Bryan Cranston Tears Up Remembering Jane’s Death In ‘Breaking Bad’ On ‘Inside The Actor’s Studio’

Bryan Cranston appeared on Inside the Actor’s Studio Wednesday, where he was brought to tears remembering Jane’s death on Breaking Bad.

Bryan Cranston On ‘Inside The Actor’s Studio’

During Cranston’s appearance on Inside the Actor’s Studio, host James Lipton asked him about what was going through his head during the unforgettable scene in which his character, Walter White, lets Jessie’s (Aaron Paul) girlfriend Jane (Krysten Ritter) die of a drug overdose. In explaining his emotional acting process, Cranston couldn’t help but tear up.

“What civilians don’t understand, what we do is that actor’s need to be willing to pay a price for it,” Cranston told the audience. “It’s an emotional price that you need to be willing to pay.”

“[Walter White] hears [Jane] start to cough and he goes to her because that’s human instinct,” Cranston added of the scene in question.  “And before he gets to her he stops and thinks, ‘Wait a minute — she’s a junkie. She’s got Jesse on heroin; she’ll kill him. It’s better if I don’t do anything.”

“But she’s a little girl — she’s young enough to be my daughter.’ And then I see the face of my own daughter in her place, and I didn’t want to; I didn’t plan on it …” Cranston continued, tearing up at the recollection.

“At one point, I saw my daughter’s face instead of [Ritter’s] and that was the moments that it choked me up and I was like, “Oh my God.’ I guess that’s why I closed my eyes,” Cranston said, again referring to his 22-year-old daughter Taylor Dearden Cranston.

Cranston, who starred on Breaking Bad from 2008 to 2013, won a Golden Globe and multiple Primetime Emmys for his portrayal of chemistry teacher-turned-meth-kingpin in AMC’s Breaking Bad.