Transcript of The Breaking Bad Episode

Breaking Bad.

Breaking Bad.

Jesse and Walt became meth heads at last.

Jesse and Walt, Pinkman and, uh, Walt. Walt's last— Walter White, what the fuck?

See you next week and this week.

Do you guys think that they're gonna be shocked to see A twin?

Who's the twin?

It smells so good.

I'm the twin.

Of Jesse Pinkman?

Yeah, I'm Jesse's twin.

His sister?

So, yeah, so— You guys feeling excited about it?

Do you feel embarrassed in this outfit?

I don't feel embarrassed. No, I feel good.

You look kind of normal.

I feel like we're honoring something that deserves to be honored.

She looks like Billie Eilish.

I feel a little lightheaded, just with all the tea.

I feel lightheaded too.

I feel so— Chuck, you look so— this is the best you've ever looked.

I think it's because I'm a little tan.

You're so tan.

Yeah, I like this outfit. I wish I could wear this outfit.

My outfit? It's pretty chill too. Do you guys like mine?

Yeah, I love your outfit.

It's kind of—

I love all of our outfits.

I know.

I'm kind of—

Do you think that they're— Sorry, what were you saying?

I don't think they're going to like what we're doing.

You don't think they're going to like what we're doing?

Yo, bitch.

Yeah, let me do a Jesse Pinkman impression.

Get off me, yo.

Like, uh, Mr. White, uh, I can't. That wasn't bad. It wasn't bad.

Wasn't terrible.

I'm not going to break bad.

I'm nervous.

I'm gonna stay good.

Speaking of staying good and being nervous and the Breaking Bad men and New Mexico. Yeah. You know how I like to spend time on Airbnb when there's nothing to do and I browse all the homes?

Yeah.

You're a pink man?

You guys, I sent it to you, Dave, but I don't think you checked your phone. Look at this home. I think we need to go here. It's called the Spectacular Earthship. This is—

On Airbnb? Yeah.

Oh, wow.

I think we should go.

Chuck, you want to stay in the Earthship with me?

Look, I think we could go right after.

Oh my gosh.

And we could do antique shopping.

We should have done this in New Mexico with them.

I'm so nervous.

Are you?

I'm not nervous, but I'm like excited nervous.

Seeing both— I've never met either of them. Seeing both of them together is just going to feel almost like I'm— I was feeling like I'm in the show.

Hey, Chuck, how's that feel?

I want to answer first.

You go first.

You go.

Love this.

Love this porch.

You go first. You go.

You go. Have you ever lived in Venice?

No. West—

West LA. Ugh.

Come on in.

Fucking hell, man.

Come on in.

It's not just me.

Oh my God.

Oh my God.

One of the best shows ever made.

Brilliant.

You have such a focus.

I'm sorry, what?

Wow.

This show changed our lives.

I would have been so pissed. Oh, ba ba ba ba ba ba.

Wow.

Nasty.

Grrr. Bonk.

Bonk.

Salud.

Cheers. Thank you. Salud. Salud.

Do you hate this or is this okay?

No, we were talking about how nervous we were.

Great.

Great to see you.

I'm Kristen.

I actually want to start dressing like this.

Isn't it cozy?

Yeah.

First of all, she looks cool too, man. Yeah.

Billie Eilish.

I know. I might wear this for a concert.

You represent that very well. Yeah, you do.

I really feel I'm coming alive.

You look great.

Are you stuffing? You were stuffing.

Really?

Of course.

I'm stuffing.

You're stuffing.

Major stuffing. I'm barely stuffing.

No, I got a big, thick wool sock in there.

It's the biggest—

it's one sock.

It's a sock, but it's the biggest sock I have.

Okay.

Well, at least it's, you know, it's exactly what I did on the show.

Yeah.

Were you guys thinking about that when you were in, when you were in the '90s, were you thinking like, man, I hope they don't get a weird shot of this.

I'm already in my underwear on national television.

He's just giving the public what they want. How many times have you been in your tight whities?

With Malcolm and Will?

You've been a lot.

I mean, I joked that my agent was aware of a nudity clause, but he thought it was that I wanted to be nude. I was like, so he was fired.

I had to fire him.

Come on in.

Come on in.

Come on in.

We brought you some treats.

I'm excited.

We brought you some treats. Thanks for having us. Great place.

Thank you.

Is this the treat?

This is the treat.

Yeah, that's the treat.

This is the treat.

It's actually a bar.

I feel like it's gonna be someone's head.

Yeah. So this was your first spot?

Yeah, it was my first home that I ever owned. And then I met Kristen and we fell in love in COVID in this home.

Wow.

I looked just like this.

And he looked just like that.

And you still fell in love.

We still fell in love.

That's wild. Yeah, you look good too.

Oh, yeah, you look great too. You do look good.

Thanks, Benny.

You're like the stylist, the most stylish version of what that outfit can look like. Is like, I know these are like the expensive versions of those things. You look very—

He's very fancy this morning.

You look good. Yeah, yeah, fancy, sure. You look cute.

Your voice just cracked too on national television. Whoa!

'Cause I'm younger than I look.

Ooh, can I get a coffee?

Coffee?

Oh, yeah.

Can I have a coffee? Oh, you have some?

Yes, it's a brew.

You guys dress yourselves in these outfits? Sorry, I'm just—

Noticing the giant ball sack. Oh yeah, that's just nuts. Yeah, yeah, that's a great thing to keep.

Was that from your show? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Wait a minute, I love the show, by the way. I know the show.

Let me tell you, I love your guys' show. I couldn't love a show more. It's the best show I've ever seen in my life.

Thank you.

You know, the first time I ever saw Breaking Bad was the season finale. Series finale. Okay, listen, listen, let me just—

that's not the way to watch it.

I know, this is the first time I ever— okay, so Here's what happened.

Yeah.

I'm at the time, I'm working on Ed Sheeran's album, okay? We're in New York and he said, holy shit, the finale is, you know, with traveling, he got all mixed up. He's like, the finale's today. He rents a hotel room, gets all the stuff we could do it. So I'm watching the last episode and I remember being like, oh, this is like really good. And this was in like, what year was that? 2018?

13.

13 is when it ended. Okay, so then I live my life. COVID hits.

Yeah. Okay.

And I say, I have to watch all the best shows of all time. And I look up, I say, best shows of all time. I had already seen a few of the shows— Wire, Sopranos.

Yeah.

And there was like a battle going on for the best shows, and it was you guys, Sopranos, The Wire. And I said, I gotta put this on. I put it on. From the second I started it, I did not stop.

Eyes are bloodshot.

Well, 'cause there was COVID. It was the exact start of COVID And then I just watched it all over again with my wife who had never seen it. Oh, really? And liked it more the second time.

Oh, I love that.

And I would come into a room and be like, and I'd be like, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. And I would do all the little things. You know the guy who rings the bell?

You're talking about, what's his name? Salomon?

Hector.

Hector Salomon.

Do you guys ever watch it?

I haven't seen it since it aired, no.

Oh, did you? I watched it every time it came out, like every day.

We did, yeah, yeah.

It's good to see what they did and what takes they did and putting it together and we appreciate it, but we had to move on, you know? It's like we got another one and another one, another one. And I would watch it again. I haven't seen it since 13 years ago. And I would watch it again, but I'd like to watch it like what you were talking about with someone who hasn't seen it yet. It'd be kind of fun.

To share. Yeah. Does this look familiar?

Yes. I've seen the pilot probably 100 times.

Okay.

I read the pilot script like 100 times.

Isn't it great?

It's the best written pilot script ever.

What's so great about Vince, 'cause he always, like, we had such an incredible writer's room, but then Vince always does his polish and he is talking to the readers. He is talking to the people that are reading it. So he's talking to the cast. He's talking to the crew. You know, he references some of the people in the script. It's just amazing. It's such a good—

so like, for trying to write and learning to write, it's like the perfect example of like how to capture all of like the cinema, like the cinema, even the descriptions are so cinematic.

Yeah, yeah.

It's a great script. When I read it and I was offered the role, our daughter was just about to enter high school. It's a very critical time, you know? Yes. This was shooting in New Mexico.

Oh, yeah.

So I gave it to my wife and I said, I want you to read this. I've just been offered it after— and she knew about it, but she hadn't read it yet. And I said, just know it shoots in New Mexico. She goes, okay. And she starts reading. And I would peek in to see because I knew it was so good.

