Bryan Cranston's life post-'Breaking Bad'; The black film canon

Saying yes is the knee-jerk reaction that most actors have.

Well because you need the job. When you first start out and you have to pay your rent, car payments and classes, you just do it. You do anything. Each time you do something you take something away. And not just a job and some money, but you start building a reputation working with people who like your work. You hope for the best and that it's an interesting character you can put on your reel. Pretty soon you're building a career. When you get to the point where you have the great fortune to be able to say no. That's a turning point. It really is. And it's hard to do that. Now, a lot of offers are coming my way and each one has merit and you hear the passion behind the writer or the producers coming to you hoping you're going to say yes to this. But you can't say yes to everything.

The relationship that an actor has with an audience on stage is unmatched. There's an ebb and a flow. Just as you now nodded your head to communicate that you understand and I continue on with what I'm talking about, it's the same with an audience in the theater. They gasp, they awe or they lean forward. They watch with intensity and you can feel their energy. You can feel whether they're with you or not. You can't match that on film. But film offers an intimacy that even the stage can't offer. There's something about a shot coming in just on the eyes and an ability to downplay it so low in a real honest whisper. You can't do that on stage. 

Yeah, you have to dial it down. I was concerned about that so I went to Jay Roach, the director, who also directed me in Trumbo, and I said give me a signal. Let's keep a lid on it. I don't want to be too big. These are big characters so you can't completely squash them.

My father was an actor as was my mother. They met in an acting class in the late 40s or early 50s then got married, had children and moved out to the valley where they had a somewhat normal life for a while. Then the business got the better of him and he wasn't capable of maintaining a healthy outlook toward it. I think he needed and wanted more. I think I learned from that to temper any expectations. So my goal when I was 22 years old --and I decided to become an actor then-- was to if I could just make a living. To this day, my proudest accomplishment is that I've made a living as an actor since I was 25 years old.

They were supportive in their own way. They were long divorced and there was some discord between them, but, like every child, you have to push away and seek your own independence and find an ability that you have. I was going to be a police officer for the longest time. When I was sixteen I joined a police explorers club and I thought I was pretty good at it so that's what I'll do. Then I realized that it wasn't what I loved. What I loved to do was act. So then I made this credo in my head at 21 years old that I should pursue something that I was in love with and try to be good at as opposed to something I was good at but not in love with. 

I'm not particularly proud of what it was in absolute candor. It was Girls. Girls flipped the switch. I was in college taking police science courses as my major and as an elective course took acting classes and discovered that the girls in the theater arts were really a lot prettier--

--than the ones in the police department and far more plentiful than the ones in the police science courses. So every acting class there were ten girls to one guy it was like, Oh My Gosh this is nirvana. You do a scene where you have to kiss a girl and it's like this is ridiculous! I can't believe this! So police science went by the wayside and I realized, well as fun this is if I'm actually going to pursue this I better learn all that I can. 

My daughter is an actor just recently out of college as a theater major. She's working on series now. She's a very independent woman and sought representation on her own and is doing the work. Hopefully the most she picked up from us was the value of placing the attention and focus on the work and everything else will fall in line. But I never specifically said you should do this or that. The best thing I tried to show her was the love I have for her mother. Hopefully with the relationships that she gets into, she'll see the dedicated relationship that her father and her mother have had for thirty years now. I heard that advice from Leo Buscaglia one time. Someone at a seminar in the 80s said, "I'm about to be a father. What's the best thing I could do for my child." Buscaglia said, "love the mother." You realize the depth and width of what that means and everything that child will learn by observing that. 

It's not about rejection. It's about doing your work. If you focus on doing your work and you did your best on every audition. That is your victory and you have to believe that. You have to walk away knowing you did everything you wanted to do. After that, it's out of your hands so you shouldn't even think about it.

