Bryan Cranston Enjoyed Breaking Bad Without The Intensity In PopCorners' Super Bowl 2023 Commercials
As Walter White on "Breaking Bad," Bryan Cranston didn't work with tons of comedic material. When he wasn't cooking meth, fighting, scheming, or being "the one who knocks," he was wreaking havoc on his friends and family in the name of his drug empire. It all came to a head in a series of Shakespearean conflicts that established "Breaking Bad" as a classic in dramatic TV. So naturally, the drama never lightened, even with appearances alongside colleague Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) in "El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie" and, later, via flashback on "Better Call Saul." White was often grim-faced and stoic, no matter the circumstances.
But thankfully for Cranston, the actor recently had a chance to have some goofy fun while playing the iconic character — as counter-intuitive as that may sound. In a Super Bowl commercial for PopCorners that's set to air during the big event, Cranston will step into Walter White's shoes yet again, but without any drama.
The commercial is lighthearted fun ... until Tuco shows up
Directed by "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul" creator Vince Gilligan, the PopCorners commercial appropriately beings in one of the iconic locations from the "Breaking Bad" series: Walter's RV. Jesse can't get enough of Walter's latest concoction from the get-go — the air-popped PopCorners. After Walt reminds him that they don't eat from their supply, the duo's deranged distributor Tuco (Raymond Cruz), shows up and intimidates them into creating not six but seven total flavors. Thanks to Gilligan's reliable camera direction, the two appear to shrink under the gaze of Tuco until the commercial ends.
Through it all, neither Cranston nor Paul breaks character, instead paying homage to their iconic roles without poking fun at them. And according to Cranston, it's this pure love for the characters that attracted him to the commercial. "After almost seven years of doing ["Breaking Bad"], we didn't have a lot of opportunities to just have fun, because of the intensity of the show," the actor recently told Entertainment Weekly. "This was different because we had three days of just smiling and laughing and just enjoying each other's company and putting on these costumes that meant so much to us — as did the show itself."
And considering it's the fourth on-screen reunion of Cranston and Paul in their Emmy-winning roles, it will mean a lot to fans, too. That said, if those fans can't wait until Sunday, the commercial is available on YouTube.