Are you ever tempted to buy a lottery ticket? I would use Jerry’s advice on that: No; normally, it’s a sucker’s bet. That’s why he didn’t play before he saw the flaw in the math on the game of Winfall. He was able to take advantage of that in a legal way for the betterment of not only his family but many, many families in this little town of Evart, Michigan. Did you want to do Jerry and Marge because it’s such a feel-good movie? I wanted to do it was because we were all in COVID shutdown and feeling the restrictions of that. And I thought, I just want to do something that uplifts everyone. It’s not going to put any added anxiety into your life; it’ll alleviate that. And it gives a little boost for the little guy. How close to the truth is Jerry and Marge Go Large? Everything that happened in the movie did happen, just not necessarily in the time frame that it happened. What changes were made from real life for Jerry and Marge Go Large? I recently read AaronSorkin talking about Being the Ricardos, and I ascribe to his philosophy in that there’s a distinction he makes between accuracy and honesty. In his compilation of the script for Being the Ricardos, he was very careful on being honest, but not so on being accurate, in the sense that he had to compress time and truncate stories to make this piece of entertainment just that—very entertaining. Annette and I both met with Jerry and Marge. We visited them for a week in their town in Michigan. And what we were talking about, what the film depicts was true, that it was an underdeveloped and hard-hit area, and that Jerry got his friends and family all involved. He was very specific about it. And after he retired, it did give him and Marge an activity that they enjoyed doing together. So all that is true. We diminished how many children they had. They have six children. So we cut it down, so we didn’t have to service every child. And if you say, “We have six children but we’re only talking to two of them,” the audience could wonder, “They don’t like the other four kids?” But we just don’t have the time to be able to go into that. So that’s one of the things we did. And Jerry and Marge were well aware of it when we were talking to them, and the reasons for doing so. And they understood. But by and large, it’s faithful. Jerry is made out to be a bit of a savant. Is there anything in your life that you’re good at like that? Where you see things that other people don’t? Yes, there’s one thing that I’m exceptionally good at, and that is loading the dishwasher. I’m expert level. I don’t mind bragging. I see spatial things, and I think it comes from when I had a job with Roadway International when I was not working full-time as an actor. This is 1980–81, in there, in downtown Los Angeles. A bunch of actors, including AndyGarcia, were able to get jobs downtown, [on the] graveyard shift at Roadway International. It’s tough, hard work and the foremen were always after us. They used to cry out, “Come on, Cranston! High and tight! High and tight!” Which meant get every crevice of that truck trailer filled with something. And so, you have to look at all the boxes you’re loading into a truck and say, “What can I fit in this space? How can I get it tight?” The tighter the stack, the less damage happens when that truck moves out. There’s less movement, obviously, because it doesn’t have a place to go. And the other benefit to that is that you get more in one truck, so you don’t have to wait for the next truckload. So that was their battle cry, and I became very good at that. I found ways, “What fits?” I look at spatial sizing. And then I realized that I was pretty good at that in doing space work and improvisation, comedy improvisation with invisible props and things like that. So it carried over and I’m one of the best dishwashing loaders in North America. I won’t say the world—I don’t want to be braggadocio. You mentioned Andy Garcia. It’s a small world because his remake of Father of the Bride is coming out the same weekend, so you have competition. Oh, is that right? Not competing movies, complementary movies. We all look at that. I do anyway, for my own peace of mind. Love Andy, we support each other. He came to my play in L.A. recently and I would go to his. We see each other in that sense. It’s a big tent, there’s room for everyone to have success. And so, I never think, I hope my movie outdoes his movie. Why? I just want people to see it. Jerry and Marge Go Large is a fun, sweet, aspirational film that the hour and a half that it runs is well worth the time. You will feel good by the end of the movie. What was it like working with Annette Bening as your wife? She’s lovely. Aside from being such a deeply connected and emotional actor, being able to really get a very natural performance so consistently, she’s