Bryan Cranston reflects on 'tough' upbringing after his parents split
Bryan Cranston has reflected on the impact of his father's decision to walk out on the family when he was 11 years old, admitting he endured a 'tough and rural' upbringing when his parents split up.The Breaking Bad star, 69, had no contact with his dad Joe for 10 years after he abandoned his wife Peggy and their two children, having struggled to form a steady career in the film industry.Bryan shared that after his parents separated he was sent to live with his grandparents on a rural farm in San Bernardino County, and struggled with the rules instilled by his 'intimidating' grandfather.Describing it as a 'confusing' time, the Emmy winner said he didn't reconnect with his father until he was 22, and they remained close after that until his death in 2014.Speaking on Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware, he shared: 'My brother and I, when my parents split, actually, my father left the family. 'I was 11, and we went off to live with my grandparents for a year on a small farm, like four or five acres. We had duties on the farm. Bryan Cranston has reflected on the impact of his father's decision to walk out on the family when he was 11, admitting he endured a 'tough' upbringing'We had to kill chickens and then dress them and cook them and pluck them and gut them and do all that, and ducks and things like that. It was a very, you know, hard learning experience for a kid from the city to go to this farm and have my very German grandparents.'Describing his grandfather, he added: 'We're kind of intimidated by him (his grandfather), and he was a no-nonsense kind of guy. We slept either on the floor in the living room during the winter or on the patio during the spring and summer. 'This was a one-bedroom, one-bath house, and the bathroom was for my grandmother. We went outside, we showered…''A lot of confusion going on at 11 years old, all of a sudden you don't see your father anymore. And I didn't see him again until I was 22.'Bryan admitted he didn't 'fall out' with his father, but he just disappeared from the family, and failed to try and keep in touch with his children, adding he felt like his father was driven by a need to find success as an actor.He said: 'I think, you know, parents are always teaching us. Parents are always teaching their children; in the best-case scenario, it's how to be. 'What is a good family? What is a respectful, loving environment? That's not exactly what I had after age 11, but it was, it was dichotomous, because from the time I was very young to about nine or 10, it was really great. 'My parents were a nucleus, and they coached, and my mother was a team mom, and we did sports, and she made our Halloween costumes, and it was great, until it wasn't, I mean it, and to us, it kind of fell off a cliff. We didn't realise what was happening.' The Breaking Bad star had no contact with his dad Joe for 10 years after he left the family home, having struggled to form a steady career in the film industry (pictured in 1964) Describing it as a 'confusing' time, the Emmywinner said he didn't reconnect with his father until he was 22, and they remained close after that until his death in 2014Read More Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston reveals devastating impact of fame on his 36-year marriage Bryan's family were severed even further by the fact that his mother and sister went to live with his other grandparents while he moved onto the farm. As Lennie asked whether it was 'terrifying' having suck little security as a child, bryan replied: 'You know, it's less terrifying. Those things are all internalised; they'll come out later [..] 'Doing what I do is, is my own therapeutic experience, and going to therapy and trying to ask the questions, why do I feel this? Why do I feel that? 'What is going to be a harmonious relationship for me and my partner going forward? How do I do that when it was such a terrible experience with my parents?'Under the best circumstances, your parents are living by example. They're not telling you, this is how you should live, but they're just living it, and hopefully, it's loving and respectful and warm, and you go, that's what I want, and that's what I knew, and that's what I was raised with. W'ith me, it was a little different. I look at my parents, and the overwhelming emotion that I have whenever I think of them now is just sadness. It's just sadness, that they've both kind of wasted their life. 'My father was very ego-driven, 'I'm going to be a star. I'm going to do this etc'. You know, my mother was a lovely, sweet, fun, immature person who was like the character from a Tennessee Williams play, always depending upon the kindness of strangers. 'She always loved the idea of male attention, and so, once my father left, she dated, she married, she was married four times. My father was married three times.'Describing his grandfather as a 'stoic' figure, Bryan said: 'My brother and I, who's two years older than me, went to our grandparents' little farm to live for a year, kicking and screaming. 'We didn't want to go at all. Why would we go in the middle of nowhere and sleep on the floor, and what's going on? 'By the time my mother had set herself up, and we were going to go back to live with her, we didn't want to go. 'It was like having consistency and discipline and knowing the parameters of where we needed to operate, which was something we didn't have for many years.'Bryan said that the uprooting of the family also had an impact on his sister Amy, especially as their mother then struggled with alcoholism.He said: 'She got the worst of it. She was five years old when my dad left. She didn't remember him at all. Only through pictures. I remember she looked at a picture once, and there was an old photograph of my father holding up my sister when she was a year old or something. 'And I remember my sister saying, ''Oh, I guess I did have a father''. She didn't remember him at all, and she had to endure my mother's life of, you know, flirtation and dating men who were really kind of less than people. 'She was an alcoholic, and she seemed to attract not only alcoholics but also men who were a little less able than her, so that she could run the show. So she was spending her time developing relationships with all these men to get their attention, to fill the hole that is a lack of love, the love she wasn't getting. 'She was getting attention, and she thought that was love, and it wasn't love, but that's what she thought, and she was immature.'Bryan just premiered his new film, Everything's Going to Be Great, at the Tribeca Film Festival, and released his new film The Phoenician Scheme. He also stars in Seth Rogen's Apple TV+ series, The Studio.In addition, he has eight other projects in the works, including the much-anticipated Malcolm in the Middle reboot coming later this year, which he teased is 'just as crazy' and 'just as much fun' as the original that first aired 25 years ago.
