Question: How did Cranston prepare for the roll of Walter White?
About the article "Breaking Bad", section "Casting".

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After college, Cranston began his acting career in local and regional theaters, getting his start at the Granada Theater in the San Fernando Valley.
He had previously performed as a youth, but his show business parents had mixed feelings about their son being involved in the profession, so he did not continue until years later.
He started working regularly in the late 1980s, mostly doing minor roles and advertisements.
His voice acting includes English dubbing of Japanese anime (under the pseudonym Lee Stone), including "", "Macross Plus", and "Armitage III: Poly-Matrix."
He was an original cast member of the ABC soap opera "Loving", where he played Douglas Donovan from 1983 to 1985.
Cranston also starred in the short-lived series "Raising Miranda" in 1988.
He portrayed astronauts Buzz Aldrin in the HBO series "From the Earth to the Moon" and Gus Grissom in the film "That Thing You Do!".
In 1998, he appeared in Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan", as the colonel who insists that Private Ryan be saved.
From 1994 to 1997, Cranston appeared as Dr. Tim Whatley, Jerry's dentist, on "Seinfeld".
1999 marked Cranston's second appearance for a recurring role on the CBS sitcom "The King of Queens"; he played Doug Heffernan's neighbor, Tim Sacksky.
In 1997, Cranston had a small role in "Babylon 5" as Ericsson.
Later in 1999, Cranston wrote and directed the film "Last Chance".
His theatrical credits include starring roles in "The God of Hell", "Chapter Two", "The Taming of the Shrew", "A Doll's House", "Barefoot in the Park", "Eastern Standard", "Wrestlers", and "The Steven Weed Show", for which he won a Drama-Logue Award.
In 2000, Cranston landed a leading role as Hal on the comedy series "Malcolm in the Middle".
He would eventually direct several episodes of the show and received three Emmy nominations for his performance.
Cranston reprised his role in a cutaway gag during the "Family Guy" episode "I Take Thee Quagmire", killing Lois (his wife on "Malcolm in the Middle") with a refrigerator door, and in a leaked alternate ending of "Breaking Bad" with Jane Kaczmarek reprising her role as Lois.
He has had guest roles in many television series, including a white-collar criminal searching for his estranged wife and daughter in "The Flash", a lawyer attempting to free the title character from a contract in "Sabrina the Teenage Witch", and a bigoted man being driven insane by extremely low frequency sonar waves in "The X-Files" episode "Drive".
He also had a guest role in late 2006 on the CBS sitcom "How I Met Your Mother", playing Ted Mosby's obnoxious co-worker and former boss Hammond Druthers.
He played Lucifer in the ABC Family miniseries "Fallen" and appeared as Nick Wrigley, an irresponsible uncle who accidentally brings Christmas close to destruction when he steals Santa's sleigh to have a crazy ride, in the 2001 Disney Channel Original Movie '"Twas the Night".
He appeared as the more successful business colleague of Greg Kinnear's character in the 2007 film "Little Miss Sunshine".
In September 2008, Cranston narrated a pre-teen adventure/fantasy audiobook called "Adventures with Kazmir the Flying Camel".
From 2008 to 2013, Cranston starred in the AMC series "Breaking Bad", in which he played Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.
Walter teams up with former student Jesse Pinkman (played by Aaron Paul), to manufacture and sell methamphetamine to ensure the well-being of Walter's family after he dies.
Cranston's work on the series has been meet with widespread critical acclaim, winning him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in each of the show's first three seasons and being nominated in 2012 for season four and 2013 for season five.
Cranston and Bill Cosby are the only actors to have won the award three consecutive times.
Cranston was also a producer for the fourth and fifth seasons of the series.
Cranston had supporting roles in the drama film "The Lincoln Lawyer", as well as the successful thrillers "Drive" (2011)and "Contagion".
He voiced James Gordon in the 2011 animated film '.
In 2012, he had supporting roles in "John Carter", ', and "Rock of Ages", and a major role in the hostage drama "Argo".
He also lent his voice to several episodes of the animated series "Robot Chicken".
In 2012, he starred in the remake of the 1990 film "Total Recall", as Chancellor Vilos Cohaagen, the corrupted president of a fictional war-ravaged United Federation of Britain.
In the same year, he made a guest appearance as Kenneth Parcell's step-father, Ron, on the NBC sitcom "30 Rock", and was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Since September 2013, Cranston has been playing U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson in the American Repertory Theater and Broadway productions of "All the Way", in a performance that has received widespread acclaim.
Cranston has produced an instructional DVD called "KidSmartz", which is designed to teach families how to stay safe from child abductors and Internet predators.
"KidSmartz" raises money for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children by donating half the proceeds from sales.