Robert Townsend, when he talks about making "Hollywood Shuffle," the 1987 satire, he talks about what it's like to be a black person in Hollywood. He financed that project by himself and maxed out all of his credit cards. To know that these filmmakers are still able to create great, emotional, moving work within the independent film world is a testament to how important it is to acknowledge what they've done. 

It's by Haile Gerima and it's a really fascinating portrait of a black Vietnam vet. That's a perspective you don't see in Hollywood films. You can think of plenty of Vietnam era films like "Taxi Driver" or "Platoon" that discuss that from the white perspective. Now it's also streaming on Netflix, thanks to Ava DuVernay and her company who helped restore it earlier this year. Being able to watch that movie and see something that he poured everything into -- it's a really fascinating film and was one of the biggest surprises to me.

His name was constantly coming up from people we intereviewed and talked to. It's hard not to. You can try to get around it, but when you're talking about filmmaking and black filmmaking especially, Spike Lee, whether you like him or not (and many people are polarized about him), you can't deny his influence. You can't deny that he's a really accomplished filmmaker. "Do the Right Thing" is one of the greatest films ever made, period.

"When the Levees Broke" is his documentary about Hurricane Katrina which is a monstrous and amazing piece of historical work about this very emotional and political thing that happened in America. It's impossible to deny that he's had the fortune of coming at a time when he could produce these films and also he's very prolific. A lot of these other filmmakers didn't have as many opportunities as he did to create as often. There are certain filmmakers on here who have only made one or two films in their entire career. 

I think watching with a modern sensibility, it's easy to be turned off by some of the misogyny or the stereotypes that the black films like these are known for. At the same time, they do make a great case for being culturally significant. That was one of the aspects that we looked at for in these films -- what do they mean for black filmmaking and for filmmaking as a whole? "Shaft" paved the way for the black superhero and action hero. It's more than just the theme song. It is still a shaggy movie, but a shaggy movie that still works.

With "Superfly," it's a little trickier, but at the end I think it has a bigger theme of wanting to defeat the man. The main character wants to get out of the drug game and he ultimately does. You can embrace blacksploitation films outside of what they might represent that's politically incorrect.

Saying yes is the knee-jerk reaction that most actors have.

Well because you need the job. When you first start out and you have to pay your rent, car payments and classes, you just do it. You do anything. Each time you do something you take something away. And not just a job and some money, but you start building a reputation working with people who like your work. You hope for the best and that it's an interesting character you can put on your reel. Pretty soon you're building a career. When you get to the point where you have the great fortune to be able to say no. That's a turning point. It really is. And it's hard to do that. Now, a lot of offers are coming my way and each one has merit and you hear the passion behind the writer or the producers coming to you hoping you're going to say yes to this. But you can't say yes to everything.

The relationship that an actor has with an audience on stage is unmatched. There's an ebb and a flow. Just as you now nodded your head to communicate that you understand and I continue on with what I'm talking about, it's the same with an audience in the theater. They gasp, they awe or they lean forward. They watch with intensity and you can feel their energy. You can feel whether they're with you or not. You can't match that on film. But film offers an intimacy that even the stage can't offer. There's something about a shot coming in just on the eyes and an ability to downplay it so low in a real honest whisper. You can't do that on stage. 

Yeah, you have to dial it down. I was concerned about that so I went to Jay Roach, the director, who also directed me in Trumbo, and I said give me a signal. Let's keep a lid on it. I don't want to be too big. These are big characters so you can't completely squash them.

My father was an actor as was my mother. They met in an acting class in the late 40s or early 50s then got married, had children and moved out to the valley where they had a somewhat normal life for a while. Then the business got the better of him and he wasn't capable of maintaining a healthy outlook toward it. I think he needed and wanted more. I think I learned from that to temper any expectations. So my goal when I was 22 years old --and I decided to become an actor then-- was to if I could just make a living. To this day, my proudest accomplishment is that I've made a living as an actor since I was 25 years old.