Yeah.

You know, and she's flipping and going. And because that's—

it's—

you can't stop. Just like the show. Yeah. And she went all the way through. And I knew when she was getting at the end and I'm peeking around, And she finished the last page, looked at me, threw it over the bed and said, "Shit." Really?

I love that. Yeah.

Wow. 'Cause she knew I had to say yes.

Like you're gonna be gone for 7 years.

And then I had to spend 6, 7 months in New Mexico.

So you guys lived, you both lived there during filming?

Lived there, yeah.

I mean, it was about 6 months.

Wait, were you married when that happened?

No, I met her very early on. Very, I met Lauren very early on.

Well, he went through a couple girlfriends that I met that are—

Well, I mean, not that many.

Yeah.

Whoa.

Just a couple.

There was, yeah, there was—

Oh, so you met— We've been there. You met her season 2?

I met her season 3.

Oh my God. So you—

So it was before the show sort of really took off.

Yeah, talk about what's the deal with that? Didn't it like take 3 seasons to get to the level popularity-wise that it deserves?

So what happened was first season, We were incredibly proud of it. We did 7 episodes. We were cut short by 2 because of the writers' strike back then.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah. But the critics loved the show, but we were only getting, I think it's 700,000 or 800,000.

At most, I think.

At the most in the season 1. We're like, why isn't people really watching this show?

Yeah.

But when it really exploded was we landed 3 seasons on Netflix. Just while we were shooting season 4. And we were actually, believe it or not, but we were the very first new bingeable show ever on Netflix. Interesting. Wow. Ever. Which was crazy.

What also helped is that they had very recently just switched, I don't know if you remember the red envelopes they used to give you in the mail?

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

When they had a, when you're sending a movie Netflix back and forth. And it's, that stopped and it's just streaming. And then that's what really helped because then people could watch and get addicted to it.

Yeah.

I remember the first time I heard of Netflix. My friend, when I was a kid, when I was, I wonder when Netflix came out, probably when I was like 14, maybe 13.

I think like, yeah.

Something like that. I just remember, I just remember my friend would get movies in the mail.

Yeah.

And then he was like, we could get any movie we want and we just ship it back.

It was so cool.

And I was like, what are you talking about? And he was like, it, he's like, We never have to go to Blockbuster again.

I don't think it was that cool.

What do you mean? It's amazing. We don't have to go to Blockbuster.

I loved Blockbuster.

Blockbuster was an event.

No, I know.

I remember, though, thinking it was a cool option for sure.

I remember being really, like, not impressed with the business model and thinking, like, I don't know if this thing's going to work. Obviously, I'm totally wrong. And thinking, like, is it really that convenient to have this thing mailed to me when I can just go to— I wouldn't even want the pressure to have to pick it out in advance and be organized like that.

We used to take our daughter. It's like, hey, you get to select one, and Mommy and Daddy will select one. Okay, one candy. And it was like a fun event.

What about movie theaters? Talk about a huge, even bigger institution.

I know.

Like, when I talk to my cousins who are kids and I talk about movie theaters, because they haven't had what we had growing up, like, they look at movie theaters as like— they're like, oh, movie theater. Like, I would never— those places are weird.

I know.

Do you guys notice when, like, how everyone's TVs are on the wrong mode?

Oh, yeah.

Do you notice?

Like, it's too crisp.

It's too crisp.

So you can reset that.

It's for live sports. So all the TVs come set to like optimize live sports.

So you can re— yeah.

And it turns every cinematic thing, any TV show, any movie into looking like it's a soap opera.

Or it's looking like it hasn't been rendered. Like, it looks like it's like not the final episode.

Yes, it looks totally—

and then truly, and like the common man or woman, I feel like really doesn't even notice. So it's like, which is so heartbreaking.

You're just a common man.

Exactly.

Horrible.

Yeah, no, I rewatched The Wire when we were when we were shooting Breaking Bad, and I put it on my TV, I'm like, why does this look so—

It's insane. Such shit. Yeah. It looks like it was filmed on like a cell phone.

Yeah.

Bad video.

Yeah.

And then I was able to reset the settings.

I'm gonna taste the mezcal now.

Yeah, tell us about the inception of this.

Yeah, when did you guys start thinking?

Yeah.

We've been working on this for close to a decade. Yeah.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, we've been out on the market, July 9th will be 7 years. But I just honestly, I just love this guy so much. He's truly, truly my best friend in the world.

Aw.

And yeah, we just, We just really hit it off with Breaking Bad. And I'm like, this guy, I always say it, he's the hardest worker in the room.

Thank you, man.

I appreciate it. No, he really is. The hardest, like he is just the best, but also the most immature person you've ever met. The most immature person you've ever met in your life.

Great combo.

And it's just such a great combo. Just the elevator pitch, like why we did it is I missed him. And 3 years post the finale of Breaking Bad, He was doing a play in New York. I was doing a show and we caught up and had sushi together. And he pitched me, he's like, "Do you think it's too soon to do another show or a movie or?" I go, "I think it's a little too soon." And we started spitballing ideas of what we could do together.

At the sushi meal.

At the sushi meal. And then out of nowhere, I never thought of starting a booze company, you know? And I go, "Well, what do you think about booze?" And he laughed at me thinking I was joking. I go, "No, man, I'm being serious. What do you think about mezcal?" And he almost did a spit take. He goes, "The shitty spirit with the dead worm at the bottom of it?" I'm like, "No, man, that's not how they do things anymore." 'Cause he had a terrible experience with mezcal. I love this.

That was my introduction to it.

Back in the day.

Of course, of course.

Plastic bottle.

Yeah, of course.

So it was like a dollar and a quarter or something. And it was awful.

What's the worm do?

Like worm, what, like?

It's actually back in the day, they wanted to, not have people confuse with tequila and mezcal. And so they just literally put a worm in the mezcal.

It was also, it's like—

Ooh.

To show it.

Wow.

But typically it was very, very shitty mezcal. We didn't have options back then. So this has been out for over 6 years. We're just launching our tequila. Check it out, you guys.

Yeah, I got some glasses.

You can drink this. It smells like you could sip it all night.

This smells like—

Thank you.

Smell this. Now smell him.

A little bit.

Yeah, I do. I see.

I just rub that all over.

You have like a leathery— not in a bad way.

Which one? Which one do I get?

Here, you're gonna beaker.

Yeah, give me one of those.

Look at that.

You guys ready to cook a little?

Yeah, you want to go?

Like, are these cousins? Are they related, tequila and mezcal?

Tequila is mezcal.

Just a little sip.

Cheers.

Cheers. Thank you, guys. It's an honor to have you here. A true honor.

It's great to be here.

Yeah.

I'm such a big fan of—

Is this an actual—

This operation? Was this— Thank you.

You guys, you've seen it?

Oh, I love it.

It's delicious.

Hell yeah.

I love it.

It's new.

I had to get on social media. Like, I don't even know what's going on in the world anymore.

She doesn't.

She can't be in the comments.

I mean, I know about a few things thanks to CNN.

Ow!

That hurt?

Yeah. Wow.

That actually hurt?

It did.

It did feel like something. You have chunks in your ear. You have chunks in your ear.

Oh, it's movie magic glass.

It is?

Yeah, it shouldn't have hurt like—

yeah.

Is everybody OK? I thought that was just OK.

OK, let's try it with this.

It did hurt a little bit. Wait, wait, wait.

I want to break something.

OK, here. I got a bunch of movie magic glass right here. Are you serious? Swear to God.

Yeah.

Can I have something?

Do it. Do it.

Do it away.

Hey, it did hurt a little.

I've been wanting to do this for so long.

Yeah, I actually have, in a nice way, in a gentle way.

Hold on, you're gonna break that over my head?

Or a malicious way, but I've always wanted to break a beaker over your head.

Yeah, do it.

Can I?

It does hurt.

Slightly hurts.

And I chastise you.

Will you just shut up?

It does hurt a little bit.

Pay him back.

Pay it forward, brother.

No, I can't even do it. It's like, it's, it's—

don't you dare. It's so true.

It's so wrong.

It's not. It's so right here. You want a bigger one?

Give me one. Let me do it, Chris. Okay, wait. First, now he gets to do it to you.

You're so sweet.

Make sure it's actually not real glass.

