Just Lose Yourself - Bryan Cranston’s Profound Philosophy On Life

looking at at someone who does something extraordinarily well like like a painter or a musician or a dancer or a redwood you can't help but think how did this all happen this is stunning there there has to be a god there has to be how can how could this be created without thought just by pure accident and have that accident so attractive to those of us who are here it's like is that a coincidence I don't think so and Brian cranston's performances have that same effect on millions of viewers in the year 2000 he had

his first breakout role as Hal in Malcolm in the Middle and an even bigger breakout in 2008 as Walter White in Breaking Bad Brian's accolades include six Prime Time ma Awards two Tony and two Golden Globes when he views art Brian sees proof of God does he find that same proof when it is Brian himself creating it it seems as though the god that Brian references comes from within not from religion itself I am not a religious person mhm the moment I sense man-made thoughts and comments I'm done mhm my God is better than your

God MH my god did this and and all the tales you know and the the morality Tales and The cautionary tales that that are are taught M um but but once they use uh religion as a weapon for power for one-upsmanship for whatever for gaining wealth mhm uh you lose me it seems though that the larger the flock the more weakened the chain gets and it could break at any moment and I believe in in inclusiveness and anything that's not like let people be who people want to be and love who they want to love

and be around who they want to be and um if if someone's intolerant of that I'm I'm not a part of their conversation the tolerance that Brian practices is not yet widespread when it comes to the younger generation many parents are not open to letting their children become who they want to become for example there is an immense amount of pressure put on kids at a young age to pick a career years in advance of even graduating high school here Brian reflects on this harsh reality I think sometimes we reach down too far into our

youth and expect them to produce sooner than they're than they should be able to we look down now to 16-year-olds and say where are you going to go to college what are you going to do for the rest of your life and it's like they're SI they're not fully baked yet how do they know give them a break just say look I think after high school take a year off take two years off join the Peace Corp travel go figure things out or just enjoy yourself for the first time in their lives they're adults and

they don't have to be somewhere they're not told to be somewhere get used to that freedom get used to having the the need to self-govern yourself you know to be able to employ self-discipline or not or you realize oh my God I I'm really slovenly if I'm not told I need to go to class I don't go I need you might discover something about yourself I need order I need that I I like that some people love to be said this is where you have to be and this is what you need to do are

you that type of person or are you a type of person that that wants more freedom in your life and I think exploration travel it provides that the wisdom gained through traveling is incomparable to any other kind of learning being immersed into different cultures and unknown situations can provide unique life lessons that can only be taught from firsthand experience some of this wisdom can present itself during the act of getting lost um I think people gain a tremendous amount of wisdom when they travel when they wander when they allow themselves as I did to get

lost and maybe you'll find yourself somewhere at least traveling forces you to be social you have to get directions you have to learn where things are you're attuned to your environment you have to be more careful about the weather and where your lodging is going to be where you're going to eat how you're going to get from one place to another when when you're there what is it you want to see how can you find a place for you to actually just rest it's it's it's an experience like no other I love to travel and

I enjoy not knowing where I am it's an unusual thing i' sell it and I I purposefully teach that to my daughter who's now 24 years old to not be afraid I'm not knowing where you are so I'll go for a drive or go for a walk in a a different city and my wife will said do you know where you're going not really just kind of exploring different places and as long as you have a sense of the uh of of Direction you'll find your way you'll figure it out and um I do that

in foreign countries as well just just kind of wander and Meander and trust that you know you've paid attention to the at least the basic requirement of of where where you have to get back to in order to find um find your way home but how has Brian benefited from this kind of practice in 1976 I had just finished my second year of college and realized that after an experience in an Ive acting class that I wasn't going to be the policeman I thought I was going to be um that it was it was better

if I didn't continue on with two more years of an administration of justice major because I knew I wasn't going to become a policeman so I thought I better just go figure out what it is I want to do and so I hopped on back of a motorcycle my brother was in the same position really um two young guys who were not quite sure what was in store for them and where what Avenue they should go down so we both hopped on our motorcycles and we took off we left California I had about 150 bucks

in my pocket or something and and soon ran low of funds and we'd had to get jobs along the way what was great about it is that we we had total freedom we didn't know exactly where we were going we didn't know how long we were going to stay in any given town if it appealed to us we would stay and and explore different places and historical sites uh if it didn't appeal to us we took off again we slept on golf courses on cemeteries uh back of mortuaries schools anywhere we can throw a sleeping

bag uh an old patch of grass and that was our home for the night and uh you know I was I was 19 20 years old it was it was fun and you could do that then um and that's the that's the time you want to do it that's the age you want to do it and in retrospect I realized that I took off on this trip which lasted two full years um in an effort to to allow myself to get lost to be lost and to figure out while I'm gone what it is I

I really should be doing with my life so I I finally determined it was something where I I wanted to allow myself to get lost so that I could be found basically is what it was and after two years it was during that trip that I I had an epiphany that I really wanted to become an actor and do everything I could to put myself in a position to make a living and and be a professional actor for the rest of my life from that point on Brian made a living as a working middle class

actor until his 40s when he landed the role of how in melol in the middle prior to then one of his most notable roles was Dr Tim Watley in Seinfeld from 1994 to 1997 in this interview he speaks of a Time on the show that he gained inspiration from an unlikely Source you have to keep putting yourself in a position to be open for inspiration yeah and it's you have to prime the pump you have to uh and and the way to do it is what shirely night taught is start at the beginning and that's

relaxation and you think well how am I going to get I want to get inspired yeah here's how to do it start down here it's like building a ladder to reach that you have to be able to build these foundational blocks to be able to get to that point possibly so have you had some moments like that oh yeah yeah any that spring to mind um you know there's uh there's a number of of things there's a story when I was on Seinfeld I'm playing the dentists on Seinfeld uh that got a enormous laugh uh

and I didn't tell Jerry or Larry David that I was doing it but I was uh rehearsing it was an episode and I did a half a dozen episodes as their as their dead as uh Tim Watley this one episode I'm in there and Jerry is in my dental chair and he's wondering you know if if I am a hygienically clean and he was and so he's in my dental chair and I give him laughing gas and he goes out and he doesn't know if he's been molested cuz his shirt was untucked and and in

his days he sees my Dental hygien genus kind of put her blouse back together and I'm kind of re and it's like what's going on anyway we rehearse the scene and off they go to another part of the set to rehearse another scene and I stayed on my dental office set to figure out how the stool works and where the tools are and things like that and I hear a voice hey you know it would be funny and there's a guy on a ladder adjusting a lamp and I go guy and a ladder yeah what

what would be funny and he said when you ask for the nitrous oxide take a hit of it yourself first and I went oh my God that's pretty good that is really and so I didn't tell anybody audience loads in we do it would you ready nitrous oxide and I take it I yeah that's good and and Jerry cracks up we did that little run maybe 25 times because he kept laughing and then I kept laughing and we can't and and Larry David scolding both of us stop laughing stop laughing do it do it again

do it again and and they said that's a brilliant idea brilliant I go it's not my it was you know the guy on the ladder is not there anymore and I'm look out here somewhere yeah he's out there somewhere yeah uh so you never know where a great idea is going to come from and you know who that guy on the ladder was no who was it Jesus oh my God I wish I had paid more attention yeah don't we all no wonder he would he wanted to wash my feet did this gig simply come

from a man on a ladder adjusting a lamp or is it deeper than that divine inspiration perhaps that's up to you to [Music] decide e