Also, after the success of "Breaking Bad", it was recently reported that Cranston would be developing new TV shows in collaboration with Sony Pictures Television. 
"Breaking Bad" creator Vince Gilligan cast Bryan Cranston for the role of Walter White based on having worked with him in an episode of the science fiction television series "The X-Files", on which Gilligan worked as a writer.
Cranston played an anti-Semite with a terminal illness who took series co-protagonist Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) hostage.
Gilligan said the character had to be simultaneously loathsome and sympathetic, and that "Bryan alone was the only actor who could do that, who could pull off that trick.
And it is a trick.
I have no idea how he does it."
AMC officials, who were initially reluctant with the casting choice, having known Cranston only as the over-the-top character Hal on the comedy series "Malcolm in the Middle", approached actors John Cusack and Matthew Broderick about the role.
When both actors declined, the executives were persuaded to cast Cranston after seeing his "X-Files" episode.
Cranston contributed a great deal to the Walter White persona.
When Gilligan left much of Walter's past unexplained during the development of the series, the actor wrote his own backstory for the character.
At the start of the show, Cranston gained 10 pounds to reflect the character's personal decline and had the natural red highlights of his hair dyed a regular brown.
He collaborated with costume designer Kathleen Detoro on a wardrobe of mostly neutral green and brown colors to make the character bland and unremarkable, and worked with makeup artist Frieda Valenzuela to create a mustache he described as "impotent" and like a "dead caterpillar".
Cranston repeatedly identified elements within certain scripts where he disagreed with how the character was handled, and went so far as to call Gilligan directly when he could not work out disagreements with the episode's screenwriters.
Cranston has said he was inspired partially by his elderly father for how Walter carries himself physically, which he described as "a little hunched over, never erect, if the weight of the world is on this man's shoulders".
In contrast to his character, Cranston has been described as extremely playful on set, with Aaron Paul describing him as "a kid trapped in a man's body".
Gilligan originally intended for Aaron Paul's character, Jesse Pinkman, to be killed at the end of "Breaking Bad" 's first season in a botched drug deal as a plot device to plague Walter White with guilt.
However, Gilligan said by the second episode of the season, he was so impressed with Paul's performance that "it became pretty clear early on that would be a huge, colossal mistake, to kill off Jesse".
"Breaking Bad" creator Vince Gilligan cast Bryan Cranston for the role of Walter White based on having worked with him in a sixth season episode of the science fiction television series "The X-Files", where Gilligan worked as a writer.
Cranston played an anti-Semite with a terminal illness who took Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) hostage.
Gilligan said the character had to be simultaneously loathsome and sympathetic, and that "Bryan alone was the only actor who could do that, who could pull off that trick.
And it is a trick.
I have no idea how he does it."
AMC officials were initially reluctant with the casting choice, having known Cranston only as the over-the-top character Hal on the comedy series "Malcolm in the Middle" and approached actors John Cusack and Matthew Broderick about the role.
When both actors declined, the executives were persuaded to cast Cranston after seeing his "X-Files" episode.
Cranston contributed a great deal to the character's persona.
When Gilligan left much of Walter's past unexplained during the development of the series, the actor wrote his own back story for the character.
At the start of the show, Cranston gained 10 pounds to reflect the character's personal decline.
He had the natural red highlights of his hair dyed a regular brown.
He collaborated with costume designer Kathleen Detoro on a wardrobe of mostly neutral green and brown colors to make the character bland and unremarkable, and worked with makeup artist Frieda Valenzuela to create a mustache he described as "impotent" and like a "dead caterpillar".
Cranston has also repeatedly identified elements in scripts where he disagreed with how the character was handled, and has gone so far as to call Gilligan directly when he could not work out disagreements with the episode screenwriters.
Cranston has said he was inspired partially by his elderly father for how Walter carries himself physically, which he described as "a little hunched over, never erect, if the weight of the world is on this man's shoulders".
In contrast to his character, Cranston has been described as extremely playful on set, with Aaron Paul describing him as "a kid trapped in a man's body".
Gilligan has said it has been difficult to write for Walter White because the character is so dark and morally questionable: "I'm going to miss the show when it's over, but on some level, it'll be a relief to not have Walt in my head anymore."
As the series has progressed, Gilligan and the writing staff of "Breaking Bad" have made Walter more and more unsympathetic.
Gilligan said: "He's going from being a protagonist to an antagonist.
We want to make people question who they're pulling for, and why."
Cranston said by the fourth season: "I think Walt's figured out it's better to be a pursuer than the pursued.
He's well on his way to badass."
Regarding White's fate in the series ending, Cranston foresaw it as "ugly[, with no] redemption," although earlier, Gilligan divulged his plans to "end on a high note, in a way that will satisfy everyone."
