Bryan Cranston and Rhea Seehorn on ‘Pluribus’ Twists, Landing ‘Breaking Bad’ Right After ‘Malcom in the Middle’ and Playing Catherine O’Hara’s Husband Three Times
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- Rhea Seehorn confirmed "Pluribus" Season 2 is "in the writers' room right now" and said she still has no idea what her character Carol Sturka "does with [the] atom bomb in the driveway," praising creator Vince Gilligan's process of delivering scripts one at a time with no season outline
- Bryan Cranston revealed the Hulu revival "Malcolm in the Middle: Life's Still Unfair," which debuted this spring, was his idea — he said he "kept chipping away" at creator Linwood Boomer until he agreed, and the show reunited the cast including Jane Kaczmarek
- Cranston recounted that Gilligan had to champion him for Walter White at Sony and AMC, where executives balked at casting "the goofy dad from 'Malcolm'" as a meth kingpin — the role came only one year after "Malcolm in the Middle" ended in 2006
- Seehorn pushed back on viewers who find Carol "unlikable," asking Cranston "You think it's a gender issue?" and noting that nobody asked the same question about Walter White or Jimmy McGill — Gilligan's logline for the show was "What if the most miserable person on Earth had to save the world from happiness?"
- Cranston won an Emmy last September for comedy guest actor on "The Studio" and discussed his role opposite Seth Rogen as a movie executive — adding a fourth Emmy to the four he won for "Breaking Bad"
- The interview, part of Variety and CNN's Actors on Actors series, doubles as a Gilligan-universe reunion: Seehorn's Kim Wexler ended "Better Call Saul" in a Florida suburb working at a sprinkler company before Gilligan enlisted her to lead "Pluribus" on Apple TV
Why it matters: The joint interview lands at a high-visibility moment for both actors: Seehorn is breaking out of the Kim Wexler shadow with a sci-fi lead role, and Cranston is generating renewed press for both the "Malcolm" reboot and his Emmy-winning "Studio" turn. The unlikability-vs-gender exchange and the Pluribus Season 2 confirmation are the two pieces with the most independent news value from the conversation.
