Bryan Cranston on breaking naked, rocking tighty whities

“Breaking Bad” star Bryan Cranston has many layers, and GQ’s profile of him in its August issue is nothing if not an insightful look at a talented actor.

But we’re the Ministry of Gossip, so we headed straight below the belt as we read the piece, learning quickly that Cranston had absolutely no problem appearing repeatedly in tighty whities and less over the course of the series.

“I genuinely could not care less how I look,” Cranston told the magazine. (Though we must say he looked pretty good getting his star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame on Tuesday.)

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He was cool with skivvies right from the beginning — chilly, some would say — when shooting in the freezing cold New Mexico desert wearing nothing but some Fruit of the Loom incarnation with his dark socks and shoes. He was down to drop trou even when others were reluctant to demand it.

“I wimped out,” show creator Vince Gilligan told GQ about filming the pilot episode, in which Cranston strips down for reasons that have everything to do with plot and character.

“I took him aside and said, ‘Would you be more comfortable in sweatpants? Or boxers?’ He said, ‘Yeah, I’d be more comfortable. What’s your point?’ ‘So you’re okay with the tighty whities?’ ‘Well, what’s the most pathetic thing I could be wearing here?’ I said, ‘Tighty whities.’ And he said, ‘Well, what else do we need to talk about?’”

Perhaps we need to talk about the below-the-belt props, too.

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As a leader on the set, Cranston apparently took it upon himself to occasionally lighten the mood on a typically dark show. And he did it like so many of us would -- with prosthetic penises.

“Remember, I spent six years seeing the man in his underwear. Sometimes less than his underwear,” says Anna Gunn, who plays Walt’s wife, Skyler. “He would constantly try to appear with various ... things on his ... situation.”

“There’s nothing better than a good penis for a laugh,” Cranston told the mag.

“Breaking Bad” returns to AMC for its final eight episodes starting Aug. 11.
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