How James Franco Got 'Walter Whited' by Bryan Cranston in 'Why Him?'
As men at odds over a young woman (one’s daughter, the other’s girlfriend), Bryan Cranston and James Franco go head-to-head in the new comedy Why Him? Cranston is Ned, a Michigan businessman who’s less-than-thrilled when he flies the family to Northern California and meets Laird (Franco), the eccentric, foul-mouthed Silicon Valley billionaire dating his daughter (Zooey Deutch).
It was all love, though, between the Oscar-nominated actors when they joined Yahoo Movies for a Facebook Live chat in front of a festive and cozy (OK, fake) fire Saturday at a Beverly Hills hotel. Watch the full replay above, and make sure to stick around to the end to hear Cranston get his Christmas caroling on. Some highlights:
James Franco painted the crazy art featured in the movie. Though the absurdly luxurious house where Laird resides in the film is not based on Franco’s house (nor is the house in This Is the End, he would like it to be known) the multihyphenate did paint much of the hilarious art featured on its wall, most of which features fornicating animals. “I loved the idea that there would be art that would reflected the character, that it wouldn’t just be decoration,” he said. “So I showed [writer-director John Hamburg] some images of some strange paintings that I did of animals having sex and various things, and he loved them.”
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Cranston gives thumbs-up to Better Call Saul. When asked which television shows they were binge-watching, Cranston called out Saul, the Breaking Bad spinoff that follows the early exploits of Bob Odenkirk’s New Mexico criminal lawyer. “I love the show. There’s a familiarity to it, and yet the characters are different, some of the setting is different, it feels right. I’m just a fan. I like watching it.” Franco, meanwhile, has been all about Westworld and Stranger Things lately.
Cranston and Franco had a very intimate fight. Asked what their favorite memory was from making Why Him?, Cranston described a climactic scene where the pair get, um, highly physical with one another. “We got into a position where there was only one move my character could make,” Cranston teased. “I left a mark, I know I did. I left a mark, it will always be there, in a very, very sensitive area.” Or as Franco put it, “That’s right. I got Walter Whited.”
Why Him? opens Friday. Watch the trailer: