments in an oak barrel for ten days, and then it goes into a copper kettle for a distillation. And that’s, that’s the purity of it is mountain spring water and smoked agave. That’s that’s all that it’s in it. And it’s done- Dos Hombres is now the fifth largest mezcal in the world. 

Angela [00:55:35] Come on! That is so amazing. I have we have to try it. 

Jenna [00:55:39] We have to try it. 

Angela [00:55:40] We have to try it. We’re going to go get some. 

Bryan Cranston [00:55:42] I will bring it to you. 

Angela [00:55:43] Yay! 

Bryan Cranston [00:55:44] I will bring it to you.. 

Angela [00:55:45] Even better. 

Jenna [00:55:45] Yeah, I love this. 

Angela [00:55:47] Yeah also just your description of it. Just I don’t know, I felt like I left my body for a minute. Felt like I went on a little vacation. 

Jenna [00:55:54] I know. A journey. 

Bryan Cranston [00:55:56] And we did. We went down to Oaxaca. We found this spirit and brought it to the marketplace. And in truth, the spirit found us because it’s been around for hundreds of years and we were just there to receive it. 

Jenna [00:56:11] This sounds like a pretty good start on the project of living life. 

Angela [00:56:16] Yeah. 

Bryan Cranston [00:56:17] It is, but like any other business, it takes a lot of effort and a lot of time and energy. You’re pouring it in there.

Jenna [00:56:22] Probably more than you expected when you started. 

Bryan Cranston [00:56:26] Yeah, and it’s a lot of a lot of work. And I find that the business end of it, the case cells and this, it’s not as interesting to me as the process of making it in that nurturing sense. Yeah, that and I’m, I have a production company and that’s interesting too. And it’s good. But I’m, I’m now looking for ways to have more of that human real life experience. 

Jenna [00:56:57] I have a crazy question for you. 

Bryan Cranston [00:56:59] Ohh? 

Jenna [00:57:00] Did you ever in your young artist’s life ever do that book, The Artist’s Way? 

Bryan Cranston [00:57:07] No. 

Jenna [00:57:07] By Julia Cameron? 

Bryan Cranston [00:57:08] No. Excellent. 

Jenna [00:57:10] I highly recommend it. 

Angela [00:57:11] I highly recommend it. Jenna did it twice. I did… A few pages of it. 

Bryan Cranston [00:57:18] And how did the few pages go? 

Angela [00:57:20] They were fantastic. 

Jenna [00:57:22] We’re different personalities. 

Jenna [00:57:26] I did it twice because the first time I didn’t finish it, it bothered me so deeply because I realized that one of my challenges in my early artistic life was having great tons of great ideas, of which I finished none. 

Angela [00:57:39] Right. 

Jenna [00:57:40] And so I thought, I need to get over this finishing things problem. Why don’t I start by finishing The Artist’s Way? 

Bryan Cranston [00:57:49] Yes. 

Jenna [00:57:49] And so I had done ten of the 12 weeks, and I went back and I started over again. I did all 12 weeks. And there are still things from that book, even today, as an artist that I think of. Like, you know, one of the things is once a week you have to go on an artist date alone by yourself, just you. That could be going to a symphony. That could be sitting in a park and watching people. That could be, um. 

Angela [00:58:13] I love that. 

Jenna [00:58:13] Taking yourself bowling alone, like whatever your artist date is, you have to do this once a week. But it’s all creative. It’s all artistic. And so sometimes when I’m like, starting a new artistic journey or whatever, I’ll refer back and I’ll do an artist date and I’ll try to kick start something. It’s that business of living life, right? 

Angela [00:58:34] That’s that’s fantastic. 

Jenna [00:58:35] It’s really awesome. 

Bryan Cranston [00:58:36] The bowling part through me. 

Jenna [00:58:38] The bowl- that’s an artist date, if you want it to be. 

Bryan Cranston [00:58:40] Really? 

Jenna [00:58:41] Oh, yeah. Take yourself bowling. Go to an art museum.

Angela [00:58:42] And to be fair, that week I got the book it was the week of my birthday when I got this book as a gift. But I also got a pair of roller skates. And I was a child of the 70s, and I loved roller skating. And then I think I started it, and then I was like, I’m gonna go roller skate. 

Jenna [00:58:57] That could be an artist date.  

Angela [00:58:59] Well, yeah, that. 

Jenna [00:59:00] It was an artist date that never stopped. 

Angela [00:59:01] It was an artist date that never stopped. I still have the same pair of roller skates. They’re by my front door. I still roller skate. That’s got to be something, Jenna, that came out of the Artist’s Way for me. 

Jenna [00:59:11] I think it came out of your birthday. 

Angela [00:59:12] My birthday buddy is Ricky Gervais. 

Bryan Cranston [00:59:14] Oh, look at that. A little tie in. 

