Emmys 2013: Bryan Cranston on saying goodbye to his characters

Bryan Cranston is no stranger to goodbyes.

“As actors we get used to saying goodbye a lot because we go through beginnings, middles and ends quite often, and we have to move on,” Cranston said at a recent Envelope Emmy Roundtable on the subject of TV dramas. He was joined by Andrew Lincoln (“The Walking Dead”), Elisabeth Moss (“Mad Men”), Kevin Bacon (“The Following”), Connie Britton (“Nashville”) and the Los Angeles Times’ Greg Braxton.

WATCH: The Envelope Emmy Roundtable | Drama

In 2006, Cranston bid farewell to his character Hal, the beleaguered dad on the sitcom “Malcolm in the Middle.” This year, as the acclaimed drama “Breaking Bad” comes to a close, Cranston will find himself saying goodbye to a very different family man: the cancer-stricken chemistry teacher turned ruthless drug lord Walter White.

Asked who he’ll miss more, Cranston said: “I love them both for different reasons, obviously. And it’s just basically different aspects of your own characters that you’re exploring.”

In other words, Cranston suggested that Walter might not be too different from Hal — or from anybody else given the right circumstances.

“I think everyone is capable of doing severe damage to themselves or to society or to another human being depending on the condition of that person,” Cranston said.

“I think all of us are capable of being that guy if the right buttons were pushed, if the sense of desperation were present. … Well, with Walter White, those buttons were pushed.”

For more from Cranston, watch the video.

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