Okay.

Only one of them is real glass. Oh my God. It's bleeding.

Just a little.

Oh my God. Look at what you guys started.

Oh, this is what happened.

I'm telling you. I'm telling you. Remember I told you this. I don't even know if we have a Band-Aid here.

I'm so sorry. I feel so bad.

It's all right.

Oh, but yeah, so as I was saying, it really went sideways.

Lollipop time, everybody. Oh my God, which flavor you guys like?

What are you grabbing?

The blackberry vanilla. Uh, I'll take some raspberry sherbet.

Did you know that they brought this one back? They did, back by popular demand.

Wait, why does it spelled sherbet?

Oh my God.

This is the best smelling thing I've ever smelt in my life. Oh my God. I used to have an ice cream, like a sherbet like this when I was a kid in upstate New York with my grandma and it— she's dead. It literally just brought me back to this.

Buy any 2 cans of Olipop in store and they'll pay you back for 1. Any flavor, any retailer. Go to drinkolipop.com/fks.

Oh my God, this is memory lane.

White Claw time.

Say yes. Speaking of saying yes, Benny, Benny, this is directed towards you because we did have a group chat about how you were going to help my voice sound better, and I think now is a really good time.

Are you telling me we're spontaneously hanging out right now?

We're spontaneously hanging out, and right after this we're gonna go, you're gonna take me to the studio, and you're gonna make my voice sound better.

I love this drink.

Please drink responsibly. Hard seltzer with flavors. White Claw. Seltzer Works.

Chicago, Illinois.

Say yes.

Whoa, that was cool.

Say yes.

Yeah.

Can we talk about David?

I mean, I did eat one of these earlier.

I know, and your arms are looking—

No, I think these are really good.

These things provide strength.

The most strength, Chuck. You need to start eating them so your back doesn't deteriorate.

I did like it. It's like good. Well, I had the chocolate— I had the chocolate chip cookie dough.

Is amazing. Blueberry pie is amazing. Red velvet's amazing.

I just gotta eat this stuff to get stronger. I have to lift weights too.

You might want to look closer.

You might want to do both. But check the profile, so good. That's 150 calories, 28 grams of protein, and zero sugar. Literally zero sugar.

How do you know so much about—

I'm a macros type of guy.

David is available at Walmart stores nationwide and on walmart.com. You can try a single bar for only $2.97.

Go grab one for yourself.

How long have you been married?

Uh, almost 13 years. Wow.

So give us 'Cause we're all newlyweds. Give us, you each give us one, how do you do it?

So the best thing is to think of the 5 most important things you want in your partner.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay. Okay. It might be, well, fidelity and humor and moral center, someone, a decent person.

Yeah.

Maybe someone, you know, is it intelligence? Is it, well, whatever. Is it you're a good listener? Physical attraction. What are the 5, right?

Yeah.

Pick those 5 and let everything else go.

Yeah. I love that.

That's just because it's— it's— you're just— let it go. Like, there are certain things around the house that my wife and I will never see eye to eye on.

Yeah. It's just like, tell me one of them.

Oh, well, um, she she's a very neat and together person, but she's not an organized person. So I like to have things— when I go to my refrigerator, I like to know where things are. Yeah, you know what I mean?

Yeah, me too.

And it's like— and it's like, I, I was— I pulled out like 5 open jars of mayonnaise one time, and I'm like, okay, there's so much—

that could set you off.

Too much mayo.

And, and the refrigerator stuffed with 5 different mayos and 6 different this and 7, you know, it's like, and so I said, how about condiments in the door? You know, the whole, and salad dressing and that stuff. And you know, it's just hard for her. So she goes up, she gets it and she puts it back. It could be top shelf, it could be bottom shelf, could be here, could be there.

What would be hard for me and you? One thing we'd see eye to eye on in our relationship.

You're telling me you guys put everything back? When you take it out, you put it back?

In the exact same spot I ever put it back before, and all the labels have to be facing forward.

When's your birthday? March.

Mine too.

You? March what? 7th. 8th.

Oh my God, you two.

Oh, let's go. Guess what he is.

Pisces.

15th.

15th?

Yeah.

Pisces.

When's your birthday?

August 27th. Oh, you're a Virgo.

I'm a Virgo.

You're a Virgo.

My mom's a Virgo too.

Yeah. I'm very organized.

I'm a little OCD.

But I think, yeah, with me, it's just all about— Well, communication.

Yeah.

Patience and just understanding one another. Each of you, everyone's so different, right? So you all kind of have different sorts of points of view. But, and I always say whenever I go to a wedding, I write a note that just says, "Never forget the moment you realize." Wait, never forget what moment?

Sorry, he's chiseling.

Never forget the moment, never forget the moment you realize Yeah, that you— that—

oh, that's cool.

We're a thing.

We're a thing. Like, you're like, this is it, this is my partner, and you want to protect that. And so I think people get in fights or arguments because of like a miscommunication or someone really fucked up. Yeah, like, so don't— but what I truly— like, just don't fuck up. Like, just like really lean in, protect it. Yeah, be patient.

Yep.

Um, because you're gonna have to weather the storm. Yeah, right, kids, right? And kids are—

There's always something. Fantastic.

Oh, yeah, you saw that? Yeah. That's for you guys. Salamá. Speaking of Hector.

Yeah.

Right?

Wow, I mean, the production of this operation is pretty incredible.

I have a question. When you guys were making Breaking Bad and, like, you're probably receiving all the cliffhangers and whatnot via script form. So are you guys, like, fiending the scripts and, like, so excited to sit down and—

Waiting. Yeah, just—

you ever just like, ah, that—

what happened?

Honestly, you know, there was a moment where I see Brian. He's walking out of the production office into the stage, and he sees me. He's like, come here, and he gives me this big hug.

Oh yeah.

I'm like, what's going on? It's just like this emotional hug.

Yeah.

And he's like, wow though, like crazy. I go I'm like, what is going on? He's like, well, you read it, right? The latest script? I'm like, no, I haven't got it yet. He's like, oh shit. Oh, well, um, oh, okay, never mind. And because he said something like, yeah, yeah, it's crazy, but what a way to go, huh? What is he talking about? Straight into the production office. I'm like, where's the script? He's like, they're like, it's not ready yet. I'm like, well, give me the writer's draft or something. Yeah, no, that no one has yet. I'm like, Brian just said he read it.

I have to know what's going on.

I thought they were just kind of being cautious, being protective of my feelings. Yeah, let me read an outline, something. He's just fucking with me. Yeah, he made me think that I was dying. Great prank.

Yeah, that's a great prank.

That is such a good—

supposed to die, was he? Yeah, yeah, the character was supposed to die.

In what season?

First season one. Yeah, but I didn't, I didn't know that going into it.

I read that. Yeah, but I wasn't sure if it was real.

You must feel proud. I mean, you just earned your way out of death. To like the, the ultimate of life, like busting through that fence, driving out.

He's a perfectionist, by the way.

What is this missing? I'm kind of doing it in a roundabout way.

30, 40 more minutes or something. Yeah, it tastes good.

Is there— it tastes good. Is there a simple syrup?

Ah, we have these things.

A little simple syrup, a little, uh, oh yeah, yeah, that simple syrup right there. That's all you need.

Just a little, just a little, just a little tease.

That's what it needs.

Just a little pucker up.

It needs a pop, a little.

You guys have dreams about Breaking Bad and shooting?

You miss it?

Oh.

Good question.

Well, you know, when it ended 13 years ago, I thought, well, that's the end of that. That's the last time I'll see these people. And then he did a movie called El Camino, which extended the story of what happened to Jesse, which people wanted to know.

Yeah.

And so I was doing a play in New York at the time, and I got into a car right after my Sunday matinee, flew on a private jet to Albuquerque.

Nice.

They put a shroud over me getting off the plane.

Yeah.

'Cause they didn't want anybody to know anything. They put me into an Airbnb. I couldn't leave.

Oh my gosh.

No.

And then the next day I had that shroud open again. And I think they said, what were our names? Your name?

Oh, uh, uh, Bert and Ernie.

Bert and Ernie.

That was our—

that was our names on the call sheet. And, uh, they put me in a, in a bald cap and the whole thing.

Oh, I—

yeah. And I did a little, uh, a little couple days with him and then flew back to New York to continue.