Angela [00:59:18] I once told him that. He was like, okay. 

Bryan Cranston [00:59:22] We also have, Rachel Weisz.  

Jenna [00:59:25] Oh! Does she share our birthday as well? 

Bryan Cranston [00:59:30] Yes. Peter Sarsgaard. 

Jenna [00:59:31] This is exciting. We should have a dinner. We should have a March 7th. 

Angela [00:59:35] Busy Phillipps. Busy Philipps has my birthday. 

Bryan Cranston [00:59:37] Busy Phillipps. Yeah.

Jenna [00:59:37] You, Busy Philipps, Ricky Gervais are going to have dinner. 

Angela [00:59:40] Oh, my God, I would love that dinner. 

Jenna [00:59:41] We’ll have dinner with Rachel. 

Bryan Cranston [00:59:43] That’s not a bad idea for a show. 

Angela [00:59:45] Birthday dinner? Ooh.

Bryan Cranston [00:59:47] You have a dinner with all the people who share the date and find the similarities and the differences between them, but they all have the same birthday. 

Jenna [00:59:56] Bryan, you have a production company. I’m so sorry. We’re putting you to work again. This has to stop. 

Bryan Cranston [01:00:02] Rather than that, let me give it to you. And I take 10%.

Angela [01:00:06] There it is. 

Jenna [01:00:06] Perfect. 

Angela [01:00:07] That’s it. And welcome to Hollywood. 

Jenna [01:00:12] Aww. Thank you so much for coming in today. 

Bryan Cranston [01:00:13] This was fun. Thank you. 

Jenna [01:00:14] This was. It was so good to see you again. 

Bryan Cranston [01:00:16] You too. 

Jenna [01:00:16] You know, this episode, it was beautiful. It turned out great. I just rewatched it, and it’s, it’s so good. Even though we all almost died. It’s a great episode. It’s a classic, and people love it. And they don’t know.

Angela [01:00:27] It is a classic. And now when people see us fly across the bus, I think we needed that moment. I think we needed it. It made the pie that much sweeter. 

Jenna [01:00:35] We did use it. 

Angela [01:00:36] I know. It’s the actual take. 

Jenna [01:00:38] It’s in there. 

Angela [01:00:38] Yeah. And now you can relive it in our book. 

Bryan Cranston [01:00:41] Thank you. Angela, that’s so cool. Yeah. Oh, thank you very much. 

Angela [01:00:47] You’re welcome. 

Jenna [01:00:47] We love you so much. 

Bryan Cranston [01:00:47] I’m gonna bring you some Dos Hombres and we’ll all, we’ll all sip some mezcal. 

Angela [01:00:52] Do you have it on ice? Do you have it derecho? 

Jenna [01:00:54] Straight? 

Bryan Cranston [01:00:55] Yes, I, I… 

Angela [01:00:58] How do you have it? 

Bryan Cranston [01:00:58] You know, any way you like it is the right way. I like it just neat. Maybe one big ice cube and just let it chill without diluting it and just sip it. It’s so great just sipping it. 

Jenna [01:01:15] Do you ever mix it? 

Bryan Cranston [01:01:16] Oh, yeah. 

Jenna [01:01:17] Oh, it goes in a cocktail as well?

Bryan Cranston [01:01:19] So well, in a margarita, in a Paloma, in an old fashioned, a Negroni. 

Angela [01:01:24] Oh, you like old fashioned’s. 

Jenna [01:01:24] And Negronis. 

Bryan Cranston [01:01:26] I mean, it just goes on and on. So good. 

Angela [01:01:27] Oh, yeah. 

Jenna [01:01:27] Those are my faves.  

Bryan Cranston [01:01:28] So good. Try a mescal Negroni. You’re going to love it. 

Jenna [01:01:37] Well, there you have it. Our interview with Bryan Cranston. I could not have enjoyed that more, Angela. 

Angela [01:01:43] He’s the best. 

Jenna [01:01:44] The best. 

Angela [01:01:45] Yeah. Big thank you to Bryan for joining us in the studio, being so gracious with his time. And thank you all for listening. We will be back on Monday with a special Monday Motivation episode with Kendra Adachi, The Lazy Genius. We can’t wait for you to hear it. 

Jenna [01:02:02] And then on Wednesday, it’s Here Comes Treble. So two episodes next week. 

Angela [01:02:07] Two Office Ladies! 

Jenna [01:02:08] Two Office Ladies. 

Angela [01:02:09] See you then. 

Jenna [01:02:11] See ya. Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. 

Angela [01:02:22] Office ladies is produced by Earwolf, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. 

Jenna [01:02:26] Our senior producer is Cassi Jerkins. Our in-studio engineer is Sam Kieffer. Our editing and mixing engineer is Jordan Duffy. And our associate producer is Aynsley Bubbico. 

Angela [01:02:35] Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton.