Bryan Cranston may have earned his breakthrough in Hollywood by playing Hal in the superhit sitcom Malcolm in the Middle, but his best work to date still rests at Breaking Bad. Not only did it elevate his reputation and position in the entertainment industry but it also helped him bag and get acknowledged for several accolades.
In fact, his fame from the crime drama series was at such a peak that it not only blew away Hollywood but even gave him the chance to replace actor Kevin Spacey for one of the biggest gaming franchises of all time, the $31 billion Call of Duty franchise for the lead role in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare game.
Kevin Spacey Was Almost Replaced By Bryan Cranston In Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Back in 2014, after the end of Breaking Bad, Bryan Cranston was literally at the peak of his fame in his entire career. As it turns out, that was not restricted to the cinema only but went all the way to gaming franchises as well.
This included the the $31 billion Call of Duty franchise too, in which he almost replaced Kevin Spacey for the lead role of Jonathan Irons in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare game. During an interview with IGN, Sledgehammer Games co-founder Michael Condrey shared how the Breaking Bad actor was on the shortlist for the role at the time.
“On the shortlist, well, it was a short list,” Condrey confessed. “It was always Kevin, but at one point at the height of Breaking Bad, I thought this could be a [Bryan] Cranston role. Bobby Kotick, the president of Activision, is close to Angelina and Brad, so you kind of have this pie-in-the-sky sort of, well, if this actor…”
Continuing, he further emphasized the peak of fame that Bryan Cranston was at at the time.
“But really, for the character, [on] the list the gap between Kevin and everybody else was pretty wide. Cranston just won the Emmy so he’s clearly a remarkable actor. I think he would have been great. I got to act with Kevin Spacey, so I’m glad we went with him.”
Nonetheless, Kevin Spacey got the part and absolutely nailed it, making it so that no other actor could replace him in a better way.
How Kevin Spacey Bagged A Lead Role In Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
During the same interview, Michael Condrey then revealed that while they were considering Bryan Cranston as a backup, Kevin Spacey was always their top choice for the role. Sharing the events that led up to the House of Card star getting selected, Condrey said:
“I remember it was our second performance capture shoot, and we were doing an emotionally impactful scene,” he recalled. “It was called ‘Power.’ We were there on set and the director looks around and says, ‘Wow, this scene’s not right. Kevin’s character (Jonathan Irons) wouldn’t be saying this emotional speech to his assistant. So we’re an actor short.’”
Thus, the search began until they landed on Spacey.
“We’re all sitting there looking around going ‘Wow, there are no other Pcap actors here.’ And Hirshberg goes, ‘Condrey, suit up.’ So an hour later I’m standing in front of Kevin Spacey and he’s face to face with me, delivering the ‘Power’ speech. It was remarkable.”
Continuing, Condrey let out how immensely pleasured he was to have worked with the Baby Driver actor.
“On some level, it was like a bucket list, an unexpected bucket list to think that, wow, one of the greatest living Hollywood actors is three feet in front of me delivering a line as powerful as Frank Underwood has ever said. I get to check off the, ‘I acted with Kevin Spacey’ box.”
Despite Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare being the first video game he had worked on throughout his entire career, Kevin Spacey still did spectacular performance-capture work, earning worldwide acclamation for the same.