And then we did a little bit on Better Call Saul.

Yeah.

But when we were— when we were shooting, um, I mean, I was having dreams as the guy. Yeah, like as Jesse.

Really?

Yeah. I'm like, how did that—

did that stress you out when you were having—

no, like, yeah, did you forget how to talk like yourself? It's better.

You guys are so sweet. Your relationship like makes me want to cry.

Yeah, normally Bird feeds me my food.

It is sweet.

And then I've never witnessed— I'm obviously big fans of the show. Yeah, I've just never witnessed your dynamic in person, so it's like taking me.

I love the guy. You know, I gotta tell you something.

Yeah.

He's about to have a pretty serious surgery.

Oh, really?

Yeah, he's having a shoulder surgery. Yeah.

Tommy John?

Replacing.

Yeah, replacing my shoulder.

He used to, you know, I mean, loves baseball, was an incredible pitcher. Oh, wow. You know what he's giving me?

What? His old shoulder.

He's giving me his old shoulder. To cry on.

Wait, really?

He's giving him my shoulder to cry on.

Yeah, that's so bad.

He'll have my bones and he'll—

He's going to try.

I don't know if they're gonna let it.

No, but my aunt did that. You can ask for the bone.

There you go. Oh, we're asking for the bone.

Just literally give him his old—

I'm gonna put it on my mantle.

What can I pour these in?

We only have things that break.

No, no, we have real, we have real. Can I ask a question about your Wire rewatch when you were shooting Breaking Bad?

Yeah, of course.

Were you just like, oh my God, what season? Do you remember when you started rewatching Wire?

Yeah, I started rewatching The Wire season 4. The second, the second season.

Okay. Yeah, because I was hoping that you were gonna say the fourth season or something because you were like, oh my God, I'm in the middle of one of these things right now.

Yeah.

Like, did that influence your rewatch timing or no?

Maybe, to be honest. We, we watched the pilot together. We knew when we read the pilot, like, oh my God, this is the greatest thing we've ever read. Uh, the pilot of Breaking Bad was the sixth or seventh pilot that I had done, but the previous ones never to see.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I was— that was the most strapped I've been financially. So I, I really needed—

do you need more glass?

No.

Okay.

I really needed this pilot to work out.

But also, he was living in a closet. That's where he was.

Yeah, I had a, I had a studio apartment. Um, a roommate moved in. I had a, uh, I would sleep on the bed for a week, and then I'd move to the closet for a week. You guys would trade? Just swap. Yeah.

Hey.

And so I, I was struggling in the, uh, And then Breaking Bad just kind of took off. But when we watched the pilot for the first time, this was before we were picked up, and we're like, "Oh my God." Our jaws were on the floor.

Did you think it was gonna be great right away?

Oh, we— just the execution on all levels, we're like, "Oh my God." And we thought, "Are they gonna make the announcement to us that we got picked up?" They didn't. And then we didn't find out for like 3 weeks after that.

It must have been frustrating to— 'cause, you know, 2 seasons go by of one of the best shows ever made, and it's not being necessarily appreciated on the level that it was— Right.

But he—

you know, he won the Emmy.

For the first season for 7 episodes. So critically it was being praised, but the people, the public hadn't really caught on yet.

It's interesting.

But Netflix truly saved us.

You know, there's all sorts of things. Oh, beautiful word. When you're making something, sometimes I don't know when a song's gonna be big, or sometimes I'm the opposite way. I think it's gonna be big, it's not. Also, sometimes I'll work with someone and it takes so long for them to get big, or it takes so long, and it'll be a thing, and I'm like, how does everyone not know this?

But do you know though, How sometimes with music, do you know it's just an instant banger?

You're like, "Oh, this is awesome." Yeah, wait a minute. You can identify. Yes.

Benny, you can identify when something's really good.

Yeah, yes.

But you can't possibly say, "This is gonna hit." We don't know what's going to hit.

Okay, back in the day, before like TikTok and all that stuff, I had a really good, like, if I thought a song was gonna be big, I'd say more times than not, it became big.

Right.

Now it's a little bit more difficult because—

You're losing your touch.

I'm losing my time. Yeah, I'm old, definitely. No, and it's tough because there's so many other factors now because in a cool way, people are— Thank you.

Thank you.

Oh yeah, let's taste this.

I have to—

Salud.

Salud. Salud. Salud. Salud.

Wow, this is great.

To breaking glass.

Breaking glass.

You made this one.

You made that one. No, no, no, I'll hold off.

That's unbelievable.

Perfect.

Couldn't be a better drink.

That's unbelievable.

Were you even good at making drinks like this before this venture?

Not really.

Yes.

You know what?

Aaron and I are very used used to being in a position of not knowing. As an actor, you go into something and I don't know who this character is or what I'm going to do with it. So we went into this, uh, very comfortable with not knowing. And you learn, you just start absorbing exactly how it's made. And then behind the bar, it's like watching bartenders who really know what they're doing.

Yeah.

Then you kind of emulate that.

Yeah.

So this was This is kind of a—

it's the best margarita I've ever had in my life. I agree, it's so good.

I'm not saying this because I don't really drink anything other than white wine. This is so good.

It is so good.

I really believe that.

You first said it was the best margarita you've ever had. Now you're saying it's top 3.

I wanted to be real. I'm always— I don't lie.

You know what? That's just another of your shit.

So you guys want to sit on the couch?

Sure.

Oh, God. Wait till you taste this.

You want to do a little caviar bomb?

Do I snort this?

Whatever. It's up to you.

I want to see you snort it.

I haven't eaten anything. I have huge textural phobias. I've just tried a grape for the first time this year.

Oh, great.

I wonder why I hang out with you guys all the time. All we do is drink tequila and eat caviar.

I hope you guys don't think you're leaving. You guys can stay all day.

I don't want to leave.

We're going to rewatch Breaking Bad.

Oh, man.

It has good protein, right?

Yeah, it is good protein.

It will, like, give you more protein.

This is a lot of—

That's a lot.

I'm going big boy.

You like caviar?

Hold on.

I am so proud of you.

Me too. Thank you.

That's good.

It's a big deal.

That's—

you know why I can—

I'm so proud of you.

I was worried you're gonna—

I would really taste the individuality of the balls, right? But no, which would really unnerve me.

No, because like your show where you really taste the individuality.

Would you guys say the two of you are— is this, um, peak life for you right now? Like, do you feel like you've kind of done the things you want to do and now you're having like you get to like do stuff like this and you get to get an elbow or shoulder surgery.

Yeah, it's all, I mean, it's all just such a blessing.

I'm starting to take it a little different tact.

Yeah.

I'm starting to degrade.

No, no, you look great by the way.

Oh, gosh.

You really do.

Doesn't he?

No, but you know, 37 years and my wife Robin has been, my champion through, you know, all these years. I've been an actor for 47 years.

I mean, even on a bigger scale than Breaking Bad, like, wouldn't you say your, your big break in your acting— I mean, Malcolm in the Middle was probably the big thing. Yeah, but then, yeah, but even that, you were like, uh, how old were you when Malcolm in the Middle started?

41.

Yeah.

And you weren't even supposed to be— all right, was that supposed to be as big of a role in that show at the beginning?

Well, you know, I I mean, to have a career, you need— you have to be talented. You have to have perseverance and patience. But you also need a healthy dose of luck.

Yeah.

He was going to be cut from our show. But for the strike, Vince Gilligan didn't get that far in the show. And he wasn't killed in the first season. Yes. So, right?

No, no. And honestly, when we shot the pilot— when we shot the pilot and Vince sold the idea of the arc of the show, the arc of the first season was Jesse Pinkman introduces Walt to the drug world. And by towards the end of the— not even the finale, it's like the episode before the finale, Pinkman dies and then Walt is then led to go out for revenge. Into the second season and beyond. But when we—

when we—

I wish it would have happened that way.

When we shot the pilot and we got picked up, uh, Vince told me while we were shooting, uh, the first season, at towards the end of it, he pulled me over during lunch and he's like, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna tell you something. He's having lunch with all the, all the writers.

I want you to start making the lunch for all the people because you're about to die. You're about to die on the show. But no, we want you to be like—

I want you to know the original plan was we're gonna kill you off at the end of the season. And we still had like 2 more episodes to shoot. And my heart just starts pounding through my chest. I'm like, well, what do you mean? When am I gonna die? He's like, no, no, no, you're not gonna die. When we shot the pilot and we saw what you and Brian were doing together, we just loved that dynamic so much. So when they got picked up, the first meeting in the writers' room, they decided to change the whole dynamic.