 '"2010: Steve Buscemi – "Boardwalk Empire" as Enoch "Nucky" Thompson *Bryan Cranston – "Breaking Bad" as Walter White *Michael C. Hall – "Dexter" as Dexter Morgan *Jon Hamm – "Mad Men" as Don Draper *Hugh Laurie – "House" as Gregory House 2011: Kelsey Grammer – "Boss" as Tom Kane *Steve Buscemi – "Boardwalk Empire" as Enoch "Nucky" Thompson *Bryan Cranston – "Breaking Bad" as Walter White *Jeremy Irons – "The Borgias" as Rodrigo Borgia/Pope Alexander VI *Damian Lewis – "Homeland" as Nicholas Brody 2012: Damian Lewis – "Homeland" as Nicholas Brody *Steve Buscemi – "Boardwalk Empire" as Enoch "Nucky" Thompson *Bryan Cranston – "Breaking Bad" as Walter White *Jeff Daniels – "The Newsroom" as Will McAvoy *Jon Hamm – "Mad Men" as Don Draper 2013: Bryan Cranston – "Breaking Bad" as Walter White *Liev Schreiber – "Ray Donovan" as Ray Donovan *Michael Sheen – "Masters of Sex" as William Masters *Kevin Spacey – "House of Cards" as Francis Underwood *James Spader – "The Blacklist" as Raymond 'Red' Reddington  
With Mike's (Jonathan Banks) dead body stuffed in the trunk of Walter's (Bryan Cranston) car, Walter and Todd (Jesse Plemons) prepare a barrel of hydrofluoric acid.
When Jesse (Aaron Paul) arrives, Walter informs him that Mike is "gone."
When asked by Jesse how they will deal with Mike's nine henchmen now that they will not be receiving their hazard payments, Walter tells Jesse that he will address the issue by himself now that Mike and Jesse have left the business.
Walter meets with Lydia (Laura Fraser) at a coffee shop to obtain the names of Mike's henchmen.
Suspecting that Walter will see her as a liability and kill her, Lydia proposes a partnership in which Walter expands his distribution overseas to the Czech Republic, which has a high percentage of meth users.
When asked why she didn't pitch her idea to Gus, she claims that he had approved her idea before he was killed.
When Walter agrees with her proposal, Lydia provides him with a list of nine names.
After Lydia leaves, Walter removes his hat from the table, revealing the vial of ricin from his and Jesse's plot to kill Gus, which he then re-hides in his house.
Walter calls Todd and asks him to meet with his uncle, Jack (Michael Bowen), who has ties with white supremacist gangs operating in various prisons.
Meeting in a motel room, Walter enlists Jack and his men to kill Mike's nine henchmen and their now-imprisoned lawyer Dan (Chris Freihofer), insisting that they be killed simultaneously.
In a period of less than two minutes and across three different prisons, the ten are killed.
When Hank (Dean Norris) learns of the deaths, he is crushed and tells Walter that he yearns for a simpler job that does not involve "chasing monsters".
For the next few months, Walter's meth production runs profitably and uninhibited, raking in millions of dollars; however, Walter is not happy and is notably shaken.
Elsewhere, Marie (Betsy Brandt) encourages Skyler to start repairing the family.
Later, Skyler brings Walter to an enormous pile of money she has been collecting in a storage unit.
After explaining to a stunned Walter that there is simply too much money to launder, Skyler pleads with him: "I want my kids back.
I want my life back.
Please tell me.
How much is enough?
How big does this pile have to be?"
Later, Walter relents and informs her that he is "out".
In the meantime, Walter visits Jesse.
Although Jesse is fearful of Walter, the two reminisce about the simpler days of cooking meth in the RV.
When his visit is over, Walter leaves behind two bags.
Fearing for his safety, Jesse unzips the bags slowly, only to find them filled with cash.
Relieved, Jesse tosses a gun he had been concealing earlier.
Walt Jr. (RJ Mitte) and Holly move back in with Walter and Skyler, and the family seems to be in repair.
During a lunch by the pool with Hank and Marie, Hank leaves to use the bathroom.
Rummaging for reading material, he finds Walter's copy of Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" under some magazines in the bathroom, the same copy given to Walter by Gale Boetticher.
As he thumbs through the pages of the book, Hank finds a handwritten dedication: "To my other favorite W.W.
It's an honour working with you.
Fondly, G.B."
Hank then recalls a much earlier conversation, in which Walter jokingly admitted to being the "W.W." found in a handwritten dedication in Gale's lab notebook.
Hank becomes visibly shocked, implying that he has at last come to the realization that Walter is Heisenberg.