just a lovely human being. We were in Atlanta, where we shot this, and we got together several times just to get to know each other better. We had an acquaintance before, but we would go to dinner and go for walks and things like that. We’d pal around and we’d talk about our spouses and all the things in our lives, our kids, and all the things that you do. It was fun. It was nice spending time with her. You’re also revisiting Walter White for the final season of Better Call Saul. What was that like? I did a little cameo of Walter White in the movie El Camino. And just like in that, they wanted no one to know about Aaron Paul’s and my involvement in Better Call Saul. So they flew us in on a private jet and we arrived in Albuquerque at a remote part of the airport and waiting for us there was an SUV. We got down off the steps of the jet and into the SUV. No one saw us, no one. And they drove us to an Airbnb where he had a floor above me and I was the bottom floor, and there we stayed for four days. And aside from having people drop food off and things like that, and being driven surreptitiously to the set, we didn’t go out. It was like being in the witness protection program. But it was fun, because even that part was exciting. It was like, “Oh, no one knows we’re here.” We’re sneaking in and sneaking out. We did our couple days each and then flew back out. Up until last week when the premiere of Better Call Saul happened, we didn’t know if we were allowed to say we were in an episode of the series. In addition to being acting partners, you and Aaron Paul are also business partners. He’s such a lovely man, I adore him. He was my business partner in Breaking Bad and now he’s my business partner in Dos Hombres [their co-owned mezcal company]. We trust each other, we’re able to tell each other how we feel, and when we disagree with each other we talk it through. Like a good partnership should. We’re very proud that our mezcal that is doing incredibly well. We’re No. 6 in sales of mezcal in North America. You have two more movies coming up: Asteroid City and Argylle. Asteroid City was a movie that I did in Spain for WesAnderson, with a slew of big-name actors. Just an unbelievable experience working with Wes, who is so specific on his work and a great guy. Great, great man. So that’s exciting. I have no idea when that’s coming out. And then I did Argylle, which is like the Bourne Identity movies, only in this case it’s a female lead and it’s a spy comedy with Bryce Dallas Howard and SamRockwell. She plays a spy novelist with an interesting, dark past. Did you ever envision when you started out, or even when you were on Malcolm in the Middle, that you would go on to do such amazing projects? Sure. Yeah, I did. That’s what an actor lives on, is envisioning. Not only in developing your imagination and creating a character, but envisioning your life, envisioning how you hope your career will go and the trajectory of it. I wanted to be able to do comedy and drama. I wanted to do film and stage. So this is the life that has turned out for me and I’m incredibly grateful for it. I take nothing for granted. I am deeply, deeply grateful for all the opportunities that I do have. Any thoughts of ever retiring? No. Not really. I’ll tell you this: I enjoy and am in love with the concept and the practice of performing. But if I can’t perform at the level that I expect of myself, then I will retire, God forbid. My mother had Alzheimer’s and she was in the Motion Picture Hospital for the last few years of her life. She didn’t really know who I was, but my sister and I would visit her regularly and she knew we were kind, young people that took her around. There was some sweetness to that, and I appreciated that. I did. But this is what she had and it’s quite possible that something may befall me as I age. Who knows? Whatever that is, even if it’s not Alzheimer’s, whatever it would be, if my faculties get to the point where I’m no longer enjoying myself because I can’t perform at the level that I want to perform at, I will retire immediately. You’ve played President Lyndon B. Johnson and screenwriter Dalton Trumbo. What’s your approach to “keeping it real”? Whenever I’m playing a real character, I have no intention of doing impersonations. I’m not RichLittle. What I want to do is get to their core essence. How does it feel to be godfather to Aaron Paul’s baby? My first question to him was, “How much does it pay?” Once we negotiated the terms, I was all in [laughs]. To be able to be the godparent to Ryden is a thrill for me. I’m not a grandparent yet; I hope to become one at some point, but until that happens, I’ll get my grandparent fix on this. Next, Better Call Saul Co-Creators Praise Bob Odenkirk’s ‘Amazing’ Performance After On-Set Heart Attack