That's amazing.

Like, we're no longer gonna have him die.

Dude, your life could have been saved. So different.

I would have been so pissed.

You still probably had a little bit more sad. Yeah, like, like, I, like, I, I would have been so sad, heartbroken. Yeah, it would break everyone's heart.

You're like, am I disposable?

And then he, you know, he messes with me that I'm gonna die. People— then he started, he started— it was like the domino that fell.

Yeah.

And then everybody sort of like started to get in on it, you know? It's like the, a producer came up to me, they're like, hey, you're gonna need to stay afterwards to get your like the measurements of the coffin.

Measurements for what?

They're like, measurements for the—

Coffin.

For the coffin. I was like, what coffin? And they're like, oh my God, right, you haven't read that. You know what, forget it. I'll let Vince talk to you about it.

That sucks.

Oh my God.

What are they doing? Yeah, it's all his fault.

And even, I mean, to me, Stringer Bell dying in The Wire, it's like a—

Oh my God.

It's a chip to use as a series if it's like you have probably one time where you can really kill a beloved character. And when Stringer Bell died in The Wire, boy was my world absolutely rocked. And the way he died.

Yes. Oh God.

You know who was a chip that died in a way that— look, somebody has to die at some point, you know what I mean, in a show like Breaking Bad or The Wire.

Yeah.

And I thought the death that rocked me in Breaking Bad was Gus. Like, I mean, obviously in general his character, but the way in which his face fell off, and then it was just—

oh yeah, I have that head. Great.

Oh my god, great use of a death in my opinion. Yeah, the way Gus went.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And that's, that's a good point. That's because, because you shouldn't You can't kill off a character without great value. You have to be careful of how you do that.

Gus was the coolest death, but Hank was the one that gutted me the most.

Oh my God. Wait, when did you guys get married?

August.

We all got—

Oh, newlyweds. Amazing, enjoy it. Soak it up.

We got married one month apart.

Oh, great.

Oh, really?

Yes.

Was that a plan or was it like—

No, ours honestly is— ours was the only time it could fit in our schedules that we— or we'd have to wait another year. And we were like, oh, let's just do it then.

And he was on a deadline. He had— I gave him an ultimatum.

Oh yeah, she gave him an ultimatum.

My wife did too.

Your wife gave an ultimatum?

It was very subtle, but she was—

she said, I'll shoot you.

We were in our 30s. We were in our 30s already, and she's like, Like, you know, anyone valuable with self, you know.

Yes, of course.

It's like self-awareness. It's like, no, no, I'm not gonna wait forever.

I respect that. I could not respect an ultimatum more. In fact, it's crazy that we even live in a world where like women gotta just wait till the men decide if they're worthy of them. Yeah, why?

How did you guys meet?

A writer of my show, a wonderful woman named Vanessa.

Okay.

Who's a mutual friend. And one night she was bowling with Vanessa and Vanessa Vanessa told me, 'cause I was always saying, Vanessa, you gotta know somebody, like set me up with, I was like a hopeless romantic, dating, just waiting to, I really was like being patient, exactly. And then she was like, oh my God, my friend Kristen, I'm bowling with her and I think she might be your wife. And it was like 11:00 PM already, I went down at 11:00, it was like—

Oh, you went there?

Yeah, I took an Uber, I didn't drive myself.

It's really bold to say, I think she might be your wife.

I was proactive.

Wow.

I know.

The crazy thing is, 2019, I'm shooting a video with Selena. Oh yeah, dating someone else. Okay, my mom's on the video shoot and she says— she's just sitting there, she's like, "Hon," she's like, "You should marry Selena." And I was like, "What?" And she was like, "You should be dating someone like Selena." And there was like 2 times in my life where I like left a specific session or— yeah, or late— or a video with her where I I was like, "Wow, she's so cool." She's like really cool. 'Cause we were friendly and we were friends, but we weren't like best friends. And every time I like hung out with her for an extended period of time, I'd be like, "Oh my God, she's so cool." Actually, an ex-girlfriend of mine from way before that, like 5 years before that, I was texting with her one time and she said like, "You know, it's so great you guys got married. I remember you talking so positively about Selena even when we were together." Just as like a friendly thing. No, not as like, not as a—

No, I get it.

So your mom planted the seed. My mom planted the seed.

And she was like, you should really— and I was like, Mom, I'm not— she was like, I really want you to be with— she's like, she's got her head on her shoulders.

Yeah, Mom, I have a girlfriend.

Yeah, I did. It was crazy.

And I was like, she's so—

she was like, she's so sweet, you know, she's this and that.

She's such a sweetheart.

Everyone says you always meet your best, uh, or you always marry your best friend. Like, that's when it works. And it was like, she's my— she's my fucking best friend. And it's like, look at this, look at you two newlyweds.

We've had so few.

We've had a lot of time together. He's a little bit afraid when we have kids. He's like, I know how you're going to act.

Well, unfortunately, the reality is that—

But that's normal, and that's good.

What's the reality?

The fear is normal.

I have a certain level— I always have a degree of incompetence to— like, I'm incredibly smart in certain ways and incredibly incompetent in other ways.

Yeah.

And I just have—

should I give the example of driving today?

He doesn't know anything. Oh, neither one of the speed limit.

She goes, she goes, you know, I'm driving like 38 miles an hour.

No, no, she goes, he's driving 23 miles an hour.

There's a car right in front of me, but there's an open lane.

She goes, okay, she goes, you know, the speed limit's 45.

I say, okay, but there's a car right now.

No, no, you go, okay, am I going too fast?

Yes, I'm not going too fast.

And I thought, well, wouldn't he look at the speed? It's right. I did.

I looked at it right previous. Before that, I was cruising about 40.

I just didn't, I said, are you asking? I said, I don't understand. Like, to me, my brain was like, if someone says to me, do you know the speed limit's 45? I would instantly look at the speedometer in front of me and see how close he's coming.

Neither one of them are prepared to have children.

I'm a parent, so I think that there's a level of incompetence to me that is just innate in me. That on the one hand, I wanna be like, I will work on that and I should work on that and I will work on that. I think that there is something in me that is really an uphill battle, but I will be better than I would be if I did nothing. But I still will never be the great version of that competent, like, at all times. There are certain things that I'm gonna do that's better than any father could ever do, but there are other things that I'm not.

I will say, the moment you have a child, there's something that has been laid dormant inside of you that just comes out of you the moment. It's just like natural instincts. Granted, yeah, there are some people that clearly, really should not be parents, you know what I mean? Just like the abusive, mean people. But you are just such a ray of light. Yeah, you know, like, you're just such great energy.

You're a good people.

Thank you.

And, uh, he loves our dog.

You guys will make sure— you guys will make— you guys will, uh, make up for all your shortcomings with love.

With love.

I have a lot of love to give, for sure.

I can— I, I can tell that about you.

Thank you.

You, you know, you feel like, I can take care of myself. You get married, you have a partner, go, yeah, I can expand that to feeling responsible for each other.

Yeah.

And then you expand it to a child, and for the first time in my life, I had fear.

Yeah.

Uh, like, what, what, how can I protect—

yeah, this little being?

And you start, you know, you have some nightmares sometimes. Oh God.

Yeah.

So you start wearing your heart on the outside when you have a child.

Yeah.

And you will forever be parenting. Our daughter's 33 years Crazy. We don't stop parenting.

Yeah.

You just do it differently.

Yeah.

Were you scared when you first had a kid?

Kind of, but also excited. Yeah. Terribly excited.

But it's good to be scared.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know? I was terrified.

Yeah.

It creates caution. But it's just the greatest thing in the world.

It is. Yeah.

It's probably good to be actors and be scared because you get another feeling of, like, human emotion that you can talk about.

Well, we're kind of used to that. And again, going back into the we don't know anything kind of thing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We go into something we're not really sure. Well, that's parenting again. Like, oh, it's like what we do in acting.

Yeah, my mom says, you know, my mom told me this. My mom said, nobody knows anything. She said, first of all, people now know way too much. She's like, back in the day, there was nothing. There was no app. There was no anything. You're just like, oh, fuck, what does this mean? And she was like, and you figured it out. My mom said, my mom said idiots figure it out. Sure.

