Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston doesn't need to dig too deep for the hit drama's dark scenes - he once held a dying New Yorker in his arms, just seconds after the man attempted suicide by jumping off a building.
The actor was walking along Central Park West when he heard a loud thud followed by an alarming scream - and Cranston reveals the tragedy of the moment, which has stayed with him ever since, helps him tap into feelings of extreme sadness.
He tells the New Yorker, "Every experience feeds an actor, and I've learned that depression is all around us... In August of 1987 I was walking to the doctor, because I had a gastrointestinal bug. I was just turning the corner when I heard Bam! Blunk! Aaah! I turn and see a man on the street, run over, blood on the ground, his eyes are turning up, and his neck was (crooked).
"I put my hands under his head so it would be softer than the asphalt, and I could feel him gurgling, and I was shouting, 'Did anyone see the car?' The doorman said, 'Oh, that's Mr. So-and-So. I knew he was depressed, but... ' And then I saw that the parked car next to us had (a large dent in the shape of hand prints) And I realised, 'Oh, my God - he threw himself from an upper window.'
"I was so delirious from illness that, as I watched him die, I felt it all as these sharp fragments, a bad editing job of my life. And I became angry at the man, and pulled back from him."
More blog postings