They were supportive in their own way. They were long divorced and there was some discord between them, but, like every child, you have to push away and seek your own independence and find an ability that you have. I was going to be a police officer for the longest time. When I was sixteen I joined a police explorers club and I thought I was pretty good at it so that's what I'll do. Then I realized that it wasn't what I loved. What I loved to do was act. So then I made this credo in my head at 21 years old that I should pursue something that I was in love with and try to be good at as opposed to something I was good at but not in love with. 

I'm not particularly proud of what it was in absolute candor. It was Girls. Girls flipped the switch. I was in college taking police science courses as my major and as an elective course took acting classes and discovered that the girls in the theater arts were really a lot prettier--

--than the ones in the police department and far more plentiful than the ones in the police science courses. So every acting class there were ten girls to one guy it was like, Oh My Gosh this is nirvana. You do a scene where you have to kiss a girl and it's like this is ridiculous! I can't believe this! So police science went by the wayside and I realized, well as fun this is if I'm actually going to pursue this I better learn all that I can. 

My daughter is an actor just recently out of college as a theater major. She's working on series now. She's a very independent woman and sought representation on her own and is doing the work. Hopefully the most she picked up from us was the value of placing the attention and focus on the work and everything else will fall in line. But I never specifically said you should do this or that. The best thing I tried to show her was the love I have for her mother. Hopefully with the relationships that she gets into, she'll see the dedicated relationship that her father and her mother have had for thirty years now. I heard that advice from Leo Buscaglia one time. Someone at a seminar in the 80s said, "I'm about to be a father. What's the best thing I could do for my child." Buscaglia said, "love the mother." You realize the depth and width of what that means and everything that child will learn by observing that. 

It's not about rejection. It's about doing your work. If you focus on doing your work and you did your best on every audition. That is your victory and you have to believe that. You have to walk away knowing you did everything you wanted to do. After that, it's out of your hands so you shouldn't even think about it.

Robert Townsend, when he talks about making "Hollywood Shuffle," the 1987 satire, he talks about what it's like to be a black person in Hollywood. He financed that project by himself and maxed out all of his credit cards. To know that these filmmakers are still able to create great, emotional, moving work within the independent film world is a testament to how important it is to acknowledge what they've done. 

It's by Haile Gerima and it's a really fascinating portrait of a black Vietnam vet. That's a perspective you don't see in Hollywood films. You can think of plenty of Vietnam era films like "Taxi Driver" or "Platoon" that discuss that from the white perspective. Now it's also streaming on Netflix, thanks to Ava DuVernay and her company who helped restore it earlier this year. Being able to watch that movie and see something that he poured everything into -- it's a really fascinating film and was one of the biggest surprises to me.

His name was constantly coming up from people we intereviewed and talked to. It's hard not to. You can try to get around it, but when you're talking about filmmaking and black filmmaking especially, Spike Lee, whether you like him or not (and many people are polarized about him), you can't deny his influence. You can't deny that he's a really accomplished filmmaker. "Do the Right Thing" is one of the greatest films ever made, period.

"When the Levees Broke" is his documentary about Hurricane Katrina which is a monstrous and amazing piece of historical work about this very emotional and political thing that happened in America. It's impossible to deny that he's had the fortune of coming at a time when he could produce these films and also he's very prolific. A lot of these other filmmakers didn't have as many opportunities as he did to create as often. There are certain filmmakers on here who have only made one or two films in their entire career. 

I think watching with a modern sensibility, it's easy to be turned off by some of the misogyny or the stereotypes that the black films like these are known for. At the same time, they do make a great case for being culturally significant. That was one of the aspects that we looked at for in these films -- what do they mean for black filmmaking and for filmmaking as a whole? "Shaft" paved the way for the black superhero and action hero. It's more than just the theme song. It is still a shaggy movie, but a shaggy movie that still works.

With "Superfly," it's a little trickier, but at the end I think it has a bigger theme of wanting to defeat the man. The main character wants to get out of the drug game and he ultimately does. You can embrace blacksploitation films outside of what they might represent that's politically incorrect.