She was like, I love your mom.

Yeah, she's like, there's people who—

It's true.

It's true. You'll figure it out.

Mmm!

KFC Box Feast.

Chuck, I can't let you have one more bite, 'cause I gotta say something.

Well, hurry up.

Daddy's gotta eat.

The Colonel didn't do the math. He did the chicken. I mean, it's the only way we can explain this irrational amount of food. Mmm! Look how much food this is.

7, 9, 11.

For $11, I have chicken fingers, a thick, big sandwich, and fries and a drink that's not in hand, but it exists.

You can have Pepsi Zero Sugar, the Colonel's Signature Lemonade.

Yeah, we don't have to—

Sweet Light.

We don't have to name all the drinks. Time to feast at KFC. Prices and participation may vary. Tax, tip, and fees extra.

Sweet Lightning Peaches.

Mm.

When you need a new mattress—

What do you do?

I used to, like, go store to store and, like, lie on the thing. But now I go on this website that Helix has, and I take a quiz, and I really get all this thoughtful information about exactly what type of mattress I should use. And I actually have a Helix. Helix.

It's way more efficient to do it this way.

Are you telling me we've been sleeping on Helix?

That I can rid myself of back pain and overheating?

You can, you can get to a better place in life.

Where do I go for the sleep quiz?

Go to helixsleep.com/fks for 20% off sitewide. That's helixsleep.com/fks for 20% off sitewide.

And this is important, after you check out, enter FKS so they know that we sent you.

Because we did, we sent We're sending you right now.

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It's so rare to have, you know, there's like 3 shows that people talk about being the biggest shows ever. Now you have like successful things after it. Do you guys still like seek new— are you still seeking like—

It's all about balance.

Yeah.

The adults seeking balance. How much to yourself, how much to your partner, how much to your children, how much to your house, how much to your folks, how much, you know, it's constantly moving up and down. And that's what we're you're looking for.

Yeah, you're balancing your everyday human life.

You want to, you want to try to find some kind of balance.

As you know, it's such a blessing to just, um, just be here, to exist, but to do what you truly love, whatever that may be. Yes, to do what you truly love is such a blessing. And then why I really started to lean into business is it has allowed me to just be with my wife and kiddos more.

That's so good.

Yeah, you know what I mean? It really has. I love that because I can do this anywhere.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And you know, I have to pop away from time, you know, from time to time just for, you know, business trips, but—

Did that shift after like Breaking Bad? Like I feel like a lot of actors as a, in this town, it's like you're waiting for this big thing that you get to have to show what you're capable of. Like—

Yeah.

And then you got that thing. Then did you guys kind of feel like this, this part of me at least has been somewhat shown that I can kind of move?

Well, you know, I, I, I think I can answer for both of us, but you definitely got more opportunities before Breaking Bad than I did. But then once Breaking Bad happened, happened, it was crazy, the opportunities that started presenting themselves to us and everyone really involved in the show. And so it's just all about trying to be sort of selective and picky on what you want to tackle next. Because in this industry, you're just like, you're really only as good as your most recent project.

Unless you guys are you and you make the best show of all time.

And that's it.

It's unique.

And that's it. We move on, we do other things, other series, other movies or theater, whatever. To know that the first line in our eventual obituaries will be "Breaking Bad" is great.

Or it could say "tequila." Caviar.

Dos hombres.

I did have one other question. And then I have another question.

I bet you have more than one.

I think this is my last question I care about.

He always has last questions. I got one more question. It's like, yes, 15,000 of these.

I'm just so happy for the three of you. I'm just having— this is such a great time. I haven't done a podcast or any radio in north of a decade. Oh yeah, I swore it off.

Wow.

He had a bad experience.

I had a bad experience, uh, you know, north of 10 years ago on a radio tour.

You know, you wake up at 4 in the morning and you're doing—

and but then they're just like, the personalities were just way too intense for me that early in the morning, and they— it just felt like they were jabbing me a little bit. And I'm like, you know what? I don't wanna do this anymore. So I've been saying no to literally everything. But I mean, I love this guy. I actually met you two at the same time, the same day, like years ago.

Yeah, yeah.

But you remembered him.

But no, no, no, no, no, no. We actually stay in touch.

We stay in touch.

Yeah, yeah, so we talk.

He's flaky.

But when this came out, I became such a massive fan. Oh, you're so sweet. And then, you know, we got a note that you asked us to be a part of it. So I reached out. I'm like, Hey, we would love to do it. And so anyways, you guys should do your own version.

It's such a great time.

Thank you for saying that. I feel like this has been out so— for such a small amount of time that it like— we've really—

what a great response.

I know, we're so fortunate.

But really, are they? Read me the comments. Anything negative?

So she's had to completely— she disconnects completely from any feedback.

Actually, you look at my social media, I have 2 posts. I do not go on social media.

You have to consider social media just as you do food. Oh yeah, you're putting it into your body, you're putting social media into your brain. Is it healthy for you?

No.

You have to have a filter and say enough.

We don't think you should be addicted, but you know, we're going to keep pumping out the content.

Yeah, no, I mean, I'm sure it's true.

No social channels.

Um, I think that I go to TikTok and I go to Instagram for actual like connection and like a rush of dopamine.

Yeah, when I—

that's what it is. It's the most widely accepted drug in the world.

Yeah.

Yeah, yes, like, and I, I, this is my dopamine. You should be going to caviar and tequila.

Yes, I will, I will.

I think I love that you keep, you keep diving in.

I love it.

I'm proud of all of you. I want to ask my one question.

I haven't even asked yet.

Okay, if a man came in here with a gun—

no, that's my second question—

who would you protect first?

Tried to suck your dick?

No, that's almost what I was going to ask. No, so So my question was, you actually shaved your head for the show, right? Yeah. Did you like have to talk? Were you so scared? Have you ever seen your head? Have you ever seen your head with like, did you, what if you had like moles or shit come?

Yeah.

You didn't give a fuck.

That was your burning question?

Yeah. Or did your wife?

Yeah, I actually think it's a good question.

Was your wife like, are you fucking nuts?

No, no, no. I mean, we're actors. I'm looking forward to looking different, feeling different.

Yeah. Yeah.

In between jobs, I usually grow my hair.

Yeah.

No facial hair. Yeah, yeah, I'm working on the studio right now, so I keep it—

yeah, yeah, clean.

Um, great show. It's a fun show.

Great show.

Um, but, but to shave my head, it, it saved me time. It would have caught— it would have saved— it would have— I would have had this much money come in earlier in the day to put on the bald cap and to put it down and to do the best.

They gave you the option.

But also, when you have a bald cap on, you, you are aware of it. Oh yeah, yeah, you're aware of it.

Over 13, 14 hours, it gets Yeah, because you're, you're, you know, the heat stays in and it's like—

no, Dave said his dream— we always talk about our dream would be at the height of everything. Yes, we on this show shave our full— from here all the way to your eyebrows and everything. Just whole thing.

Nothing else matters.

Great idea. When you feel like, you know what, we'll do it right now. It's a great idea right now.

I don't know.

Can I ask a question about theater? Yeah. Yeah. Did you do theater before? Like when you first started, you were doing theater? Yeah. Okay. 'Cause I was gonna say.

That's it?

That's the end of your question?

Have you seen him on stage?

No. No, but I can tell you'd be incredible. 'Cause you have such a focus. Like you have such a good like—

I'm sorry, what?

But my question really was with TV, do you like theater more than you like acting on TV? It's more—

They're immediate— immediately rewarding.

Yeah.

It's like doing stand-up, doing, you know, you're right there, you can feel the audience.

It's a high.

It's a high.

It's a—

yeah, you're getting an ebb and flow relationship with the audience. Your responsibility is to guide them to a story.

Yeah.

And if you don't do it, it's not their fault, it's your fault. It's like, so you can feel sometimes they're quiet quiet, and but they're really attentive. Sometimes they're boisterous and laughing at everything, and it's like, oh, that's maybe a bit too much about it, but who knows.

I guess TV and film, you have to just go in and out and in and out and like snap in and out.

But theater, that's, that's exactly how I explain it too. In, in television and film, we're in the bits and pieces business. Yes, a little bit, little piece, little bit, little piece.

Yeah.

