What The One Who Knocks Was Thinking

Bryan Cranston: In that one scene, (the famous Breaking Bad "I Am the One Who Knocks" scene) you have two opposing viewpoints that are equally valid from their point of view. Skyler is worried about her family. She makes a very pragmatic pitch. "Just confess. Stop it now. Don't do this. You're going to put yourself and us in danger." But Walt, by then, is too far along in his journey. His ego has been opened, and he is fully realizing his sense of power. And he likes it. And he is not about to go back into the shell that he originally came out of. And he's taking her comments as demeaning, as pejorative. "You're not who you say you are. You're not a powerful person. You're a little school teacher. Just go back to that." And all I'm hearing is, "You're not a man. You're not this powerful, great Wizard of Oz behind the curtain. You're just Walter White, this little man." And he's so far beyond that at that moment, he now has to express himself with his full range of hubris.

From Bryan Cranston's interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air, 2014; Photo by Frank Ockenfels/AMC

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