In theater, it's a beginning, middle, and end every performance.

So much more revealing.

I love it. But that's why it's more, it's tougher. It's harder for an actor.

Oh my God, it's one take.

Oh my God. But it's so good.

Yeah, but every— you know, it's like, like occasionally you'll have a part on your show where, oh, this is the emotional part.

I—

oh God. But if you pick a good play, you have that every performance. It's a gut punch, and you should, you know. Well, why do the play? So I finished this play on my birthday, March July 7th on my 70th birthday. The play's over. 3 days later, I fly to Italy to do 2 episodes of "The Studio" in Venice. Now I'm playing this really crazed, wacky character who's in comedy. So the difference from sublime to the ridiculous, you know, it was such a relief. It was like going on vacation.

That's fun.

I think you had to go through some such turmoil in this play. And how many shows did you do?

115.

I mean, I cannot believe that. I mean, what you had to put your body through.

Do you guys feel like every actor has like a little bit of method acting?

Depends on your definition of method acting. I mean, my process is, I mean, the first 2 years, for example, of Breaking Bad, I tried to just stay, just stay in it, 'cause I was nervous to lose it. And he came up to me towards the end of the second season. I remember we were washing off our makeup, and he came up to me. He's like, it's okay to just wash off your makeup and just be—

You know, you don't have to keep doing this and everything.

You were so supposed to.

He was looking out for me. He saw the shit I was putting myself through.

He couldn't sustain.

You know what I mean? And it was really, really, really hard on me. But I remember going home, and I couldn't get that out of my mind. I think, you know, he's right, he's right. And so, uh, I— so moving on, I just try to force myself to believe that these circumstances are just truly happening to me as that guy.

Yeah.

You know what I mean? Everyone has different— a different process.

Here's a question I have. Like, for example, the scene where you're on the— in the crawl space, and the episode ends with you laughing. Do you know that you have the ability physically to do that type of laugh, and you practice, and you know that you have that in you? Or do you just kind of leave it up to letting your emotions get taken over by the character in that moment? Whatever happens, happens.

And was it— sorry, just to add to that, was that— I can't remember— was that laugh, was it scripted?

That's an idea. It's great.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

It was scripted that he, he laughs at the absurdity of the situation. So I, I, knowing I was going to do that, as I start thinking, what do I find absurd? That's so— it's not necessarily funny, but just, how the fuck did this happen? Kind of thing that you can like ease into. And, and I don't know what I was thinking of, that's many years ago. So you find something that you're like, oh, that was, that was a weird time. Yeah. And you kind of have that as you're reading through the script, and you, you file it away, almost like you put a little Post-it in the back of your brain, and if you— when you're doing the scene, if it comes out, it comes out. If it doesn't, it doesn't. You find something else.

Oh, interesting.

Like, for me— and I'm not a good example of what an actor is. I feel like I can really act like myself, but these inhabiting these other people, I would struggle with more or less because I feel like I have trouble getting out of my own head, and I would always be aware that I am me and I am playing this character, etc. So for me, my best bet to— if I had to do that scene, I would have literally practiced, like at least evaluated. What would I do if I laughed really hard? And like, what does that sound like? Do I even like the way that feels? Can I replicate, can I do that over and over? I would have like gamed it all out.

It's probably a dangerous thing for an actor to think along those terms because what you're describing is a result. You're looking for how would it actually sound—

As the director, you mean?

—at the end of it, yes. For an actor, you want to leave it open. You don't want to come to a result. Because it might be the wrong one. On the day when you're doing something, you're going, "Oh, Tommy." And also, you don't know what the other performer is gonna be throwing your way.

You know the dialogue, the script, but just how they are emoting everything is gonna change everything. It's like when you freestyle.

What about? It's like you never know what's gonna— and that's when you always get the best stuff, when you're not thinking. Yeah, I guess. When you go in thinking about how you have to achieve it, attack the person. It's like you always say, like, like, you'll say like, oh my God, just like do anything random because that's when you're gonna get the best shit.

Are you, are you, are you like, I'm Walter White? Or are you like, I'm Bryan Cranston playing Walter White? Or you're not like— does that— those thoughts don't even come into your head?

You're thinking as the character. You're thinking I'm Walter White. So that whatever he would do that wasn't necessarily scripted or something, a behavior or something, Walter would have a specific reaction to. Brian would react differently. So you stay in the character.

How do you do that? You take classes?

It's a gym. You go to the gym, you know, your body goes, oh, I know what we're doing here. I, I'm used to— I know what this exercise is. I know what I'm supposed to do. You— and so work for us is like going to the gym. We're familiar with it. And if— but I need to stress, and I tell young actors this all the time, any kind of instinct doesn't mean you can't prepare. You need to work. I don't think I've ever really worked with a genius who just go, "Yeah, and I—" and they, they're brilliant. Yeah, it— no, it's a lot of hard work.

Yeah. Would you guys be like, "Hey, let's rehearse this and like find the rhythm?" Not necessarily.

No, no, no.

When were we on the day?

Yeah, on the day, we run line. Like, we, uh, from the pilot to the finale, we shared a trailer, like a double banger. Yeah. Like a trailer split in half. He had one side, I had the other. And we would read lines, you know, outside of the trailer or, like, in the hair and makeup trailer.

Was there a lot of improv in Breaking Bad or none?

No. Mm-mm. No. No, it was such a beautifully written story that you don't want to touch it.

Thank God you guys didn't fuck that up. We got to talk about the Frame TV. I would love to. It's Samsung's item.

It's beautiful. It like draws your eyes to it where before you'd be like, oh, there's a black box. Now you're like, oh my gosh, you have this art. And then we— then I love saying to people, that's a TV.

I know, I love that feeling. It's not just like basic art. This isn't art you can find anywhere. It's got so much like exclusive curation, and you can access it on the Samsung Art Store, and it gives back to the artist. And for me, For me, like, I collect art and I see this, literally, I'm just as proud of my Frame TV as I am of a framed piece of art I have.

Go to Samsung and check out the Frame TV.

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Benny, what's something that therapy has taught you about yourself?

You know, I really think therapy gave me like a little like mental toolbox of how I can understand myself as I'm having a panic attack, as I'm I'm going through those moments where I really don't know, I feel like my life is ending and there's no other way I can get around it. And then I have this little toolbox that's like, calm down, take a step back, assess the situation. Everything happens within the time that it's supposed to. And I just have all these little like voices now in the back of my head that tell me the right thing of what to do in each moment.

I love that. If you wanna start your therapy journey today, sign up and get 10% off at betterhelp.com/fks. That's better H-E-L-P.

Lp.com/fks. You know, two things. One, anytime I see you, you're either with your wife and kids, and it's such a beautiful thing. Like, he's like, you really do walk the walk and talk the talk. Like, anytime I see him, he's like, you're like, so I think I've only seen you one time when you weren't either with your wife or kids or both, or pining to be. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's, it's, it's very cool that you've been able to do all this stuff, and it's like, and still do that, and it's something I really aspire to and your, like, work-life balance from afar seems great. Two, I don't even know if you guys know this, how stoked are you— his daughter is an amazing actor. I do not. And she's on one of the biggest shows. Really? Oh, wow. And it's like, yeah, what does that feel like?

So amazing, dude. Better than Heisenberg? Here's the— yeah. Yes. Yeah. Because as a parent, as a parent, I will tell you, as you prepare, As you prepare, the thing you want more than anything, the thing you dream about and say prayers about, please let my children find happiness and joy. I don't care what it is, what occupation they end up or who their partner is, please let it be joyful and happy. That's all you want. Yeah. You know, that just to— and so Taylor being raised in this business, and she knew my parents were actors, and my grandfather was an actor in vaudeville. So she's fourth generation actor, and she knows, and she knows the, the, the ups and downs and the ins and outs. And it's like, okay, this is a, this is a— she's been around it. It's a family business, very common. And but the big, the biggest blessing for for Robyn and I are that she's in it for the right reason. She loves it.

She's in love with it. You can tell.

She's in love with the art, and that will sustain. And that's what I tell young people. I said, if you— Stanislavski, the famous Russian actor and teacher and the father of the method. Yeah, yeah. He had a quote that said, "Love the art within you, not you within the art." Mm, I love that. So love how it makes you feel, the empowerment, the art. Within you that motivates you, but not go, oh, I wanna see my name in lights. I wanna buy that house. I wanna, you know, that's in love with something else. That will never sustain. Of course.

It's funny, Dave, I always— I'm not like that. No, I always know.

Didn't it feel like he was gonna say that?

No, I was gonna say— Dave loves his face on the billboard. No, I always know this about me and him. Him is that, of course, we love knowing that something's going to be great, right? But I know we kill ourselves and we do it because it's like the inside— you have to scratch within us. Like, even if no one— I would still be making all the songs the same way, doing everything the same way, but because it just scratches that itch that I love.

So good. Okay, so 47 years of doing this and working on some really, really wonderful material, both in theater, and the one common denominator that I've noticed with anyone who is a director, writer, producer is that good enough is never good enough. Oh yeah. Yeah.

It's like, it's like, oh, we're doing it again. Yeah.

And again, you just gotta get it done.

Vince Gilligan. Yes. When he's— when he was directing several episodes of Breaking Bad, he knew that their time is of the essence. So you're doing a show, you gotta keep moving. Yes. And so he would literally take his forefinger and his middle finger and touch his forehead and like, what else? What else? What am I missing? What am I doing? So he agonized over it. It wasn't like free-flowing. Don't— you can't picture Vince Gilligan just, oh, that makes me feel good.

Done. That makes me feel good.

I'm like, I see. I see.

I see. Agonizing. What am I missing?

What am I missing?

It's got to be better. It's got to be better.

And he loves writing himself into a corner. Of course. So it is incredibly hard to get out. So the audience goes through that experience.

So getting back to the love, the only way you're going to go beyond— that's good enough, right? Is because you have a passion for it.

Of course. You've got to make it better.

You've got to make it better. You've got to keep slugging it in the face to make it better somehow. You feel the tension and the friction of even even your performances. And you know, as writers, directors, producers, and actors— yeah, is that rappers— there are times— yeah, there are times when you go, I'm fucking exhausted, man. Our exhaustion at the moment is really temporary, but what we're making lasts forever. And if you keep that— if you keep that in mind, you go— it'll push you through. It'll push you through that next level. You gotta keep pushing through. It's true, because this moment of being just, ah, yeah, is just now, but what you're making forever. And if you can remember that, it'll serve you.

And if you can sum it up.

One of the reasons I called my show Dave, 'cause I really wanted to put my name on the line and really feel like, I was like, this is gonna live forever. I'm gonna give it my all. I'm gonna put my best foot forward. I give it my all. You did, man. I give it my all in a way that I think, other people are surprised by, but when they're working on it, they can't help but respect it. Yeah. And then they want to give it their all. And I think ultimately the consumer can feel it in the product if it's— like, there are certain things that are—

oh my God, okay, what do I want? An Ollipop? Of course I do. A blackberry vanilla raspberry sherbet. I gotta taste one of these bad boys right now. Oh yeah, yeah, this literally reminds reminds me of when I was a kid. Hoffman's, roller coasters, amusement park, my grandmother Mimi buying me a sherbet. Okay, I gotta get a few of these. Actually, I'm leaving these all in here. I'm saving them for myself.

Love you guys. And I remember you came to me for like a quick little episode, but I was shooting. I was so bummed. I just want you— I'm happy I can tell you personally.

I remember that.

I remember you telling me that. Oh, this would have been so cool. So fun. Because sadly, I actually don't do much fun comedy. Yeah. You know? And I wish I did. Yeah, you seem funny. Dude, you should do a comedy.

You're so funny. We should do a comedy.

Let's go. Let's go.

It's right now. Guys, you ready?

The people— no, I'm saying— hey, the theme song of Breaking— like the— You like— you love that? It's odd.

So, no? No, I liked it because it wasn't something that was familiar. Yeah. So anytime that you place an audience in a little— they're on their heels, it's better, especially for that show.

I used to stay and listen to it. Like, you know how you can press skip? Yeah. I never skipped.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Never skipped. I loved it. He was like, "Rawr, rawr." That one and Sopranos I always stayed for.

What's next for you? What are you looking forward to? Like, what's up? What's up? What's up?

What are you doing this summer?

What's up? We got about 30 seconds.

I'm getting my shoulder replaced. Can we have like a little—

Cartilage?

Something?

No cartilage. That's why I have to get my shoulder replaced.

Are you nervous?

Bone against bone. No, I'm looking forward to it. Nice. I'm actually excited. Yeah. 'Cause I have such limited mobility with this. Really? Like, look, this is as far as I can take my arm up my back.

Okay. Oh, wow. But you never really need to reach back.

Yeah, you don't need that. You don't need—

what's back there? You know, I can't put on a jacket.

Can you go like this? Okay, you can do a little of that.

Does it hurt?

Like, it's painful?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Look at this. Okay, this here.

Oh, don't compare. This there. That's just double-jointedness.

No, no, no. What is this from, you think?

Oh, from the surgery.

You can't put it over.

No, I had a surgery. Thing. Carpal tunnel or something? No, I had a— I had to get 41 stitches. I like— oh, sliced it? Yeah, yeah. But like, look, for— I ruined the, uh, stuff. You're not using that thumb. I know, but it, it does— it, it gets in the way of music. I'll bet it does, cuz I can't stretch like the way I want to. But oh my God, you're going to feel so much better. My friend got his hip replaced and said it changed his life. Yeah. Is it all from you throwing?

Like, is it all from your—

it's like a lot from baseball and just being a boy.

And now, were you like next level baseball? No, no.

No, no, no. I love the game much more than I was good at it.

You still watch baseball a lot?

A lot. I'm a big Dodger fan, so. You like Shohei? Oh yeah. Yeah.

It's the most impressive thing that's happened in sports in any of our lifetimes. I met Shohei.

I think so, yeah.

Are people talking about that? Yes. Shohei Ohtani.

He's the best.

They are, but it's a little bit— They should be saying that. It's not like LeBronized because it's baseball and because he's not American, but what he's doing— Those are good pants.

I'd wear those every day too. Me too. I'll get you a pair.

Yeah. Well, thank you for dressing up, first of all.

That was very— we were so nervous to do it.

Are you guys sick of it?

No, no, it's a blessing.

Yeah, this show changed our lives. Yeah. And it also introduced us to each other. Yeah, that's the fact that you guys like—

he's the greatest gift from the show. As much as I love the show, that and the money, and of course the acclaim. I I, the final day, we were able to work the final day and we were back in the desert and we had to do a speech in front of the crew. Yeah. And I felt I was holding it together, but I was waiting to say something to him until the end. And I just couldn't do it. I just started weeping, you know, because he's just— I'm crying now. I know, I can tell. He's just the best. I've learned so much from him on set. On screen and off, and I just, yeah, I love the man.

Do you love him as much or not?

Yeah, you haven't said things throughout this.

No, I mean, it's very clear I love him more, which is fine, which is fine.

He's profiting off that love now with the tequila.

I know he loves me, and you know, he's my son's godfather. Loves me?

Yeah, you haven't said a lot of it. Your daughter. He's been oozing.

See your daughter, see your daughter.

He's an ooser. You know, I am, you know, that's what they say. I'm an ooser. Yeah, I lose a lot.

Yeah, but yeah, Brian, would you like to say something?

What a blessing.

Aaron, you know, we, we formed this company of Dos Hombres because we missed each other. Yeah. And if we had played golf, we probably wouldn't have had the company. But that, that's— and it was an interesting, um, realization for me as a, as a man growing up in my era. And, you know, because I was born in the '50s, raised basically in the '60s and early '70s, and it was, you know, kind of rigid in what a man should do. And a man don't— men don't cry. And I was like, and, um, to, to get to a point where you feel a true love for someone else, you know, in a platonic way, but a deep, deep love and a friendship, and knowing that we're going to be friends forever. Yeah. And, and I love his children. And I love—

they call him Monkey Man. I understand. I get it. That's what they think his name is, is Monkey Man.

I get it. You look like Monkey Man.

Yeah. And I just, you know, I just, I light up when I, when I see them because it's just, uh, you're, you're a really terrific father too. Thank you, brother. And he is, is such, he is such a great dad and a great husband. And, and, you know, that's the thing, you, you, it's, you You can have it all. That's the thing you realize.

You can have it all.

I think that's a good thing to go on. You can have it all. You can have it all.

Cheers to having it all. Lots of love.